Rachel Sinex

pg. 185 – bruderschaft 
"Bruderschaft" refers to a close and intimate friendship, or more often a drink used to seal friendship between men. This also marks a language shift from the second-person pronoun "sie" to the familiar "du" pronoun used for close friends. In Invitation to a Beheading, M'sieure Pierre requests of Cincinnatus that they have a bruderschaft during the dinner party they attend before his scheduled beheading. M'sieure Pierre says that "this is the way it is done always, always..." (Nabokov 185). The significance of this moment is to both underscore the odd relationship between Cincinnatus and Pierre as well as to introduce Cincinnatus' newfound agency in that he does not willingly appease Pierre's request. 

pg. 186 – Dr. Sineokov 
Dr. Sineokov is a minor character in Invitation to a Beheading who is briefly mentioned for the second time in this chapter. Earlier, on page 27, Dr. Sineokov is introduced as a doctor who had drowned in a city river, where a Floating Library now exists. On this page, we find out that one of Marthe's brothers was the son of Dr. Sineokov. 

pg. 188 – Nikita Lukich
Nikita Lukich is the engineer that appears in the seventeenth chapter of Invitation to a Beheading. He is of significance because he is the designer of the light show that was displayed during the dinner party. This light show was a sort of surprise in honor of Cincinnatus and Pierre before the execution. In their honor, Lukich created a light show in the hills which displayed the monograms of the letters "P" and "C"; however, the narrator notes that this display "did not quite come off" (Nobokov 189). This scene is significant in that it is another sort of stage act in the novel as well as an illusion to the connection between Pierre and Cincinnatus. In the original Russian translation, the Russian letters for "P" and "C" are close mirrors of each other, with the C having a slight protrusion. This is meaningful because it both highlights how Cincinnatus does not quite fit in, as the letter for his name is not quite perfect in this circumstance, as well as how the fates of Pierre and Cincinnatus are connected. 

pg. 195 – Thriller Square 
Thriller Square is the setting in Invitation to a Beheading where Cinncinnatus is meant to be executed. While the execution was intended to take place the day after the dinner party, because of Pierre's possible lack of sleep it was slightly delayed. Cincinnatus later refers to this delay as another deception, which adds to the play-like theatrics of the novel. On the  intended day of the execution, it is mentioned that Thriller Square was packed with an audience who came to see the beheading. Cincinnatus' actual time of execution is a bit of a surprise, but people still rush to Thriller Square to witness the event when they hear word of it. The location's name, Thriller Square, adds to the importance of the execution, in that when the whole scene begins to fall apart, the reader learns that everything was a stage, which again adds to the absurd theatrical nature of the novel.