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

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242
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actually sees Kinbote, loses him, and catches a lift
to his house (280-284).
- Meanwhile Kinbote is on
his way home, happens to see Sybil "speeding townward"
(287), feels encouraged by her absence to look up
Shade and invite him to his house. - Had Kinbote not
vanished behind a bookcase so quickly; had Gradus
not caught a lift; had Sybil not gone out; or had
Kinbote not seen her go: the end would have been different.
As it is, the incidents of this day logically
round off the development that started three weeks
earlier (it certainly started much earlier than this,
but this is as far as Kinbote traces it back), and
at the end of which Shade dies in Kinbote's place.
It is certainly of symbolical significance that Shade
has his first heart attack on October 17th, 1958,
the very day of Kinbote's arrival in America.
Thus, for at least a "minute part" of Shade's
existence, namely the period during which he composes
Pale Fire, Kinbote combines "accidents and possibilities",
coordinates events with other remote events,
and traces the pattern in which the lines, originating
at different times and at different places,
run together in time and space at the moment at which
Gradus kills Shade. Reversely, Shade's death, which,
seen from one point of view, seems to be caused by
a mere coincidence, can be traced back and explained
through the interaction and combination of a whole
series of events and incidents. It all seems
to imply that there is some intelligent power behind
it all, planning and designing the fate of Man. And