Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 58

are assuming the patient is talking about the words in the book. Consequently,
that is what the patient spends most the day mumbling about.
It is interesting because it seems that two characters in particular tend to
have an affinity with words. Hazel and Kinbote. Accordingly, it is that affinity
with words that make the two seem almost identical, as if they were the same
person. This parallel begins to be drawn in the poem. In the second canto it is
mentioned that Hazel takes an interest in literature, “I’d help her with a Latin
text./ Or she’d be reading in her bedroom” (1962, 46). This mirrors Kinbote’s
obsession with written words that we see throughout his analysis of the com-
mentary. For example, he talks about line 130 of the poem “I never bounced a
ball or swung a bat” for about twenty pages. It is true that the detail went into
anecdotes, but at the same time it is a very thorough examination of a very small
part of the poem.
Perhaps one of the greatest inconsistences with Hazel and Kinbote being
the same person is that they are of different genders. On the other hand, taking
in descriptions of Hazel and the way her death is described it is possible that she
was transgender. “Some say/ she took her poor young life.” (1962, 50). The
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