Woland is the mysterious foreigner and professor whose visit to Moscow sets the plot rolling and turns the world upside-down.

His demonic entourage, which includes witches, succubi, and a gigantic talking cat, his role in the plot, and the fact that Voland is a (now outdated) German word for a devil or evil spirit,[1] all imply that he is, in fact, the Devil.

[2] Edward Ericson argues that Woland is essentially "the Satan of orthodox (specifically Russian Orthodox) Christian theology [...] He is both a tempter of men and an unwitting instrument of divine justice, a being who owes his existence and power to the very one he opposes.

"[3] In conceiving of Woland, Bulgakov draws heavily from the figure of Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust, a connection made explicit by the use of an epigraph from the poem at the beginning of the novel.

[5] Other allusions to Goethe's Mephistopheles include Woland's cane with the head of a poodle and his limp.