Summary Of Vladimir Nabokov's Despair

In Despair by Vladimir Nabokov, Hermann is a man who has become obsessed with Felix due to his perceived acute sameness. Despite his life going to shambles, Herman chooses to focus his time and energy on executing his perfect plan to swap his life with that of Felix. Nabokov uses Hermann as a demonstration of how people do not fail to address their problems directly and instead choose to project themselves onto others in the hopes of escaping from their own problems. Ultimately, imitation is not the greatest form of flattery; Hermann’s obsession with seeking sameness in everything mirrors the demise of the human mind at its most extreme form.

Hermann, always being a man of survival, was never truly alive. Hermann always showed signs of incorrectly

Not only does he have gaps in memory but his perception of what is real is unquestionable as well. There is a scene where he looks at “an old woman in blue woolen trousers… remained gaping her for a long time… but at last my eyelids twitched and lo, there was no woman there” (162). The old lady dematerializes and is nowhere to be seen. Hermann subtly hints at his mental state and even has moments where he questions the accuracy of his perceptions. He even wonders if Felix was real when Hermann “found [himself] thinking that Felix could not come for the simple reason that he was a product of [his] imagination” (70). However, once Hermann read the newspaper involving the death of Felix, he realizes that his masterpiece was no more than a poorly planned out murder and Hermann is emotionally overwhelmed. Hermann began “trembling all over, strangled by rising sobs, convulsed with fury” as well as went into an anguish state where his “pride deliverance, [and] bliss” seemed to dematerialize because he wasn’t sure if his scheme would become “a sensational success or… a dismal flop” (183, 185). For a few moments before he

Hermann hints about his failing business as well as his lack of money by telling Lydia, jokingly, “my chocolate is going to the devil, old girl” as well as saying his “business had taken a sorry turn that summer… [he] was fed up with everything: that filthy chocolate of [his] was running [him]” (42,49). Also, Hermann hints on Lydia, his wife, being unfaithful. For starters, Hermann finds it so absurd that Lydia misplaces everything, like her lipstick in the pocket of her cousin Ardaloin. Lydia and Ardaloin are together all the time in peculiar circumstances such as when Lydia was “half dressed-that is, shoeless and wearing only a rumpled green slip-Lydia lay smoking” (104). Hermann fake confesses to Orlovius that his “wife has a fickle heart, and well she’s interested in somebody else” to which Orlovius replies with “certain things I have long observed… nodding his head sagely and sadly” (133). Despite Hermann making this lie up, he finds it hilarious that Orlovius not only believed him but whole-hearted believe it was true by claiming he saw this infidelity himself. The signs of Lydia’s infidelity were always in front of Hermann but he chooses to never address or even take the time to consider the