FULL NAME : OUAFAE ELMIR
An Analytical E ssay about the Paradox, Ambiguity
and Ambivalence in Vladimir Nabokovs Terror
From the very beginning , the title Terror somehow suggests fear and struggle that
might be elaborated in the story, and as we continue to dive into the text we find out that
this terror is deeply embedded in the main characters mind and soul , a feeling of terror ,
that is c onveyed through the narrators words and w hich the story can not find the exact
words to fully explain .
Instead, the narrator resorts to comparisons such as comparing
himself to an unrecognizable friend or to a man who is having a heart attack or
comparing the thought of death to the screams of people or even his brain to a house.
So, this is all to express his mixed and contradictory emotions from which the storys
theme and a range of ambiguous, paradoxical as well as ambivalent meanings can be
extracted and studied.
Throughout the story , the narrator or main character continuously reveals his feelings of
terror and how they are induced by his attempts to identify not only his unrecognized
self but also others and everything surrounding him and also by his attempts que stion
the existence and morality from which we can conclude that the main theme of the story
is the theme of terror. This theme is mentioned from the beginning as the narrator states
that he sometimes gets this feeling of terror inside of him, a feeling that comes to him
particularly in the middle of the night , as he becomes disacquainted with himself after
long hours of work, when he would examine his unrecognizable face after accidentally
glancing at his reflection on the mirror on his way to bed , he would become startled at
the sight of himself in the mirror, someone that he does not identify as himself but rather
as a stranger or as an old friend whom he has not seen in years . So, the fact that he
sometimes feels stranger to himself and some other times easily recognizes his identity
and also is aware of the terror he regularly experiences, demonstrates ambivalence for
these both conflicting emotions coexist together in a one mans mind and soul. Another
example of ambivalence in the story is when he recalls his contradictory feelings after
seeing the woman he loves the most at the station , he remembers the torture of their
separation as well as the happiness and easiness he once has felt with her. Again from
this, it is asserted that it is ambivalent for the person who has made him feel happy has
made him unhappy as well. Also, the same th ing goes for the terror he feels after
analysing her face features while she is darning a pair of stockings but also the easiness
that comes over him as she rises her head and smiles at him which explains how she
makes him terrified but also at ease. Moreover, the fact that a pleasant dream of this
woman laughing becomes so frightening in his waking state is another example that
shows ambivalent meaning . Finally, the last example of ambivalence is that he himself
is ambivalent as he sometimes is in terror and some other times is relaxed and no longer
terrified. Most of these of feelings of terror are usually hard to be described. So, to
explain them more, the main character compares his terror when lying supine at night
thinking about death to the screams of the theaters audience when the lights go off ,
because the terror he feels is not only induced by the disability to recognize himself or
others but also by the thoughts of death that haunt him at night which might give another
major theme of life and death. In addition, it seems that his explanation of terror through
this comparison is because he as sociates the screams of the audience of which his
beloved woman has been once scared with the thoughts of death for she is dead now.
So, they both scare him and remind him of death. From this, we assume that this
comparison implies ambiguity as the screams in the dark and the thoughts of death both
demonstrate feelings of terror. Another comparison that depicts ambiguity is the
comparison this main character makes to compare himsel f to a man who is having a
heart attack and whose only concern is to breathe, but for the narrator, his only concern
is not to go crazy. It has an ambiguous meaning as both men feelings express a condition
of struggle and helplessness. This concern of not ge tting mad will later subside when
his most beloved woman dies, her death would save him from insanity giving him
human emotions of grief which would stop him from being terrified by other thoughts
but only thinking of he death. But later, as time begins to pass by and memories of her
start to fade away and disappear from his mind , the narrator, again, compares this
disappearance of memories to the way lights go out one by one in the house rooms at
night as if comparing his brain to a house and his memories to the rooms which can be
seen as a form of ambiguity as well. Finally, the last and most obvious ambiguity in the
story is that of the identity of the she he always talks about. For instance, we do not
understand who this female character really is when the narrator says I had a girl , does
he mean a daughter ? Or probably a girlfriend or wife? Or when he says no wonder
lunatics don’t recognize relatives, does he again mean that she is a sister? Or perhaps
his mother?. Also, at other times, he refers to her as a mistress or maiden. Moreover, his
saying that I know that many people would not u nderstand our relationship hints at the
fact that we, as well, will not be able to understand it and that her identity is ambitious
to everybody. Going back to the main theme, terror, this state of fear in which the
narrator is living, is causing him slee pless nights and he knows that well for when the
night comes he always becomes frightened and wants to control his fear by whistling
and humming but the slightest noise behind him would make him tremble in panic. From
this, it is obvious that the night and darkness are associated with fear and terror, whereas
the day time or morning is simply the time when everything is clear and true which
shows a paradox of clarity and easiness versus vagueness and terror. Yet later, because
of having trouble sleeping at night, the main characters morning becomes also full of
dread as he tries, in vain, to recognize his surroundings while going for a strol l terrified
by the world and its absurdity and hoping to reconstruct its notion as he knows it and
to get things clearer the same way he has done many mornings before. But instead,
everything becomes more absurd and unclear leaving him as just an eye movi ng and
glancing rather than a man. So, it is paradoxical the morning which is a time of easiness
has become a time of terror similar to that of the night or in other words, the morning is
now the night. Furthermore, during his stroll, he detaches himself and his existence from
the world and its elements observing them from an outside angle and perceiving them
as just somethings without meanings, functions and relations to the human life.
Certainly, this gives the idea that he is in the wor ld but out of it for he is one of its
components but still separated from it which depicts the paradox of connectedness and
disconnectedness . Moreover, this idea draws the attention back to when this main
character or narrator endeavours to recognize the r eflection on the mirror as his own
while feeling a s another person. So, this shows that even if he is unable to mentally
recognize himself, he is still himself physically or in other words, being him and not
him at the same time which indicates a paradoxical connotation . Lastly , his continuous
questioning of existence and mortality highlight s paradox of life and death as well.
Coming to the end of the story, the terror he regularly feels, throughout the whole story,
suddenly disappear s when he hears the news about the death of the woman who means
the most to him. As a result, we notice that most of the times he is no longer in panic , is
the times when somebody or something comforts him or shakes him out of his trance.
For instance, it is at the times when he turns over in bed and think of different matters
than death, when the man at the hotel thrusts the telegram into his hands and, as already
mentioned above, the time when he receives the news about the woman’s death. In
addition, after her death he feels at risk of terror and is worried that the next time he gets
into this terror trance , he will not be rescued. This means that he finally admits that she
has been a source of only happiness and safety and not terror which clarifies that this
latter is only produced by his mind and not by an external other.
To sum up, the story conveys its meanings more explicitly through the clever use of
paradox, ambiguity and ambivalence which makes the reader more engaged with the
events and increasingly interested in what the story has yet to offer. These paradoxical,
ambiguous and ambivalent connotations that are represented in different descriptions,
co mparisons and implications, are embodied in the storys events narrated by the main
character who is experiencing a continuous terror due to his struggle to identify himself,
his surroundings and more particularly the woman, which causes him to be physical ly