What is obvious about Pale Fire?
The commentator is obsessed with John Shade.
The commentator displays trollish qualities.
The commentator is religious. “I could distinguish the expression of passionate interest, rapture and reverence, with which he followed the images wording themselves in his mind, and I knew that whatever my agnostic friend might say in denial, at that moment Our Lord was with him” (89).
The commentator envies Shade’s relationship with his wife.
The commentator wishes Shade to incorporate “the Zemblan theme” into his work: “Not only did I understand then that Shade regularly read to Sybil cumulative parts of his poem but it also dawns upon me now that, just as regularly, she made him down or remove from his Fair Copy everything connected with the magnificent Zemblan theme with which I kept furnishing him and which, without knowing much about the growing work, I fondly believed would become the main rich thread in its weave.” (91)
The commentator does not seem to be fond of youthful characteristics?: “I must confess that their pert pictures irritated me to such an extent that finally I gathered them one by one and dumped them all in a closet under the gallows row of their cellophane-shrouded winter clothes.” (83) “All (the black cat) got from me was milk and sardines; it was a likeable little creature but after a while its movements began to grate on my nerves…” (84)
Some not obvious things worth looking into: tessellations, mirrors, nymphs, Heliotropes and butterflies…hmmm.
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