SOURCE: "Pushkin's 'Queen of Spades': A Displaced Mother Figure," in American Imago, Vol. 41, No. 2, Summer, 1984, pp. 201-09.

In the following essay, Barker argues that Hermann's actions in The Queen of Spades are the result of an unresolved Oedipal fixation.

Alexander Pushkin's story The Queen of Spades, written in 1833, deals with a young officer named Hermann, who is obsessed with obtaining the secret of three cards which will bring him fabulous wealth. Hermann's single-mindedness in extracting the secret from a rich old countess leads him to court her ward, Lizaveta Ivanovna. As the young officer stands in the countess' boudoir one night demanding the secret of the three cards from the 87-year-old woman, she suddenly dies of fright. Several days later, the ghost of the countess appears to Hermann in a dream and discloses the secret on condition that he play not more than one card in twenty-four hours...