Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 80

ends with a cry for help. This,
paired with the bit about
‘pretending to be insane’, makes us
wonder if Handwriting 1 and 2 are
both Shade, but 2 is meant to add
confusion, only because Shade is
in trouble and can’t directly ask for
help. In this interpretation, he pre-
tends to be insane, and writes in
an insane manner, because Gradus is still trying to kill him, and he must beg for
help without revealing his identity. This is a parallel to Pale Fire, in the sense
that all of the characters represent some part of who he is, and are working to-
wards some deeper truth about Shade. Finally, the ‘dualities of characters’ con-
cept is used heavily in this piece. There are two handwritings, and moreover,
Handwriting 2 claims to be two people, Kinbote and Hazel. IF we conjecture
that Handwriting 2 is Hazel and Handwriting 1 is John, then there are two
Shades, which in turn, of course, leads us back to the notion of multiple Shades
of meaning, which is a major part of both this piece and, as I tried to portray,
Pale Fire.
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