''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
- 90 - in which one sees him, homeless once more, disappearing into the distance and into an uncertain future, is not without an element of hope and confidence. Throughout, then, there are two Pnins: the Pnin the Waindell people see and laugh at is a "phantom" whose only characteristics are his comic eccentricities. They are unable to see behind these superficial traits and never even make the attempt. On the contrary, they build them up until the real person is forever lost behind them. Pnin's life appears to them as no more than a succession of comic disasters and absurd incidents. Unlike them the reader sees a complex person, somewhat eccentric, imaginative, and sensitive, who has preserved his originality and individuality in a world which is hostile to these qualities. The reader is also made to see the pain and sorrow, past and present, that have determined Pnin's life and have given it more depth than can ever be appreciated by the people at Waindell. The comic image they have of Pnin and his life is exposed as the result of a faulty vision and a mindless approach to all things and to persons. As has been seen, this picture does not necessarily evoke hilarity in the reader but rather the opposite reaction, and this is particularly true when it is put in close proximity with the tragic aspects of his person and life, as in the example given above, when it partakes of their quality and at the same time acts as a foil to them, making the tragedy even more poignant.
- 91 - More depth and reality are also given to Pnin's life through the narrator's use of a device which can be traced in Glory, then in The Defence and much later in Transparent Things, which Nabokov comments on in Speak, Memory37, and which Joan Clements describes as typical of the narrator's novels: But don't you think... that what he is trying to do... practically in all his novels... is... to express the fantastic recurrence of certain situations? (159) The most impressive and most fantastic example of this occurs quite early in the novel, when Pnin, on his journey to Cremona has what looks like a heart attack. The sensations he experiences detach him for the time being from his surroundings (19) and take him back to a certain moment in his childhood when he was ill, and which he now relives with the "sharpness of retrospective detail that is said to be the dra- matic privilege of drowning individuals" (21). How- ever, it is not just a matter of reliving that past moment, for in the surroundings in which he finds himself sitting on a bench, a multitude of the features from his childhood bedroom are miraculously repeated and come": to life: not only the pattern of rhododendrons and oak leaves on the wallpaper, but also the scene that was depicted on a wooden. screen near his bed: Pnin himself is the "old man hunched up on a bench" (23), and before him, when he regains full conscious- ness, he finds a duplicate of the squirrel which was shown on his screen "holding a reddish object in its front-. paws" (23) - this object now turns out to be
- 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 and 64: - 57 - imagination of Gretchen best
- Page 65 and 66: - 59 - deed been through an experie
- 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: - 89 - and-smiles at, there emerges
- 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
- Page 115 and 116: - 109 - and implies in the parody t
- Page 117 and 118: - 111 - He is equally inaccurate in
- Page 119 and 120: - 113 - with Quilty; and, of course
- Page 121 and 122: - 115 - or to hold her on his knee
- Page 123 and 124: - 117 - ations ) (98). And he descr
- Page 125 and 126: - 119 - a strident, harsh high voic
- Page 127 and 128: - 121 - When Humbert talks of his d
- Page 129 and 130: - 123 -- could victimize her poor d
- Page 131 and 132: - 125 - this twelve-year-old girl s
- Page 133 and 134: - 127 - done her morning duty" (161
- Page 135 and 136: - 129 - experience, up to a certain
- Page 137 and 138: - 131 - her: "... -a life full of t
- Page 139 and 140: - 133 - Looking at it for a moment
- Page 141 and 142: - 135 - and Axel Rex delightful. Bu
- Page 143 and 144: - 137 - critics have made her, and
- Page 145 and 146: - 139 - not record images of the sy
- 90 -<br />
in which one sees him, homeless once more, disappearing<br />
into the distance and into an uncertain future, is not<br />
without an element of hope and confidence.<br />
Throughout, then, there are two Pnins: the Pnin<br />
the Waindell people see and laugh at is a "phantom"<br />
whose only characteristics are his comic eccentricities.<br />
They are unable to see behind these superficial traits<br />
and never even make the attempt. On the contrary, they<br />
build them up until the real person is <strong>for</strong>ever lost<br />
behind them. Pnin's life appears to them as no more<br />
than a succession of comic disasters and absurd incidents.<br />
Unlike them the reader sees a complex person,<br />
somewhat eccentric, imaginative, and sensitive, who<br />
has preserved his originality and individuality in a<br />
world which is hostile to these qualities. The reader<br />
is also made to see the pain and sorrow, past and<br />
present, that have determined Pnin's life and have<br />
given it more depth than can ever be appreciated by<br />
the people at Waindell.<br />
The comic image they have of Pnin and his life<br />
is exposed as the result of a faulty vision and a<br />
mindless approach to all things and to persons. As<br />
has been seen, this picture does not necessarily<br />
evoke hilarity in the reader but rather the opposite<br />
reaction, and this is particularly true when it is<br />
put in close proximity with the tragic aspects of<br />
his person and life, as in the example given above,<br />
when it partakes of their quality and at the same time<br />
acts as a foil to them, making the tragedy even more<br />
poignant.
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