The Journey from hell to hell in Vladimir Nabokov's novel «King, Queen, Knave»

Chzhu Ziwei ORCID: 0009-0009-2810-8877 Postgraduate student; Department of the History of Modern Russian Literature and the Modern Literary Process; Moscow State University in Shenzhen; Lomonosov Moscow State University 518172, China, Guangdong region, Shenzhen, Guojidaxueyuan str., 1 zhuziweilove@163.com Other publications by this author

Nabokov's novel "The King, the Queen, the Jack" (1928) for almost a hundred years has repeatedly found itself in the center of attention of Russian and foreign literary criticism, and, of course, has been analyzed from various points of view. One of the undeveloped layers of this work is the plot of the metaphysical journey of the protagonist.

In the article "Mythological subtexts of the novel "The King, the Queen, the Jack", D. Z. Jozha draws attention to the connections of the book with the "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. In the first chapter of the novel, Franz decides to move from a third-class compartment to a second-class compartment: and this seems to him to be "a transition from an abominable hell, through a purgatory of playgrounds and corridors, to a genuine paradise" ^{[7, pp. 137-138]}. The writer further compares this expanded metaphor with a medieval mystery: "in the mystery, along a long scene divided into three parts, a wax actor passes from the mouth of the devil into a jubilant paradise" ^{[7, p. 138]}. V. B. Polishchuk, in a note to the novel, comments on this episode as follows: "The scene on which the mysteries were played out, like a puppet nativity scene, it usually consisted of three parts: hell, purgatory (purgatory) and paradise (paradise)" ^{[7, p. 699]}.

Nora Books writes that the title of Nabokov's second novel contains a hint of a waltz score and that dance is the main plot model for "King, Queen, Jack" ^{[2, p. 44]}. The triple waltz score is realized in the book in numerous triple repetitions. One can say that one of these repetitions manifests itself in the three-part structure of reality, referring to the "Divine Comedy".

It is also interesting that the unnamed book that Dreyer reads in the compartment, in the English version of "King, Queen, Jack" turns out to be "Dead Souls" by N. V. Gogol in the German translation. In the Russian version of the novel, Marta defines it as a "translated novel" ^{[7, p. 137]}, where the adjective "translated" actualizes not only the motive of translation from language to language, but can be understood as a translation from one space or state to another. Gogol's poem was supposed to consist of three parts, associatively correlating with the "Divine Comedy": "Finished "Dead souls" were supposed to give birth to three interrelated images: crimes, punishments and atonement" ^{[6, p. 99]}. In "Lectures on Russian Literature," Nabokov offers his version of why Gogol failed in such a trilogy. From his point of view, Gogol's genius would have broken any scheme (including, apparently, the scheme of depicting the otherworld), and, moreover, Chichikov is too small a person who does not correspond to the role of a sinner.

In "The King, the Queen, the Jack" there is an appeal to the Dante scheme and at the same time its partly ironic ^[8] parody ^{[2, p. 56]} denial. Franz, like Chichikov (in Nabokov's reading), turns out to be a character not quite commensurate with the sin (or awareness of sin) of adultery and violence against one's neighbor, and therefore disproportionate to Dante's third heaven. It is no coincidence that the old man Menetekelfares, a "petty demon" ^{[3, p. 24]}, considers him a figment of his imagination ("the whole world of the novel with its characters turns out to be the game of a crazy old man" ^{[2, p. 43]}) and cancels his existence at the moment when Franz moves out from him. Franz is weighed, measured and recognized as unworthy — transformation is on the way. (It should be noted, however, that the English version of the novel, created by Nabokov many years later, will sharpen the negative features of Franz, it will indicate both a more crude and active eroticism and sadism, and even hints will be made about his future among Nazism ^{[5, p. 604]}.)

G. Khasin, in the article "Between micro and Macro: Narrative and metaphysics in V. Nabokov's novel "King, Queen, Jack", sees in the heroes of the book monads incapable of essential changes, like chess pieces or playing cards: "Transcendence and becoming are inaccessible to them" ^{[10, p. 646]}. In this sense, Franz's spiritual journey is initially doomed to failure, to return to its starting point.

