Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 88

Granted, it is not hard to make Kinbote out to be a lunatic. Most immediately
supporting this notion is his unsettling obsession with John Shade, partaking in
an “orgy of spying” on his neighbor, and even “standing on a box hedge” in his
yard to peer through his window (Nabokov 87, 90). He certainly seems de-
ranged, and disregards normal social boundaries and taboos to fulfil his strange
urges. Also of note is that his Zemblan mirror, King Charles Xavier, has the
moniker “the Beloved” (306). The pseudointellectual polymath pursuing this
false interpretation may recall “Charles the Beloved” of France, who was also re-
ferred to as “Charles the Mad” (“Charles VI”). From this, they may conclude
this is yet more evidence that Charles is insane, although as we will see later,
there is another, equally wayward way that this line may be mistakenly misinter-
preted. But most tellingly, Charles himself seems to imply this at the novel’s
end, saying of his fate “I may huddle and groan in a madhouse” (Nabokov 301).
Charles, if not necessarily believing himself to be insane, certainly feels its likely
others will think he is. While this all appears on the surface to validate this line
of thinking, a more reasonable interpretation should become clear as we pro-
gress.
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