NPPF - preliminary

[Paul Mackin]

David Morris wrote:

>--- Jasper Fidget <jasper at hatguild.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>There is reason to believe Hazel suffers from some sort of mental illness:
>>    
>>
>the Shades believed their daughter's poltergeist incident was "an outward
>extension or expulsion of insanity," but never had it diagnosed because they
>disliked "modern voodoo-psychiatry" (p. 166).  (Granted this comes from
>Kinbote....)
>
>Right.  It's not mentioned by Shade, but this might be the underlying reason. 
>I'll have to read that part again.
>
>DM
>  
>

I hate having such a key event in  the novel driven by insanity. 
Clinical depression doesn't sit well with me either. Nabokov is better 
than that. Some more rational course of events is needed.

A secondary reason for giving mental illness short shrift is that there 
were at the time psycho-tropic and anti-psychotic drugs in wide use.  
Shade wouldn't have left his daughter untreated. He is on record as 
hating Freud so he might have distrusted  psychotherapy.  However 
nowhere is is said he had anything against chemistry.

I think genuine unhappiness  on Hazel's part compounded by awareness of 
her parents unhappiness with her  is the a major motivation for her act.

She chose death as the better alternative to life.  With what she had 
going against her I don't find this hard to imagine.

P.

  

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