The Master and Margarita

by Mikhail Bulgakov

The Master and Margarita: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

The Master and Margarita varies its style by plot strand. The novel presents three separate narratives—Woland’s mischief across Moscow, Ha-Nozri’s trial, the Master’s love affair—and changes their telling accordingly. Woland’s escapades across Moscow are surreal, madcap, and comic—all of which the novel emphasizes through its digressive, rambling narration and wry asides. The Master and Margarita calls attention to its own outlandish events and the foibles of its characters. “What are clever people for if not to get confusions straightened out?” the narrator remarks in mock praise of Maximilian Andreyevich just before his fateful encounter with Koroviev. The novel seemingly smirks at the Devil’s mischievous triumphs over the blundering mortals.