Judgement Day Pale Fire Journal Judgement Day Pale Fire Journal | Page 63

17 where “our poet seems to name here (gradual, gray) a man, whom he
was to see for one fatal moment three weeks later” (77). Fatal, as defined
by the dictionary means causing death. Therefore, this man in the poem
referred to as gradual, gray, (which are other names for Gradus as I had
mentioned before) must be the man Gradus who comes to kill Shade. Fur-
thermore, a connection is made for line 949 where Kinbote says “two silent
time zones had now merged to form the standard time of one man’s
fate” (272). Here he is associating the arrival of Gradus to New York and
that as Gradus drew closer to Shade, his death became imminent.
Now I must disclose to the jury the health of Mr. John Shade and how the
defense will use this information to try to persuade you. Shade had heart
problems, and he did not take care of himself in such a way that would
make those problems diminished. In fact, he mentions it himself in line 694
“My heart had stopped to beat” (58) and later at line 736 “an old unstable
heat” (60). It is not uncommon for old men to have heart attacks or heart
issues in general. Even his family and friends knew of his issue. On learn-
ing of a trip to the mountains, Kinbote “started calculating aloud in meters
the altitude that I thought much too high for john’s heart” (182). Occasion-
ally these heart attacks and heart issues can prove fatal, but that was not
the case with old John Shade.
In closing I would like to draw the Jury’s attention to a specific fact about
the incident that occurred on July 21 st , or rather a direct quote: “One of the
bullets that spared me struck him in the side and went through his
heart” (294) and another account right after the shooting: “John, though,
lay prone on the ground, with a red spot on his white shirt” (295). It is here
in black and white, without a doubt, Kinbote attesting to it; John Shade
was murdered by Gradus with a bullet through the heart. I would ask the
jury to find the defendant guilty of second-degree murder. Thank you.
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