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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Who tells Gradus Disa's estate is empty?
2. Where does Gradus go to look for the king?
3. What does the name "Kinbote" mean?
4. Which of the following does Kinbote discuss in this section?
5. What Kinbote thought was an amusement park outside is actually what?
Short Essay Questions
1. When does Kinbote finally merge with King Charles as written in the Commentary?
2. Why does Kinbote insist on meeting Shade on July 19th?
3. Comment on a few similarities between Charles Kinbote and King Charles.
4. What does Kinbote do when he runs into Shade on the way to the doctor's office?
5. How does Gradus learn the location of the king?
6. How does Kinbote describe the Russian guards who are after the Zemblan Crown Jewels?
7. Briefly summarize the conversation Kinbote overhears between Shade and Mrs. Hurley, and its relevance to "Pale Fire."
8. What is significant about the way Shade relates his name to the word "ombre" a French word that connotes shadows and darkness?
9. How does Kinbote respond when a professor tells him he looks like King Charles? Why might he react that way?
10. Why does Kinbote embrace organized religion?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
At what point in the novel did you suspect Charles Kinbote was not mentally sound?
How does his dementia progress throughout the novel?
How does his grasp of reality change the way you perceive the events of the novel?
Do you think Zembla is a real place in the world created by Nabokov in Pale Fire, or a figment of Charles Kinbote's imagination?
Essay Topic 2
How does Nabokov use references of other literary works in his novel Pale Fire? Give as many examples of references to other works as you can from the text, and describe what Nabokov accomplishes by including them in the novel.
Essay Topic 3
On page 156, in the commentary to Line 172, John Shade bemoans the way most of his students read and interpret literature.
Relate Shade's thoughts in the final paragraph on page 156 to the way Kinbote interprets the poem "Pale Fire."
How does Kinbote respond to Shade's commentary?
What does this tell us about Kinbote?
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This section contains 743 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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