Pale Fire: A Magazine in 12 Projects Group Three | Page 40

ed to make his novel a hom- acters portrayed by men. This
age to Pale Fire . Like Timon very
living in his cave, Kinbote is Pale Fire and the constant
living in a cabin writing his theme throughout of men
commentary, far from hu- becoming more feminine and
manity. There is also an in- females becoming more mas-
stance where Kinbote finds a culine. There is also the myth
piece of gold in the ground that Shakespeare wasn’t an
(141), very similarly to how Ti- individual, but really a group
mon finds gold after digging of people who wrote all of ‘his’
(line 1595). I believe that Nabo- plays and sonnets. Nabokov
kov made his novel share so clearly intended to have these
many themes with Shake- themes present in his work, as
speare’s play to give readers the novel often leaves readers
some perspective. In Timon of feeling deceived. There is no
Athens , a theme of deception one way to interpret the nov-
is prevalent, with Timon being el, and characters are seem-
betrayed he ingly actors just playing multi-
thought were his friends. In ple parts in Nabokov’s story. In
fact, in many of Shakespeare’s fact, on page 301, Kinbote is
plays things aren’t quite as quoted as saying “I may turn
they seem. Usually, in his up yet…a writer in exile, sans
plays, actors fame, sans future, sans audi-
were all men, meaning that ence, sans anything but his
there were often female char- art…I may pander to the sim-
with
those
Shakespeare’s
40
strongly