Franz moves from the third grade, which he sees as hell, to the second grade, which he perceives as heaven, but there is also the first class, which Franz simply forbids himself to dream about, because "almost unearthly actresses" go there ^{[7, p. 134]}, that is, "celestial women", "angels." The second class in which Franz found himself is a deceptive paradise, a "fake eden" ^{[9, p. 181]}, if not hell, then its likeness. Martha, sitting in a compartment, in the novel "gets the features of a transcendent being: she has a "madonna—like profile" ^{[4, p. 685]} and so on, but in fact she is "an aging woman — beautiful, perhaps - but still somewhat similar to a large white toad" ^{[7, p. 294]}. V. B. Polishchuk notes that "in folklore, the image of a toad is usually associated with the attributes of witchcraft" ^{[7, p. 705]}, that is, Martha is not a Madonna, not a "misty lady" ^{[7, p. 148]} (or Blokov's "Beautiful Lady"), but a witch, basilisk, vampire, immobilizing and killing her lover: Martha "she laughed, showing her teeth carnivorously" ^{[7, p. 163]}, she "yawned like a tigress" ^{[7, p. 147]}. Martha has the ability to dark visionary, sympathetic magic: she anticipates the possible death of her husband in a car accident and tries to contribute to it (in the English version, Nabokov, after Dreyer appears alive and well, added Martha's phrase "My charms do not work" ^{[5, p. 609]}), she provokes Franz to ejaculate during sleep, as if entering his dream D. Z. Jozha also notes that the image of Martha is similar to the image of Lilith from Nabokov's 1930 poem of the same name, which was written in parallel to "The King, the Queen, the Jack". The hero of this work, like Franz, at first seems that he is in heaven, but in the finale he discovers that he is in hell.

Another image that influenced the image of Martha, according to D. Z. Jozh, is Pushkin's Mermaid. It is no coincidence that the real opportunity to kill Dreyer turns out to be connected with water for her: as you know, in myths, mermaids lure men to the water and drown them. Martha is generally associated with the motif of moisture. She remembers her three possible lovers during the rain. Images of "black, moist, delicate asphalt" ^{[7, p. 178]} combine with the image of Martha in Franz and cause him to pollute. Martha comes to Franz for the first time during the rain for love joy. D. Z. Jozha writes that "The hidden presence of the mermaid motif in the novel affects", including in the "image of the seal" ^{[4, p. 693]} in the music hall. It seems, however, that in this episode, the mermaid reality manifests itself in all the music hall characters at once - in a seal, whose body, according to the researcher, looks like the body of a mermaid, in a half—naked girl kissing a seal (like Martha kisses Franz), in an artist "in a scaly dress" ^{[7, p. 206]}.

In the third grade, Franz, as it seems to him, encounters a "monster", or the devil, whose image goes back to the images of demons of the world literary tradition — to hell with, for example, I. V. Goethe or F. M. Dostoevsky. Like Goethe's, Nabokov's devil is probably lame. His swinging entrance to the third-class compartment can be understood both as a reaction to the movement of the train, and as a consequence of lameness. Nabokov and Dostoevsky's description of the trait begins with naming him "mister". The devil is well dressed here and there, but in both cases there is an incongruity in his appearance: in the Brothers Karamazov, the devil's costume is outdated, in The King, Queen, Jack, the elegance of the "monster" sharply contrasts with his ugly face. All three traits are plastic, have the ability to adapt to people. On the face of the Nabokov devil there is "a whole geography of shades — yellowishness, pinkness, gloss" ^{[7, p. 132]}. The metaphor here speaks not only about the similarity of the complexion of the frightening Franz gentleman with the map of the world, but also indicates his wanderings, as well as his black, slimy, mottled suitcase from stickers" ^{[7, p. 133]}. Nabokov's devil's face looks like a skull: "the nose is tiny, covered with whitish skin over the bone, round, black nostrils are obscene and asymmetrical" ^{[7, p. 132]}. This devil will be the reason why Franz will end up in a compartment with Martha and Dreyer. Franz will move to the second grade on a shaky platform, rhyming with the shakiness of the floor under the feet of the gentleman from the third grade department, which in turn refers to the phraseology "get on a shaky path." For the last time in the novel, Franz sees this character in a mannequin, who will have a "pale body with strange geographical spots" ^{[7, p. 241]}. Contact with him, with his uncleanness, will completely deprive Franz of the memories of Martha's first perception as a wonderful madonna-like lady.

