The use of numbers in The Queen of SpadesThe use of numbers, particularly three and to a lesser extent seven, is of major importance in The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin. Spades. The use of three permeates the text in several ways, major, minor and in reference to time. According to Alexandr Slonimsky in an essay written in 1922, “The notion of a group of three is dominant…” (429). In the major details of the story, there are "three fantastic moments" (Slonimsky 429), three maps, three major catastrophes, three main characters, and the use of six chapters, six being a multiple of three. The three fantastic moments are: “Tomsky's story (chapter 1), Hermann's vision (chapter 5), and the miraculous victory (chapter 6)” (429). These three moments form the backbone of the story. In Tomsky's story, we read for the first time the three cards that will guarantee the winner in the game of Faro. What makes this incident fantastic in relation to the story is the importance of the story to the events that follow, compared to the nonchalant attitude attributed to those present. The second fantastic incident is that of the appearance of the dead countess to Hermann. This incident is fantastic in that the three cards named by the Countess are actually the winning cards, meaning that the Countess is an apparition and not just a dream. The final fantastic incident occurs when Hermann miraculously wins at the faro table for the first time. The reader now knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that these three cards are magic cards. “The special meaning of the three cards is manifested in the rhythmic quality of Hermann's thoughts” (Slonimsky 429). Looking at the original text, the rhythmic quality is much more apparent...... middle of paper ......the greatest of the classical literary tradition and is also considered one of the triumvirate of great literature Russian. About The Queen of Spades, DS Mirsky says this: “The Queen of Spades is undoubtedly Pushkin's prose masterpiece” (436). Works CitedMirsky, DS Title unknown. 1926. Criticism of 19th Century Literature Volume 3. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983. Pushkin, Alexander. The Queen of Spades. 1834. Trans. Ivy and Tatiana Litvinov. Literature of the Western World, Third Edition, Volume Two. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillin, 1992. 870-890. Slonimsky, Alexandr. Title unknown. 1922. Literary criticism of the 19th century, volume three. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983.