SOURCE: Frank, Margot K. “The Mystery of the Master's Final Destination.” Canadian-American Slavic Studies 15, nos. 2-3 (summer-fall 1981): 287-94.

In the essay below, Frank discusses possible reasons for the Master's position in limbo at the conclusion of The Master and Margarita.

The Master's role and purpose within the general scheme of The Master and Margarita is still an unsolved question, although various approaches to this figure are extant.¹ The fact that he appears relatively late in the novel (Chapter 13) indicates that he may not be the most important character, an honor which probably belongs to Woland. Bulgakov considered at least ten other titles, most of them headlining Woland (i.e., “The Black Magician,” “Satan,” “Prince of Darkness,” “The Consultant with a Hoof,” “He's Appeared,” “The Foreigner's Horseshoe,” “The Great Chancellor,” “The Black Theologian,”) and not until a 1934 version does the Master appear by name.² Moreover, on the level of...