Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 104

Fleur de Fyler and Hazel will be the next pairing analyzed. Fleur is the
daughter of the Countess de Fyler and was a lady in waiting to Queen Blenda
before her death (108). Both Hazel and Fleur had troubles with romantic as-
pects of their lives. Hazel could be treated as a literal “lady in waiting,” as she
spent all her life waiting for a man who would marry her. In the poem, Shade
mentions that Hazel “may not be a beauty, but she’s cute.” (line 304). Hazel is
repetitively described as not being good-looking and was said to be left out and
ignored by her peers. It was said that “No lips would share the lipstick of her
smoke/The telephone that rang before a ball/Every two minutes in Sorosa
Hall/For her would never ring.” (lines 328-331). Hazel’s unluckiness with love
seems to be her greatest source of unhappiness in the novel. Fleur was also
known to have troubles with relationships. Fleur attempted to have a relation-
ship with the King, but he ended up not responding to her advances. The King
describes Fleur as being a “poor seducer” (108), and every attempt Fleur makes
to become affectionate towards the King is quickly turned down. There relation-
ship was quickly over, and Fleur is not mentioned much in the work after.
Another woman in the novel who has troubles with her romantic relation-
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