In “The Master and Margarita,” the devil’s talking cat is Behemoth.
Behemoth is a huge demonic black cat who serves in Woland’s entourage when Satan visits Moscow. He speaks, walks upright, drinks vodka, plays chess, handles firearms, and occasionally takes on a human form. His theatrical behavior makes him one of the novel’s most memorable comic figures.
The character’s name comes from the biblical Behemoth, a powerful and mysterious creature traditionally associated with chaos. In Russian, “begemot” also means hippopotamus, creating an additional joke because the cat is described as unusually large. He is not the same figure as Koroviev, Woland’s eccentric assistant, or Azazello, the violent enforcer in the group.
Bulgakov uses Behemoth to mix slapstick with the supernatural. Alongside Koroviev, he causes disorder at Moscow’s literary institutions and helps expose vanity, corruption, and cowardice. Although often comic, Behemoth remains a genuine demon and is revealed near the novel’s end as a jester-like supernatural being.