Pnin: Analysis of Major Characters
"Pnin: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the intricate relationships and personalities surrounding Timofey Pavlovich Pnin, a Russian émigré navigating life at Waindell College in the 1950s. Pnin, the central character, is portrayed as a socially awkward yet intellectually capable professor struggling to adapt to American culture while grappling with painful memories from his past. His interactions reveal a contrast between his adeptness in Russian, where he thrives among fellow émigrés, and his clumsiness in English-speaking settings.
The narrator, Vladimir Nabokov, emerges as a complex figure who blurs the line between friend and manipulator, ultimately embodying the morally ambiguous artist archetype. Other significant characters include Dr. Liza Wind, Pnin's morally questionable ex-wife; Dr. Eric Wind, her inept former husband; and Victor Wind, their talented son, who symbolizes the clash between genuine creativity and modern psychological theories. Additionally, the novel features other professors like Laurence G. Clements and Jack Cockerell, who both contribute to the themes of identity and mimicry. Through these characters, the narrative explores broader themes of cultural displacement, artistic integrity, and the nuances of human relationships, inviting readers to reflect on the intersections of personal and artistic identity.
Pnin: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
First published: 1957
Genre: Novel
Locale: Waindell College, in New England, and a nearby mountain resort
Plot: Philosophical realism
Time: 1950–1955
Timofey Pavlovich Pnin (tih-moh-FAY PAV-loh-vihch pnihn), the protagonist, fifty-two years old in 1950, a Russian emigrant who teaches Russian language and literature at Waindell College. Bald and thick in the neck, he has a powerful torso but spindly legs. Because of his difficulties adjusting to American culture and the English language, Pnin often appears awkward and bungling, yet among his fellow émigrés, when speaking Russian, he is shown to be adroit and even erudite. Pnin is perpetually in search of “discreteness,” a safe haven where he can feel insulated from both the horrible memories of his past and from the people who mock him and intrude on his privacy. Most prominent among these intruders is the narrator of the book. Pnin experiences several attacks, probably heart attacks, throughout the story. At the time of these attacks, he experiences a loss of discreteness and a feeling of melting into his surroundings and approaching death.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (vlah-dih-MIH-rohvihch nah-BOH-kov), the narrator of the book, a front man for the author, who lends him his name and persona. He portrays himself as Pnin's friend but reveals, obliquely, that he has seduced Pnin's wife-to-be, Liza, and has meddled in his private life on other occasions. The action of the book shows how he pursues Pnin, attempting to capture images of him and transmogrify them in his fiction. His role in the book becomes more obvious as the story progresses, until, in the final chapter, he has become almost the central character. He arrives at Waindell College to replace Pnin as professor of Russian there and, in effect, to chase him out of the novel. Nabokov, an arrogant and heartless man who is dimly aware of his meretriciousness and dimly guilty about the way he has manipulated Pnin in his fiction, represents the morally tainted artist that figures prominently in many of the actual author's works.
Dr. Liza Wind, née Bogolepov (boh-goh-LEH-pov), Pnin's former wife, a morally bankrupt character who writes bad poetry, engages in wild Freudian psychological speculations, and frequently exchanges lovers and husbands.
Dr. Eric Wind, a onetime husband of Liza, also a psychologist, and a blockhead. The Wind couple is the focus for the author's vehement and hilarious sarcasm aimed at Freudian psychology as practiced in the 1950's.
Victor Wind, the fourteen-year-old son of Eric and Liza Wind, a young artist (painter) who demonstrates a genuine talent alien to his parents. He is used in the novel to demonstrate that individual creative genius is incompatible with the pet theories of modern psychotherapy. Victor is sort of an adopted son of Pnin.
Laurence G. Clements, the most erudite and arrogant of the Waindell professors. His most popular course is The Philosophy of Gesture. Pnin lodges for a time with Clements and his wife, Joan.
Jack Cockerell, the head of the English department. He is famous for his imitations of Pnin. By the end of the book, it is apparent that his obsession with mimicking Pnin has made him into a mirror image of the man he mocks.
Herman Hagen, the head of the German department, a patron and protector of Pnin who has to inform him that he is to be fired from Waindell.
Oleg Komarov (koh-MAH-rov), a fellow émigré but enemy of Pnin. This painter is another example of the morally tainted artist. He teaches at Waindell in the Fine Arts department.
Mira Belochkin (BEH-loch-kihn), Pnin's adolescent love. She dies during World War II in a German concentration camp. Pnin cannot bear to imagine the horrors surrounding her death.
Professor Chateau, Professor Bolotov, Varvara Bolotov, and Al Cook, all Russian emigrants, friends of Pnin.
Tristram W. Thomas and Thomas Wynn, professors of anthropology and ornithology, respectively. Pnin confuses these two men and invites one of them to his party, assuming that it is the other. This “twinning” of characters is a theme of the novel as a whole, which demonstrates that everyone is, in some way, a mirror image of everyone else.