5 Discoveries

5 discoveries about the novel Pale Fire: Which turn out to be more questions on what was really going on in Nabokov's twisted neurons
1. Reality is not what it seems -

• Is Charles really the King of this distant land, Zembla or is he just making it up?
• Is Gradus really an assassin from Zembla out to shoot Charles or is a crazy man that just escaped form an asylum?
• If Charles isn't the King of Zembla are all the friends and acquaintances he talks about real or are they too just a figment of Charles' imagination?
• If Charles works at a University and he's crazy, how did he get there? And then again, does Charles really work at the University?
• Are the crown jewels real? Do they represent something if they are not real?
• and the list could continue indefinitely...

2. Nabokov has ready every classical or important text known to mankind.
which leads to the next discovery
3. There are references all over this book to mythology, literature, history and they are in plain sight and deeply buried
This next is a question and a discovery
4. After listening to the presentation on Nabokov's Blues and learning about Nabokov's life and work with Lepidoptery, Nabokov has included personal references among the mythological and literary within this work. Things like the butterfly in John Shade's death scene. Being as how the poem is about the death of a child and her parents' reaction to that death, why did Nabokov pick such a poignant subject on which to write a poem? Why is a mad man then interpreting it with the idea that the work revolves around him?
5. Sybil Shade is an incredibly patient woman