Nabokov's "Pale Fire" breaks with the traditional doppelganger story (as do other of his novels, such as "Despair", "The True Life of Sebastian Knight" and " Lolita"), which often relies on clear black and white doubles (we think in particular of Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde"), coloring the nuanced tones between the aptly named John Shade and his commentator, Charles Kinbote. Several cases blur the line between the two men; maybe one invented the other, maybe they are one, maybe they invented each other. This doesn't really matter, because there is enough conflicting evidence for all the cases to be brought up in Nabokov's detective novel. Rather, what is important is that “Pale Fire,” the poem, is linked to the commentary – neither could exist without the other. Ultimately, it is art that achieves, not a man's personality; as Kinbote concludes: “Yes, better stop. My grades and my self are wearing thin... My work is done. My poet is dead” (300). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Nabokov immediately paints his convoluted double theme with a favorite pigment, numbers. Kinbote tells us that Shade was “born July 5, 1898, died July 21, 1959” – he lived 61 years and 16 days (13). In addition, the 334 lines of the second and third cantos double (plus two others) the 166 lines of the first and fourth cantos. Kinbote also has an affinity for doubles, as the foreword reveals: “A fellow tormentor asked me if it was true that I had two ping-pong tables set up in my basement. I asked: was this a crime? No, he replied: but why two? “Is this a crime? I countered and they all laughed" (21-2). Nabakov is known for his distaste of doubles; "The double is really boring," he once lamented. Much of his fiction is devoted to advance the doppelganger beyond the relatively simplistic clash of superego and id in previous literature. His play on words - even "ping-pong" sounds like the same word repeated, is often ironic and self-aware of his novelistic intentions. policeman: "...I was about to have a sort of small seminar at home followed by a game of table tennis. , with two charming identical twins and another boy, another boy” (23). Kinbote explains its purpose, and even its existence, by arguing that authorial intent makes no sense without a guiding hand: "...without my notes, Shade's text simply makes no sense . human reality since the human reality of a poem like his... must depend entirely on the reality of its author and his environment, his attachments, etc., a reality that only my notes can provide... for the better or for worse. , it is the commentator who has the last word" (28-9). Shade's "attachments" seem an oblique reference to Kinbote himself, reinforcing Kinbote's presumption that not only is an author's work incomprehensible without the addition of a critic's eye, but that the author's life was also tempered by Kinbote's presence It is difficult to know whether this is Nabakov's view given his mockery of the; Kinbote's comment - on why Shade named a hurricane after Lolita: "The reason our poet chose to give his 1958 hurricane a little-used Spanish name (sometimes given to parrots) instead of Linda or Lois, is unclear" - it seems more plausible that Nabakov believed that the original work of art, not its layers of skin, should stand the test of time. Keep in mind: This is just a sample Get a personalized paper now..