Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 101

possible that those two instances could have happened to the same people. An-
other fact is that both Shade and Kinbote never got to know their fathers very
well. In the commentary, Kinbote says “[Shade] could not evoke the image of his
father. Similarly the King, who was also not quite three when his father, King Al-
fin, died, was unable to recall his face.” (246). One final convincing piece of evi-
dence is when the King is mentioning his wife Disa and says, “These heart-
rendering dreams transformed the drab prose of his feelings for her into strong
and strange poetry.” (209). It is known in the novel that Shade is a world-
renowned poet, and in Pale Fire he mentions the feelings he has towards his wife
Sybil many times. These feelings Shade describes could very well be the “strong
and strange poetry” written in the novel as described by the King, providing evi-
dence that Shade and Kinbote are just reflections of one another.
Gradus and Kinbote will be analyzed next. Gradus and Kinbote were both
around when Shade died, and it is implied that one of them fired a gun that
shot Shade through the heart (294). They very well could just be reflections of
each other that encompass the same body, meaning they both murdered Shade.
In the commentary, Kinbote also knew a great amount of personal details about
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