Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 95

part) (262). More personality crossover comes from Hazel’s grief at the killing of
a family dog; she was said to be” beside herself with distress” after it was eu-
thanized (165). Although mourning the death of a pet does not instantly make
one a vegetarian, that care for animals is not too far a cry from someone who
considered eating “a fellow creature…repulsive” (21). One final peculiarity is that
Kinbote feels Hazel “deserves great respect”, a sentiment he extends to very few
people, particularly women (312). His motivation for this is that Hazel commit-
ted suicide, an act he holds in high regard. In fact, he considers his own exile a
sort of self-killing, saying “a king who sinks his identity in the mirror of exile is
in a sense” the same as being a regicide (267). While Charles may not have liter-
ally killed himself, he did purportedly completely terminate his own old life, just
as Hazel ended hers. Hazel and Charles can be paired together as two characters
reflected, with their personalities and lives different-yet-similar mirrors of each
other throughout the book.
With a final recapitulation of the intro, the piece is concluded.
These works of art can be viewed through a nearly infinite set of lenses,
and I have outlined some of those here today. I think we can agree, however, the
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