Later, in Berlin, where "the horns echoed with heavenly voices" ^{[7, p. 146]}, Franz, it seems, will meet him again, a "foggy passerby" (this definition will indicate his metaphysical nature), and he will show him the right house. This time, the "geography of shades" of this gentleman's face will be seen by Franz as a blotch. This image is generated by the movement of branches and foliage, but it makes you think about the skin of a predator. On the train, this character holds a pornographic magazine in his hands, in the city, creating according to the "whim of the shadows" ^{[7, p. 146]} (the word is largely consonant with the same root word "lust"), directs Franz to the house of Dreyer and Martha, whose lover he will become.

When the gentleman from the third class, along with other passengers, begins to eat, Franz has disgusting images of the past associated with cavities, entrails, food and digestion in his memory. Franz flees from his compartment, but in the second-class compartment he again encounters the image of the oral cavity: Martha "yawned, trembling with a tense tongue in the red half-darkness of her mouth and flashing her teeth" ^{[7, p. 138]}. The train in which Franz is traveling draws in the "huge iron cavity of the station" ^{[7, p. 142]}. The subway will be perceived by them as "cool bowels" ^{[7, p. 167]}. Upon arrival, Franz will note that in Berlin "a narrow, yellow sunset smoldered under an aspen cloud" ^{[7, p. 141]}. The definition of "asp" refers here, of course, not only to the color, but also to the snake as a symbol of the devil. In other words, the "devil's mouth", from which the hero of the mystery passes into the "jubilant paradise", did not let Franz go anywhere.

Franz is a "wax actor" who finds himself near Martha in the space of death: he is a "dead man with glasses", he sleeps with his "dead leg outstretched" ^{[7, p. 140]}. In the store he is like a "cheerful doll", at night he is like a "dead doll" ^{[7, p. 230]}. Martha kills everything and everyone. Her servants "sleep like the dead" ^{[7, p. 233]}, her and Frantsev's thought revolves around a "dead point" ^{[7, p. 248]}, finally, she wants to turn Dreyer into a dead man, as soon as possible to walk with him the road from the dead to the dead husband ^{[7, p. 258]}. Marta is not a Madonna, as Franz sees it, not the Beautiful Lady of Blok's first volume, but a demonic being of volume two. It draws him not to the third circle of heaven, but to the second, and then to the seventh circle of hell — to the voluptuaries, and after that to those who commit violence against their neighbor.

D. Z. Jozha also draws attention to Franz's regular trips by metro. Franz goes to work and mechanically repeats the advertising verses "Brush your teeth with our paste, you will smile often" ^{[7, p. 260]}. In the English version, they sound like this: "Clean your teach with Dentophile, every minute you will smile" ^{[11, p. 121]} — and the name of the great Italian writer is heard in the name of the toothpaste "Dantofile". And behind these words, for Franz, there was "a black darkness, a darkness that should not have been delved into" ^{[7, p. 261]}, and nightmares. It can be added that the pun "Dentophile", "lover of Dante", hides not only a hint of the reality of the "Divine Comedy", but also an indication of one of the objects of Franzevsky's fear — Martha. In the novel, Nabokov often focuses on her teeth: She's baring her teeth, chattering her teeth, feeling the filling. For Franz, her mouth is the image of the devil's mouth from the finale of "Hell".

Franz, who came to Berlin, broke his glasses and therefore perceives the city in a distorted way. Berlin and all its inhabitants are ghostly: "People glided down the street like jellyfish, among the suddenly frozen car jelly" ^{[7, p. 145]}, "the ghost of a dog appeared from somewhere" ^{[7, p. 149]}, "predatory ghosts of cars" ^{[7, p. 144]}. The real world turns into an otherworld, where Franz finds himself "outside himself", in "restless nothingness" ^{[7, p. 137]}. He feels the layered and dreamlike nature of reality, loses the boundary between reality and sleep: "who knows if this is reality, the final reality, or just a new deceptive layer?" ^{[7, p. 143]}. In the end, it is not only the failure of old Menetekelfares' mind that can be mistaken for his idea that Franz is a figment of his imagination: it can be assumed that what is happening to Franz, his waking and his dreams, are also inside Menetekelfares' dream. In turn, this loss of the boundary between reality and sleep makes one think about Franz's stay in a state of death or transition to it.

