''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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visible to my own self" (31). Nor does he succeed in
slipping into Felix's self.
All this allows of different interpretations. If one
does in fact see Felix as Hermann's own complementary
self, then his failure is very much like Smurov's, for
like Smurov, Hermann is aware of the different sides
there are to his personality, but, again like Smurov,
he is unable to unite them into one single and unified
and balanced whole, something that Sebastian Knight
has been seen to do. His failure is even worse than
Smurov's. For while Smurov is able in the end to choose
and establish one identity, however unpleasant, for
himself, Hermann remains even at the end caught between
his two selves. He is still aware of his old self, but
also considers it possible that he will all of a sudden
"wake up somewhere; on a patch of grass near Prague"
(221). A complete loss of identity and permanent madness
are the result, and his confused and helpless
state of mind is reflected in the strangely intricate
and superficially comic style and structure of his
tale. What seems comic is an expression of the despair
that creeps into his "vast vacant soul" (193).
Another explanation should be taken into account,
and once more Ardalion can be seen to act as a foil
to Hermann. Hermann pretends not to recognize himself
in the portrait Ardalion has painted of him, because,
as he says, it is not like him at all. However, this
portrait is "more insightful than Hermann can bear -
and most prophetic. " 23
As Hermann describes it, it pictures