'What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it? After all, shadows are cast by objects and people. Satan himself reading the words is significant, since the world of Pontius Pilate exists not only in the Master's manuscript, but in Woland's story and memory. Not only is this quotation significant because of the leitmotif, 'Oh gods, gods.' it also mentions the moonlight, another link between the two worlds. The Master thought he had destroyed it by burning it, but Behemoth produces a copy. Woland reads this passage aloud from the manuscript of the Master's novel. Why did they trouble me? Oh, gods, gods.' Chapter 24 'Even at night, in moonlight, I have no rest. It is also prophetic, since she does agree to pawn her soul to the devil. This enforces the theme of characters bringing about their own fates: Margarita's thought acts as a trigger for the devil's interference in her life.

Immediately, Azazello appears beside her on the bench and starts a conversation. Margarita says this to herself as she watches Berlioz's funeral procession go by.

'Really, I would pawn my soul to the devil to find out whether he is alive or dead.' Chapter 19 However, the reference to Margarita as a witch is significant, as she will later become one. The use of the first person singular in the last sentence here establishes the narrator as an actual person with limits, rather than omniscient as he sometimes appears to be. The leitmotif 'O gods, gods!' characteristic of Pilate and the Master appears here in the narrator's own language, as he speaks of Margarita's unhappiness.

'Gods, gods! What did this woman need? This woman, in whose eyes there always flickered an enigmatic little spark? This witch with just the slightest cast in one eye, who had adorned herself that spring day with mimosa? I do not know.' Chapter 19

The master of margarita