As I continued to read The Enchanter the faster I read it because the intenser it got and it drew me in. This novella has a great affect on a person when you read it. It really makes you think about certain things in life. The poetic aspect of the story, the diction, are some of Nabokov's high points of the novella. He uses specific word choice to bring out emotions in the reader, "He knew he would make no attempt on her virginity in the tightest and pinkest sense of the term until the evolution of their caresses had ascended a certain invisible step"(pg. 56). Using the words "tightest and pinkest" not only refers to her virginity, but he is also referencing his strictness as a father-figure, by not allowing her to have sex. He also uses specific word choice when you find out that the wife has passed away, "on the way to the station he reluctantly stopped by and learned that the person was no more"(pg. 48). By referring to her as "the person" it shows no remorse at all, and it was so subtle that the first few times I read it I had no idea that she was actually dead.
The characters in the novella are very interesting, besides the fact that they don't have names, but that they all play such a role that invoke something from the audience. The wife is a very ill woman who doesn't know that she is being played by this twisted man, but when I found out that her surgery was a success I got angry. I found myself not liking her, because Nabokov wrote it so that you kind of have to root for the bad guy. With that being said, I found myself, be it very grossed out by what the man- or enchanter- was doing and thinking, still wanting to know how it plays out. Is he going to be alone with her? Is he going to get to touch her?
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