In this section of The Master and Margarita it was confusing to see that Styopa, by the account of his peers, had indeed come into the theater to officially ratify his contract with Woland. However, when he first heard of it, Styopa had no idea of the existence of the contract and was willing to stake his life that he had never seen Woland before. And so this opens up a number of questions: Did Styopa just forget about the contract with Woland and his meeting with him as a result of his intoxication? Did Woland control him without his knowledge? Or did Woland or one of his associates simply assume the guise of Styopa in order to have the contract ratified properly? The later seems unlikely since the devilish trio appears to be capable to generating contracts out of nowhere.
I also noticed that in every case the characters of the novel attempt to justify seemingly unlikely events. They conclude that there is no way that Styopa is in Yalta, but is merely deceiving them – he is at the restaurant called Yalta and is intoxicated. Similarly, the master of ceremonies passes of Woland’s incredible feats of skill, as “[they] all know” that black magic is fictitious.
Looking forward, I am interested to see where the titular master and margarita fit into the story.
-Primus Stove
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