God gave man the freedom of choice, and Wolland uses this to test man (each character has the opportunity to do the right thing but fails to do so. A prime example of this is the downfall of Nikanor Ivanovich, and the money which he keeps for himself rather than declare .
Throughout The Master and Margarita the Devil gives the people of Moscow choices, and it is through their own greed, selfishness, and vanity that they ultimately make the wrong ones. They allow their greed, desire and vanity to get the better of them, and in the end they pay for their mistakes, either by being arrested, or standing in the street in only their underwear ("the wretched victim of her own rashness and vanity"). Any malice or violence that occurs in the novel can be attributed to Wolland's (the Devil's) sidekicks, Behemoth (the cat), Hella (the naked girl), Koroviev (also known as Faggot, a former Prince), and Azazello (the man with the hideous face). Whilst Wolland is their master, they are relatively free to do as they wish. In the incident at the theatre performance, Wolland just sits in an armchair on stage (later it is revealed that he merely wanted to see some citizens of Moscow), whilst Faggot and Behemoth carry out the performance, "Growling, the cat dug its claws into the compere's glossy hair and with a wild screech it twisted the head clean off the neck in two turns". The most which this unusual group do is to cause hysteria, mayhem, and confuse the masses. The physical damage done to the compere is repaired almost immediately, leaving him hysterical, and later committed to the mental asylum. "Some of the devil pranks are sheer anarchic fun, more often they are chosen to bring out the worst in everybody. When he leaves, the asylums are full, the forces of law and order are in disarray and the population is haunted with feelings of guilt and shame" . .
From this alone it is not possible to see how such a being can be seen as a hero if one were to stick to the conventional perspective that the Devil is evil.