''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses ''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
- 58 - that vaguely resemble him: I do ... not exist:. there exist but the thousands of mirrors that reflect me. With every acquaintance I make, the population of phantoms resembling me increases. Somewhere they live, somewhere they multiply. I alone do not exist (l02). 3 The novel reaches beyond this concern with the "true reality" of a person and explores the implications of the pessimistic conclusion just analysed: Just as all the people he meets are "not live beings but only chance mirrors for Smurov" (90), he is a mirror himself, in which all the others, too, are reduced to mere reflections, their entire existence being "merely a shimmer on a screen" (91). If this is so, this same multiplicity can be a valuable protection. Nothing that one person can do can really harm the other one. It is impossible to hurt anybody if he does not exist. Whatever attacks may be aimed at a person, they can reach only one of the variety of "phantoms" that resemble him; all the others go unharmed. This, it seems, is what gives Smurov that exultant feeling of security at the end: "The world, try as it may, cannot insult me. I am in- vulnerable" (103). But in this triumph is mingled a note of despair. Why should he insist so repeatedly, so defiantly and aggressively that he is happy? I am happy - yes, happy! What more can I do to prove it, how to proclaim that I am happy? Oh, to shout it so that all of you believe me at last, you cruel, smug people... (103). This sounds rather as if he were trying to con- vince above all himself that he is happy. He has in-
- 59 - deed been through an experience that may account for this. There is a brief period during which he tries to break out of the unreal world of mirrors and re- flections and during which he steps back into life. He becomes one with himself once more, so to speak; he does not watch himself, nor his emotions but lives through them, and talks in the first person of Smurov (72ff. ) He loves Vanya. Not for anything he knows about her: 'What difference did it make to me whether she were stupid or intelligent, or what her childhood had been like, or what books she read, or what she, thought about the universe? " (73) He loves her for something that he sees as her essential quality and. which he calls "her loveliness" (73). But he is not loved back, and he also feels that this "loveliness", which he most needs and wants from her, is too intimately hers and not accessible to him. Like "the tint of the cloud or the scent of the flower" (74) it can only be sensed and admired but not "appropriated" (74). The only escape he sees from this painful passion is to tell himself that it is all just an il- lusion on his part. There are probably as many differ- ent versions of Vanya as there are of himself. there is probably no such person as the "real" Vanya whom he believes for a moment to have found. Why, then, should he be unhappy if she does not love him? He calms down (74), telling himself that he has loved no more than one of the "phantoms" that resemble her, an image created in the mirror of his own mind. "... Vanya, like all the rest, existed only in my imagination... " (191-192).
- Page 13 and 14: -8- importance but its art, only it
- Page 15 and 16: - 10 - of. the novels, consist in t
- Page 17 and 18: - 12 - life with its hazards and in
- Page 19 and 20: - 14 - lives of individual persons,
- Page 21 and 22: - 16 - is convinced to really know
- Page 23 and 24: - 18 - hopeless, but Nabokov does n
- Page 25 and 26: - 20 - for the artist, is expressed
- Page 27 and 28: - 22 - a new, wholly artistic reali
- Page 29 and 30: - 24 - way, and this knowledge and
- Page 31 and 32: - 26 - internal evidence of Invitat
- Page 33 and 34: - 28 - Admittedly not all of Naboko
- Page 35 and 36: - 30 - "tr. ue reality" in that it
- Page 37 and 38: - 32 - the manner in which the subj
- Page 39 and 40: - 34 - The case is quite similar in
- Page 41 and 42: - 36 - lines of play 11120 will in
- Page 43 and 44: - 38 - him knowledge surpassing tha
- Page 45 and 46: - 40 - the present. This act of rec
- Page 47 and 48: - 42 - design in the life of Martin
- Page 49 and 50: - 44 - Martin's mother of her son's
- Page 51 and 52: - 46 - is blind where his wife and
- Page 53 and 54: - 48 - serious and profound experie
- Page 55 and 56: I. The Eye Pnin Lolita; Laughter*in
- Page 57 and 58: - 51 - novel. They illustrate how p
- Page 59 and 60: - 53 - tearing the banknote into li
- Page 61 and 62: - 55 - have before: after the suici
- Page 63: - 57 - imagination of Gretchen best
- Page 67 and 68: - 61 - there must be some "model" a
- Page 69 and 70: - 63 - P NI N In their appreciation
- Page 71 and 72: - 65 - For the sake of convenience
- Page 73 and 74: - 67 - Pnin's appearance is comic,
- Page 75 and 76: - 69 - all-the time. He suffers an
- Page 77 and 78: - 71 - existence" (13). In his pres
- Page 79 and 80: - 73 - is going to give, on his per
- Page 81 and 82: - 75 - exist in such big sea" (60).
- Page 83 and 84: - 77 - directly from Pnin's peculia
- Page 85 and 86: - 79 - them at least 10ok like his
- Page 87 and 88: - 81 - indeed only the very thinnes
- Page 89 and 90: - 83 - but the group of academics w
- Page 91 and 92: - 85 - "schools and trends", and is
- Page 93 and 94: - 87 - which induces the reader to
- Page 95 and 96: - 89 - and-smiles at, there emerges
- Page 97 and 98: - 91 - More depth and reality are a
- Page 99 and 100: - 93 - cp. 180). The narrator also
- Page 101 and 102: 95 - being accurate in every point,
- Page 103 and 104: - 97 - standing of a "truly human b
- Page 105 and 106: - 99 - eternal beauty, and his conv
- Page 107 and 108: - 101 - One luckless early critic w
- Page 109 and 110: - 103 - says "well-read" Humbert Hu
- Page 111 and 112: - 105 - surface, into the initial m
- Page 113 and 114: - 107 - age. She was the "initial g
- 59 -<br />
deed been through an experience that may account <strong>for</strong><br />
this. There is a brief period during which he tries<br />
to break out of the unreal world of mirrors and re-<br />
flections and during which he steps back into life.<br />
He becomes one with himself once more, so to speak;<br />
he does not watch himself, nor his emotions but lives<br />
through them, and talks in the first person of Smurov<br />
(72ff. ) He loves Vanya. Not <strong>for</strong> anything he knows<br />
about her: 'What difference did it make to me whether<br />
she were stupid or intelligent, or what her childhood<br />
had been like, or what books she read, or what she,<br />
thought about the universe? " (73) He loves her <strong>for</strong><br />
something that he sees as her essential quality and.<br />
which he calls "her loveliness" (73). But he is not<br />
loved back, and he also feels that this "loveliness",<br />
which he most needs and wants from her, is too intimately<br />
hers and not accessible to him. Like "the<br />
tint of the cloud or the scent of the flower" (74) it<br />
can only be sensed and admired but not "appropriated"<br />
(74). The only escape he sees from this painful<br />
passion is to tell himself that it is all just an il-<br />
lusion on his part. There are probably as many differ-<br />
ent versions of Vanya as there are of himself. there<br />
is probably no such person as the "real" Vanya whom<br />
he believes <strong>for</strong> a moment to have found. Why, then,<br />
should he be unhappy if she does not love him? He<br />
calms down (74), telling himself that he has loved<br />
no more than one of the "phantoms" that resemble<br />
her, an image created in the mirror of his own mind.<br />
"... Vanya, like all the rest, existed only in my<br />
imagination... " (191-192).
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