Vladimir Nabokov short story "That in Aleppo Once..." presents a man who brings forth himself victim on his own tragic romantic misfortune. The protagonist, a writer who currently resides in New York, writes to an ambiguous yet close companion about his struggles with love, regret, and abandonment through strenuous times in Europe. The story takes form of a letter written by a Russian émigré in Central Park to his fellow countryman "V," relating the incidents of his emigration and inviting him to make a story out of it. The letter illustrates the protagonist's guilt of loving his wife, who commits adultery and latter abandons him without notice, but through the story it reveals details that show that the narrator's actions are equally detrimental to the relationship that initially prompted the first stages of separation.
             In the opening paragraphs of Nabokov's short story, it's clear that the protagonist's true passion is his younger years in Russia, where he was writing with his true friend "V." He reminisces the "days when we wrote our first udder-warm bubbling verse," but his devotion to writing is particularly evident in the preceding paragraph expressing his concern of "betraying our national literature." According to the writer, it is apparent that betrayal, or possibly abandonment from ones owns upbringing to their native language is truly a dire sin.
             Indeed, betrayal in any form is arguably regarded as one of the worst cases of crime, which could be punishable by death, as for the writer; his wife's betrayal through his struggling relationship was strictly a "fatal mistake." The title of Nabokov's story "That in Aleppo Once..." is taken from a quote from William Shakespeare's epic tragedy Othello. Othello, the protagonist, is presented as an excellent leader but a poor reasoner, who commits sui...