25 pages • 50 minutes read
Alexander PushkinThe Queen Of Spades
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1834A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Cards and Games
Cards and card games are important symbols in “The Queen of Spades.” The characters play cards as a pastime, gambling large sums of money. The characters favor the game faro, which involves gambling on cards as they appear on the table. The game involves chance rather than skill. Thus, the card game symbolizes fate. As each card is drawn, the characters’ fates are in the balance. By gambling on the outcome of the hand, the players are performing a symbolic gesture, gambling on fate itself as they have no agency over the cards nor any way of knowing what will come next. Each bet is a symbolic acceptance of the power of fate.
The card game’s symbolic meaning is reinforced when Hermann learns about the countess’s trick. Hermann avoids gambling because he knows that he enjoys it too much. He favors a slow and careful approach to accumulating wealth rather than giving himself to the luck of the cards. Hermann’s refusal to play is a demonstration of the unpredictable nature of fate. The countess’s trick, however, promises him the ability to control his fate. He will be the master of his fate as he will no longer be dependent on the chaotic nature of the game. He will be able to predict the future and avoid the pitfalls of gambling. The trick provides symbolic control over the chaotic, unknowable cards. The ability to cheat the card game with a supernatural trick illustrates Hermann’s desire to gain control of his fate through any means.
Ultimately, Hermann cannot help but overuse the trick even though he is warned not to do so. When the final card is overturned, the Queen of Spades, Hermann is convinced that it takes on the countess’s appearance and winks at him. This final mockery also has symbolic value. After his attempts to take control of his destiny, the winking, mocking card represents the impossibility of cheating fate. Should anyone try to cheat fate, the card warns, they will be beaten and mocked, just like Hermann. The titular Queen of Spades is a reminder of the power of fate and the powerlessness of people who try to control their destiny.
Hermann’s Gun
After learning about the countess’s card trick and petitioning Lizaveta to allow him into the house, Hermann waits for the countess to return. He plans to ask her to tell him the trick, but he takes a gun with him in case he needs to threaten her. Hermann’s gun symbolizes his desperation. He is willing to take a deadly weapon into an old woman’s home to learn a card trick that may not even exist. After years of saving and enviously watching his friends gamble their money away, Hermann can no longer tolerate his existence. His gun shows the lengths to which he will go to change his life and become as rich and as powerful as he has always wanted to be.
Hermann taking the gun hints at the careful planning that might be expected of an army engineer. His desperation is demonstrated when, after failing to extract the information about the trick, Hermann draws his pistol and points it at the countess. He tells her that he will force her to answer his questions. The threat with the gun shows the extent to which Hermann’s desire has intensified. However, he knows that the gun is not loaded. While Hermann might decry the “childish game” of the countess (24), he is playing a game himself. The empty pistol symbolizes Hermann’s empty threat. He never intended to kill the countess.
Unfortunately for Hermann, the shock of seeing the pistol scares the countess to death. The pistol becomes a symbolic bet that Hermann loses. As he knows, he is a gambler by nature. While he at first refuses to bet on cards, he is willing to gamble with the old woman’s life. He loses in a spectacular fashion, not only killing the countess when he did not mean to but also losing access to her trick. By the end of the evening, the meaning of the pistol has completely changed. Whereas once it symbolized Herman’s desperation, it ultimately represents Hermann’s inability to control his fate. After the countess’s death, he puts the pistol away and never thinks about it again.
Wealth and Money
For the aristocrats of “The Queen of Spades,” money is an abstraction that they rarely think about in practical terms. Characters like Tomsky have grown up rich and think nothing about losing a fortune at the card table. The trappings of wealth insulate and alienate them from the world. The way they view money–as a plaything–shows the disconnection between the rich and poor.
Hermann is not like his friends and his colleagues. Though he joins them at parties, he does not gamble. He knows the value of money. His untouched inheritance is a symbol of his desire to raise himself through hard work and saving. Hermann cannot afford to think of money in symbolic terms. To him, every expense and cost is important enough to carefully monitor. The difference in attitude between Hermann and his colleagues with regard to money shows the vast gulf between the rich and those who aspire to be rich.
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By Alexander Pushkin
