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

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318
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the ruddy horror of my face. I do not
know why he had lent my cheeks that fruity
hue; they are really as pale as death.
Look as one might, none could see the ghost
of a likeness! How utterly ridiculous, for
instance, that crimson point in the canthus,
or that glimpse of eyetooth from under a
curled, snarly lip. All this - against an
ambitious background hinting at things that
might have been either geometrical figures
or gallow trees... (66).
Clearly, Ardalion does not simply copy the mere appear-
ance of things or persons as Hermann does. With his
portrait he has produced something that proves his
ability to see behind the surface and appearance and
detect the essential qualities of the objects of his
art. And he has produced something living, a piece of
art that allows the viewer, too, an insight into the
life and soul of the person it represents, and which,
to use Hermann's own words, carries a heavy burden of
"intrinsical
truth".
Hermann lacks the artistic insight that enables
Ardalion to paint this telling portrait of him. He
does feel that he has changed places with Felix (69),
and also that "I look like my name" (203), but this
is not enough. He knows too little about Felix; just
a few haphazard facts that Felix has told him, some
of his tastes and favourite sayings, and memories. All
these he keeps repeating and memorizing, adding a
few details each time, but this does not allow him
even to imagine Felix's life in full: "I. f ailed - and
still fail - to rerun his life on my private screen"
(54). Much less does it enable him to make Felix's
soul his own, for he knows next to nothing about it:
"Felix's soul I had studied very cursorily, so all I