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

-
203
-
novels of Sebastian Knight, namely the mystic way.
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is a typically
Knightian novel down to the particular twist he gives
it by placing V's visit to the hospital, Knight's
death, and V's experience at the end, even though
they are the beginning of everything. By doing so,
he gives V's insight the place where it appears as a
triumph after long and painfully ineffective efforts.
But although the sequence of events and experiences
may be twisted in V's story for the sake of effect,
it is yet the sequence in which they occurred in
Sebastian's own quest and experience.
One fact has so far not been considered, namely that
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is also Sebastian's
artistic rendering of his quest for self-knowledge.
Even while on one level, explained above, the novel
can be taken at its face value, with V going through
the quest and the experience described, it reveals an
additional meaning if the Narcissus reference in the
description of the portrait is taken into account.
Supposedly V is here looking at a portrait of Sebastian,
but the implication is that actually Sebastian is
looking at a reflected image of himself:
These eyes. and the face itself are painted
in such a manner as to convey the impression
that they are mirrored Narcissuslike
in clear water.. Thus Sebastian peers
into a pool at himself (111-112).
Applied to the whole novel this suggests that even
while on the one hand V as a separate character may
be looking at Sebastian, Sebastian is also looking
at himself through the medium of V. In this light