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

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her, and telling himself "that the most eccentric
girl cannot help being faithful to one if she loves
one as one loves her" (281). And there is the "immortal
moment", which they experience together, when
"they stood embraced in the hushed avenue, enjoying,
as they had never enjoyed before, the 'happy-forever'
feeling at the end of never-ending fairy-tales" (287).
Such perfect love, as has been seen in Lolita, can
only grow out of the true and complete knowledge and
acceptance of another person. These are difficult to
achieve, but they come to Ada and Van, for besides
being brother and sister, sharing "demon blood", they
are also to a certain degree each other's mirror
images, which makes their incest appear like another
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form of doubling. It is thus that the incest theme
need not necessarily give rise to moral speculation
and condemnation, but that it can be seen as perhaps
the most essential element in the stylized pattern
and structure of Ada. Being brother and sister, each
other's mirror images, almost doubles, Ada and Van
are created to be ideal lovers from the first.
The mirroring is suggested by certain physical
similarities. Their lips are similar; Van has the same
small brown spot'on his right hand that Ada has on her
left one; and in a book which Van (not quite unself-
ishly) gives to Lucette, there is a drawing of his of
"Ada-like Van" (146). The mirroring and doubling is
underscored by Van's initial mirroring Ada's "A" and
"embracing" it when, as happens on one occasion, it
is printed upside-down: "V" (47). These are only the