Martha gets sick. The doctor talks about "pneumonia cruposa", D. Z. Jozha suggests that we may be talking about puerperal fever. Symbolically, the sufferings of Martha and Franz at the Kurzala resort are reminiscent of the third and seventh circles of Dante's hell. Martha is spinning in music and dance, feeling the heat and experiencing ripples of pain in her body. Franz feels that he is being "tortured in a sophisticated, ugly way, turned inside out, and there is no end, no end..." ^{[7, p. 291]}, feels mortally tired, and later Martha literally goes to death. In response to a phrase of politeness from one of the guests, Franz inadvertently replies that he "rowed a lot. Rowing is very useful" ^{[7, p. 292]}. And this answer hints not only at the attempted murder on the lake, but also about the boiling Phlegethon on which Dante's sinners float.

Heaven and hell in "King, Queen, Jack" are relative concepts. The same space, time, and situations are perceived differently by different characters: a person defines reality. So, throughout the novel, Dreyer casts a shining reflection on reality, perceives the world as a miracle, as a paradise. The letter combination "paradise" is even present in his surname. Dreyer is in the compartment reading Gogol's "sunlit pages" ^{[7, p. 137]}. When he called Franz about the job, in in the room, "a telephone structure played on the wall with heavenly brilliance" ^{[7, p. 169]}. Dreyer perceives weekends and resort time through an optimistic prism: "paradise day" ^{[7, p. 251]}, "paradise weather" ^{[7, p. 292]}. At the same time, the same thing looks completely different for Franz and Martha. Martha's illness is a shock to Dreyer. His paradise also turns into hell. When he returns to the resort, having learned about Martha's dangerous condition, part of the landscape for him "goes to hell" ^{[7, p. 298]} (this phraseology directly refers to the ancient hell — Tartarus). However, unlike Franz, Dreyer does not confuse heaven and hell: his hell is the result of sincere suffering from the death of his beloved wife.

Martha's death is a disaster for Dreyer, and liberation for Franz. Dreyer, reflecting Martha's last smile on his face, is sad about the beauty that has gone, while Franz bursts into laughter at the same time. But the last sentence of the novel seems to be a fixation not so much of a psychological release, but of something like an obsession, rhyming with Martha's laughter in a dream-delirium in which she kills Dreyer.: "It seemed to the young lady in the next room, half asleep, that nearby, behind the wall, several tipsy people were laughing and talking, all at once" ^{[7, p. 305]}. Two additions that break up the sentence create the effect of a choking rhythm.

In the novel "King, queen, Jack" you can see several plot structures, one of them is the plot of the journey. The main character, a young provincial, arrives in the capital and, walking along it and moving in the subway, explores a new big city for him. Franz's journey through Berlin is a set of mistakes, twirls ^{[2, p. 48]} and dead ends. But his main journey, which is similar in nature to the real one, is a metaphysical journey. Its prototype is Franz's transition from a third-class carriage to a second-class carriage on a train, which Nabokov commented on as a transition from hell to heaven.

But, as in the case of traveling through the real space of the city, the main character makes multiple mistakes. Instead of a paradisiacal reality, referring to Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy", Franz finds himself in a hellish reality. His "madonna-like" lover turns into an evil witch, dragging him into preparing for murder and depriving him of his freedom. His dreams of a career rest on the image of a dreary life with an aging woman. Franz, like Martha, instead of the "abode of lovers" find themselves in the second circle of hell and in the "fiery river" of mental and bodily obscuration.

The reality of the "King, ladies, Jack" is not only the world of the card game of flat characters who made up a love triangle, but also a dreamlike nightmare world in which the characters, disproportionate to the great spiritual journey, are unable to find a real paradise or fully realize the true hell: Franz does not feel guilty because he did not penetrate thethe present in the concept of sin. (Dreyer in the English version says of Martha that she "does not even know the very word "adultery"" ^{[11, p. 175]}).

The life path of the main character, covered by Nabokov's novel, can be characterized as a circular blind ^{[10, p. 635]}, uncreative ^{[1, p. 333]} journey from the hell of rejection of people to the hell of torment from adultery and possible murder that binds him. Although in the Lectures on Russian Literature, criticizing the philosophy and artistic practice of F. M. Dostoevsky, Nabokov denies the idea that "crime brings the criminal to a mental hell, the inevitable lot of all villains" ^{[6, p. 185]}, however, this is exactly what happens to the heroes — the transformation of life into hell"The king, the ladies, the jack."