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Azazello
Hella is a beautiful redheaded succubus and part of Woland’s entourage. She is a vampire and almost always appears naked. Administering care is part of her role in the group: she rubs Woland’s injured knee with ointment and helps Margarita prepare for Satan’s Ball. Interestingly, she does not appear in the final scene as Woland and his entourage, together with the master and Margarita, fly away from Moscow on horseback.
Hella Quotes in The Master and Margarita
The The Master and Margarita quotes below are all either spoken by Hella or refer to Hella. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 10 Quotes
Here the two robbers vanished, and in their place there appeared in the front hall a completely naked girl – red-haired, her eyes burning with a phosphorescent gleam.
Varenukha understood that this was the most terrible of all things that had ever happened to him and, moaning, recoiled against the wall. But the girl came right up to the administrator and placed the palms of her hands on his shoulders. Varenukha’s hair stood on end, because even through the cold, water-soaked cloth of his Tolstoy blouse he could feel that those palms were still colder, that their cold was the cold of ice.
‘Let me give you a kiss,’ the girl said tenderly, and there were shining eyes right in front of his eyes. Then Varenukha fainted and never felt the kiss.
Related Characters:
Hella (speaker), Ivan Savalyevich Varenukha
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
114
Explanation and Analysis:
The naked girl is Hella, a beautiful redheaded succubus who, in this form at least, is a vampire. She is the only female member of Woland’s entourage and appears here at the end of chapter 10 to turn Varenukha into a vampire too (he has just been beaten up by Koroviev and Behemoth). Hella’s presence in Woland’s entourage represents Bulgakov’s attempt to widen out their supernatural “evil” element beyond the biblical, mixing in other ideas and characters from folkloric conceptions of evil. As with the traditional vampire myth, a vampire bite results in the victim being turned into a vampire too. Varenukha’s transformation becomes clear in chapter 14, when he in turn preys on Rimsky, the Variety theater’s financial director.
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Hella Character Timeline in The Master and Margarita
The timeline below shows where the character Hella appears in The Master and Margarita. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 10. News from Yalta
...50, which Varenukha recognizes as Styopa’s apartment. Suddenly he is confronted by a naked woman (Hella), who insists on giving him a kiss. At this, Varenukha faints.
(full context)
Chapter 12. Black Magic and Its Exposure
...Paris. Furthermore, he says, they can take whatever they want for free. A “red-headed girl” (Hella) with a scarred neck appears “from devil knows where” to assist the women in trying...
(full context)
Chapter 14. Glory to the Cock!
...goes to the window but is met there by the sight of a naked girl, (Hella) who thrusts her arm through the vent to try and grab him.
(full context)
With Varenukha levitating by the door, Hella, who Rimsky notices shows the putrid signs of being dead, tries to squirm her way...
(full context)
Chapter 18. Hapless Visitors
...bar’s takings are down on account of the “fake” money Woland used in his séance. Hella, naked, putrid-smelling, greets Andrei at the door, before seeing him into Woland’s room. Woland is...
(full context)
Koroviev comes in and instructs Hella, the naked woman, to see the disoriented Andrei out of the apartment. As he leaves,...
(full context)
Chapter 22. By Candlelight
...bird’s claws” and an “artful” chess board. Azazello is there, dressed in tailcoats. The naked Hella sits on the floor, stirring a pot of “sulphurous steam.” Hella and Behemoth, who is...
(full context)
Woland introduces Margarita to his retinue: Behemoth, Azazello, Koroviev, and Hella, who is rubbing his knee with ointment. Behemoth analyses his position on the chess board;...
(full context)
Hella leaves the room; Margarita takes over with the ointment. Woland says that his “attendants” insist...
(full context)
Chapter 23. The Great Ball at Satan’s
Woland’s entourage prepares Margarita for the ball: Hella douses her in blood and rose oil and Behemoth rubs her feet; Koroviev hangs an...
(full context)
...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...
(full context)
Chapter 24. The Extraction of the Master
...Ivanovich appears, returned to human form. Woland dismisses him “with special pleasure,” after Behemoth and Hella type an “official document” certifying that Nikolai spent the night at Satan’s ball.
(full context)
