Pale Fire

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss suicide and mental health conditions.

Kinbote is obsessed with himself, and his egotism is the most pronounced of his many flaws. The irony of Kinbote’s self-obsession is that Kinbote is likely an assumed identity. His frequent digressions into the story of the exiled King Charles are not caused by Kinbote’s obsession with the history of his homeland, Zembla. Instead, his notes suggest that he is King Charles in disguise, which is why they share so many common interests and flaws. Like Kinbote, King Charles is self-obsessed. In Zembla, his self-obsession is fueled by his status—a literal king, a man elevated above his subjects due to the circumstances of his birth. He has spent his life coddled and flattered by people who assure him that his status is wholly deserved. In this context, the Zemblan revolution can be seen as an attack on the ego of King Charles the Beloved. Kinbote, the exiled king, is offended by the revolution on a psychological level. The peasants and workers who have displaced him are, he tells himself, deluded fools who do not understand that he was born to rule.