SOURCE: "Duality and Symmetry in Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time," in Nabokov and Others: Patterns in Russian Literature, Ardis, 1979, pp. 27-36.

In the following essay, Rowe examines the symmetrical pairing of elements such as episodes, actions, descriptions, speeches, and characters in A Hero of Our Time.

Commentators have been justifiably intrigued by the patterning of Lermontov's novel [A Hero of Our Time]. Despite its five parts and three narrators, however, the work seems most informed by duality as a structural principle. Even individual episodes, actions, descriptions, speeches continually occur in pairs. Moreover, there often seems to be a balancing of these pairs. In several cases, the spacing of this balancing within the novel promotes a remarkable symmetry.

It's two in the morning. I can't sleep, though I ought to get some sleep if I'm to have a steady hand in the morning. Though it's difficult to miss...