The Use of Numbers in The Queen of Spades Essay -- The Queen of Spades

The Use of Numbers in The Queen of Spades The use of numbers, especially the third and to a lesser extent the seven, is of major importance in Alexander Pushkins The Queen of Spades. The use of three permeates the text in several ways, these being major, minor, and in reference to time. According to Alexandr Slonimsky in an essay written in 1922, A notion of the grouping of three is dominant... (429). In the major details of the story, we find three fantastic moments (Slonimsky 429), three cards, three major catastrophes, three of import characters, and the use of six chapters, six being a multiple of three. The three fantastic moments are the story of Tomsky (Chapter 1), the vision of Hermann (Chapter 5), and the miraculous win (Chapter 6) (429). These three moments relieve oneself the backbone of the story. In Tomskys story, one first reads of the three cards guaranteed to produce a winner at the game of faro. What makes this incident fantastic in copulation to the story is t he importance of the story to the events that follow when contrasted to the nonchalant attitude attributed to those in attendance. The second fantastic incident is that of the appearance of the dead Countess to Hermann. This incident is fantastic in that the three cards named by the Countess are actually the winning cards, meaning the Countess is an apparition and not simply a dream. The final fantastic incident occurs when Hermann miraculously wins at the faro table the first time. The reader now knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the three are magic cards. The particular significance of the three cards is shown in the rhythmic quality of Hermanns thoughts (Slonimsky 429). In looking at the original text, the rhythmic quality is much more appa... ...the greatest of the classical literary tradition and is also considered to be one of the triumvirate of great Russian literature. As concerns The Queen of Spades, D.S. Mirsky has this to say, The Queen of Spades is beyond a doubt Pushk ins masterpiece in prose (436). flora Cited Mirsky, D.S. Title unknown. 1926. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism Volume 3. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit Gale Research Company, 1983. Pushkin, Alexander. The Queen of Spades. 1834. Trans. Ivy and Tatiana Litvinov. Literature of the Western World, Third Edition, Volume Two. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. naked as a jaybird York Macmillin, 1992. 870-890. Slonimsky, Alexandr. Title Unknown. 1922. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism Volume Three. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit Gale Research Company, 1983.