The Master and Margarita: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

Woland’s entourage prepares Margarita for the ball: Hella douses her in blood and rose oil and Behemoth rubs her feet; Koroviev hangs an “oval-framed picture of a black poodle” around her neck. She puts on golden-clasped slippers and diamond crown. Koroviev advises her to show deference to all of the guests and make certain not to ignore anyone. For this, he says, “the Queen” will be rewarded a hundredfold.

With Margarita ready, Behemoth shouts “The ball!!!” Arm in arm with Koroviev, she is transported first briefly to a tropical forest before arriving in a lavish ballroom. An orchestra of around 150 men is playing a polonaise. On Koroviev’s instruction, Margarita stands by a wall of tulips and calls out to the conductor: “Greetings to you, waltz king!”

Margarita moves into the next room. Here, fountains spurt out jets of champagne as a jazz band plays “unbearably loud.” Margarita takes position at the top of a huge, carpeted staircase, with Azazello, Koroviev and Behemoth beside her. Margarita notices an “enormous fireplace” in the distance.

As it turns to midnight, coffins and gallows materialize from the fireplace. The human remains exit their coffins—or fall down from their gallows— and transform into well-dressed party guests, who start walking up the stairs. All of the guests that arrive and greet Margarita have committed some kind of terrible crime when they were alive, including Madam Tofana, who provided poison to women who wanted to poison their husbands in the 18th century.

Margarita then meets a woman called Frieda, who is carrying a handkerchief. Koroviev explains that she carries this handkerchief because she used it to suffocate her child, which may have been the result of a rape, and since then, no matter how she tries to get rid of it, the handkerchief keeps reappearing on her bedside table. Margarita asks the whereabouts of the child’s father. When Behemoth interjects that “it wasn’t he who smothered the infant,” Margarita pinches his ear and scolds him for interrupting.

The guests keep coming in great numbers, with the women naked except for ornate headdresses and the men wearing tailcoats. Margarita grows exhausted, mentally and physically, from greeting so many macabre guests one after the other. 

Eventually the stream of guests starts to slow. When the last few, including two vampires, have arrived, Margarita is transported back to the room in which she had prepared for the ball. Hella and Natasha massage her with blood, reviving her. Koroviev appears, reminding “Queen Margot” to fly around the rooms so that “the honourable guests don’t they’ve been feel abandoned.”

Back at the ball, Margarita sees that the musicians have all been turned into various animals, such as orangutans and mandrills. Behemoth performs a magic trick by turning champagne, spewing from a huge fountain, into cognac.

Koroviev tells Margarita that she has one last “appearance” to make. She climbs onto a platform in the ballroom. Woland, limping and carrying a sword, joins her as the crowd falls silent and a clock seems to strike midnight. Azazello holds a decapitated head on a platter—it’s Berlioz’s head, seemingly still living.

Woland addresses Berlioz’s head, talking about Berlioz’s theory that when a person dies they go into “non-being.” He adds that another theory says each person will be given whatever accords with their faith. In that light, says Woland, he will grant Berlioz his “non-being.” He then raises his sword, causing the flesh to slough off from Berlioz’s head and a lid to open on its top. The head becomes a ceremonial cup.

Just then, a final guest arrives: Baron Meigel. Woland introduces him to the audience as “an employee of the Spectacles commission, in charge of acquainting foreigners with places of interest in the capital.” According to Woland, the baron helped him arrange his trip to Moscow.

Woland, however, is suspicious of Baron Meigel, thinking he is a “stool-pigeon and a spy.” Abaddon takes his glasses off and looks at the baron; simultaneously, Azazello shoots him. As blood spurts from the baron’s chest, Azazello fills the cup (Berlioz’s head). Woland raises a toast to everyone present, takes a sip, and passes the cup to Margarita. She too drinks the blood. Suddenly the entire ball melts away as a voice tells Margarita not to be afraid: “the blood has long since gone into the earth.” Margarita is transported to a “modest living room.” She goes out through the slightly opened door.