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THOUGHTS: Death & Afterlife in "Visit to the Museum"
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Dear List,
As I was rereading “A Visit to the Museum” in preparation for class last week, I suddenly realized that the narrator dies quite early in the story. Somehow this notion had escaped me in previous readings, and I can’t seem to find any criticism (online or in print) to back me up. Here is the critical passage, which occurs as the narrator leaves the museum to go visit the museum director:
“Once again the cathedral began playing hide-and-seek with me, but I outwitted it. Barely escaping the onrushing tires of a furious red bus packed with singing youths, I crossed the asphalt thoroughfare and a minute later was ringing at the garden gate of M. Godard” (279-80).
It is at this point in the story that all kinds of otherworldly events begin to occur, precisely because the narrator has passed into another world after being struck and killed by that red bus. A few points:
1) “Details of a Sunset” contains a very similar event. The main character, Mark, jumps from a streetcar and seems struck by “a roaring mass.” He then witnesses himself “walking diagonally across the street as if nothing had happened.” He then remarks, “That was stupid. Almost got run over by a bus….” The truth, of course, is that he WAS run over by a bus. “A Matter of Chance” has a similar crossing image at the end, as Luzhin, having decided to kill himself, is about to be struck by a train: “He walked diagonally to the next track, with a calm, relaxed gait, as if taking a stroll” (59). We don’t get the diagonal crossing (a bend sinister?) in VttM but I believe the crossing of the street here has the same function as in the previous stories—a crossing over into the afterlife.
2) After the narrator crosses the street, he finds himself at a garden gate. In the afterlife, one goes to the pearly gates. This connection is confirmed by the man inside, M. GODard (though he turns out to be more of a demon).
3) Inside the museum, the narrator finds a bright parlor, "but not a living soul, not a living soul..."
4) The supernatural nature of the museum is more easily understood when seen as taking place in a realm uninhibited by natural law.
Even with this solution, the story seems flawed to me (what part of the afterlife is the speaker speaking from?) but it would provide us with the first (I think) instance of a Nabokovian first-person narrator speaking from beyond the veil. Again, if anyone can point me to others who have taken this view, I would be grateful.
Best,
Matt Roth
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As I was rereading “A Visit to the Museum” in preparation for class last week, I suddenly realized that the narrator dies quite early in the story. Somehow this notion had escaped me in previous readings, and I can’t seem to find any criticism (online or in print) to back me up. Here is the critical passage, which occurs as the narrator leaves the museum to go visit the museum director:
“Once again the cathedral began playing hide-and-seek with me, but I outwitted it. Barely escaping the onrushing tires of a furious red bus packed with singing youths, I crossed the asphalt thoroughfare and a minute later was ringing at the garden gate of M. Godard” (279-80).
It is at this point in the story that all kinds of otherworldly events begin to occur, precisely because the narrator has passed into another world after being struck and killed by that red bus. A few points:
1) “Details of a Sunset” contains a very similar event. The main character, Mark, jumps from a streetcar and seems struck by “a roaring mass.” He then witnesses himself “walking diagonally across the street as if nothing had happened.” He then remarks, “That was stupid. Almost got run over by a bus….” The truth, of course, is that he WAS run over by a bus. “A Matter of Chance” has a similar crossing image at the end, as Luzhin, having decided to kill himself, is about to be struck by a train: “He walked diagonally to the next track, with a calm, relaxed gait, as if taking a stroll” (59). We don’t get the diagonal crossing (a bend sinister?) in VttM but I believe the crossing of the street here has the same function as in the previous stories—a crossing over into the afterlife.
2) After the narrator crosses the street, he finds himself at a garden gate. In the afterlife, one goes to the pearly gates. This connection is confirmed by the man inside, M. GODard (though he turns out to be more of a demon).
3) Inside the museum, the narrator finds a bright parlor, "but not a living soul, not a living soul..."
4) The supernatural nature of the museum is more easily understood when seen as taking place in a realm uninhibited by natural law.
Even with this solution, the story seems flawed to me (what part of the afterlife is the speaker speaking from?) but it would provide us with the first (I think) instance of a Nabokovian first-person narrator speaking from beyond the veil. Again, if anyone can point me to others who have taken this view, I would be grateful.
Best,
Matt Roth
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/