As in "Signs and Symbols", we have three main
characters, all of them emigrés. The story takes place in their
humble lodgings. In S&S we follow the steps of an old
couple who live from the generosity of a rich relative and, perhaps,
also from social welfare. In Natasha there are two pairings: a
young girl and her father, the young girl and her prospective boyfriend, but the
setting is similar: events happen in two places: inside a room and
during an outing.
Baron Wolfe (a now useless title, even outside
America where Uncle Isaac is nicknamed "The Prince" by the old couple)
"is penniless, stuck in the most miserable of European
cities, sitting in an office day in, day out, like some idler, munching on bread
and sausage at night in a truckers' dive." skips a day from office
to go a-courting Natasha. She lets the landlady take care of her ailing
father and, even before that, she mentions that "They've just bathed him." (They?)
All three appear to be excluded from
any significant participation in their immediate social environment ( like
the old couple in S&S) and to be mostly dependent on the good-will
of strangers and fellow emigrés.
The young couple seems to be blithely unaware of
any discomfort and tragedy, but they suffer nightmares or melancholy
intimations. The Baron buys a paper bag of
plums which turn out to be sour; he and Natasha lie to each other and to
themselves even while they pretend to be sincere about
either hallucinations or marvellous make-believe; we hear
about an "orange-hued wind music"
and "cloudlets of exclamations" while "sadness flew by like a melodious beetle".
The autumnal gold is almost subdued, although
often mentioned. Indeed, the narrator
takes his time to apply colour to the palette. It is autumn and wet, "the black torrents of the streets, the mobile, shiny cupolas of
umbrellas, the blaze of shopwindows trickling down onto the asphalt. Along with
the rain the night began to flow" or, as we find later, the "street lamps were coming alight like precious stones".
Shimmering lights, no detailed red, blue or greenish reflections on
the wet pavement - as we see in "Pale Fire". Colors begin with a flat "yellow,
sticky hand", "his eyelids were bluish, like a frog's
webbing" and "Graying bristles".
In the Baron's fantastic story there are "orange fruit like rubber balls" ( a rubber ball is
present in "The Gift" & in "Gods") and he turns pink when he sees
Natasha. The thermometer shows mercury
rising on its "little red ladder".
Colors begin to be more nuanced after part IV (
emerald, dark blue, turquoise heights, faded blue garments,
gold-hued tops, dark-turquoise water, apple-green meadow, water gleams like
liquid gold) but not much is detailed besides this eery "Rembrandt"
luminosity.