The novel Lolita, written by Vladimir Nabakov, contains perhaps the utmost example of the unreliable narrator. Many readers have questions Nabakov’s character after reading this story. As Humbert claims in the story that he toyed with the doctors and nurses when he was institutionalized, he toys with us, the readers, and makes very convincing arguments for our sympathies. His nature is very controlling, mocking and delusional as it appears through his lyrical narration. While he does this, many readers who dive into the life of Humbert Humbert see him as an honest narrator who never denies his inexcusable actions. Throughout the novel, two main aspects of Humbert’s unreliability are very prevalent throughout the read: Humbert’s insanity and his use of language. Analyzing what an unreliable narrator does to a novel is an important theme to consider as well. With that being said, highlighting the evidence throughout Lolita is very crucial for readers to analyze and understand. …show more content…
Throughout Lolita, Humbert is always trying to gain reader sympathy. His motivation being a slight sense of guilt for using Lolita that escalates during the course of the novel. Humbert wants to avoid taking responsibility for his action in its entirety. More precisely Humbert’s eventual murder of Clair Quilty and robbing Lolita of her childhood. As an unreliable narrator Humbert employs several different methods in attempting to affect the reader. Exaggerating his insanity in numerous occasions, and using language to affect the reader’s point of view just reinforce Humbert’s complete unreliability. In Humbert’s language, introducing the concepts of the nymphet and the enchanted hunter are his attempt to blind the reader by glorying himself along with his deep attraction to young girls. Labeling Lolita as a nymphet allows Humbert to take advantage of her without feeling a large sum of
Tommy Mendel is an inarticulate character built purely on deception and Park positions the readers to feel anger and resentment towards him for his duplicity. He sees Roie as nothing more than an opportunity to fulfil his wish to boast to his friends as he is no longer a virgin and he wants an “experience” (pg. 50) from her. It becomes evident that he is not humanely considerate of her and merely uses her desire to be loved against her through deception. The readers are positioned to feel an immense hatred towards Tommy’s actions. He ‘guilts’ Roie into having sex with him even though he is aware that he is not in love with her but his selfishness motivates him and guides his actions. When he leaves Roie he does not “feel any desire for her” pg (104) and tells her that he would not be around as often. The readers feel a mix of outrage and disgust that he took advantage of Roie and her nativity, positioned to dislike him and his scheming nature through his lies and dishonesty which upset the lives of others.
Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.
Furthermore, as Lolita can be considered an open text and this paper is concerned with bringing female perspectives to the forefront of the novel, it is reasonable to apply traditional feminist theory to the text to examine Humbert’s marginalisation of women. In particular, this reading will be formulated through applying the work of second-wave feminist Kate Millett, which focuses on exposing the reprehensibility of patriarchal oppression. To begin, Nabokov consistently constructs Humbert to display misogynistic views. To illustrate this, in the scene where Humbert recalls his sexual excitement when Dolores laid across his lap, he fantasizes about being ‘a radiant and robust Turk…enjoying the youngest and frailest of his slaves.’ Due to the reader’s knowledge of Humbert’s affinity for ‘nymphets,’ whom he defines as girls between the age of nine and fourteen, it can be deduced that these ‘slaves’ are female. The word ‘frail’ holds connotations of debility, fragility and vulnerability. Through these negative associations, Nabokov has positioned readers to understand that Humbert views women as inferior to men. This holds relevance to Millett’s theory of female inferiority, through which she explains that ‘the female’s inferior status’ is ‘ascribed to her physical weakness or intellectual inferiority.’ Millett published her work in 1969 during the second wave feminist movement, whereby women demanded equality and challenged patriarchal ideologies regarding sexuality,
The two passages, written by Humbert Humbert, describes two of his ‘nymphet’ loves. In the passage, both Annabelle and Lolita gets introduced. Read the passages carefully. Then, write an essay that compares H.H.’s perspective of the two characters to show his feelings on both of them.
Moreover, in his narrative, this contact has left a long-lasting imprint on his memory as “[he] still squirm[s] and emit[s] low moans of remembered embarrassment (59). H.H. gets pleasure from the innocent scenes between himself and Lolita. These moments are also normalized to be what Lolita eventually thinks is perfectly acceptable. As a young and impressionable young girl, Lolita’s act of sitting on H.H.’s lap is an opportunity that he cannot miss to skew her perception of
Furthermore, Humbert further provides a dishonest narrative through his creation of a ‘grotesque theatrical character’ (Courtier 1996), in order to disassociate himself from the monster he truly is. This is aided by how Nabokov uses a diary-like structure to allow Humbert to experiment with his own format, for example ‘Main character: Humbert the Hummer. Time: Sunday morning in June. Place: sunlit living room.’ (Nabokov 1955) which resembles a script that Humbert himself has created when in reality he is reciting yet another lust-filled encounter with Lolita. Throughout this passage, and the novel, Nabokov switches from third person to first person narrative which further illustrates Humbert’s confusion over his desires, and how he
The relationship between Humbert Humbert and Lolita is no doubt a unique one. Many people who read the novel argue that it is based on "lust", but others say that Humbert really is in "love" with Lolita. However, there is some astounding evidence that Humbert has an obsessional-compulsive disorder with Lolita. The obsession is clearly illustrated when Humbert's actions and behavior are compared to the experts' definitions and descriptions of obsession. In many passages, Humbert displays obsessional tendencies through his descriptive word choice and his controlling personality. Many people are obsessive, so this is not an alien subject. We see it everyday in the entertainment industry as well as in
He uses Lolita’s childlike innocence in an attempt to regain some childhood that he never had, yet him trying to to gain this childhood from Lolita only destroys the childhood that she has, and forces her to grow up as he once did. Humbert’s perverse desires to claim Lolita’s childhood destroy any chance that he has to gain one and Lolita’s childhood. When Humbert goes after Lolita he wants to do everything with her remaining oblivious to his acts. yet that is almost impossible, and the more he pursued, the more she reciprocated his advances. Humbert will never be satisfied in his relationship for Lolita because she can not stay the innocent girl that he has created in his head. Every time Humbert comes into contact with her, the more she is forced to grow out of her innocence and the less appealing she becomes to Humbert. However Humbert refuses to accept that the Lolita he has concocted is not real. He goes after Lolita with an obsessive nature. His need to recreate his past love drives him. Yet this insatiable need for a pure innocent child is impossible for him to ever
Psychoanalysis is the subdivision of psychology that concentrates on treating mental disorders by identifying the relations between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. It is said that often the unconscious mind prods people to make decisions even if they don’t’ distinguish it on a conscious level. The psychoanalytical theory, introduced in the 19th century by Sigmund Freud, highlights on the idea that experiences that occur during one’s childhood can contribute to the way people will function later in adulthood. In this paper, I will analyze Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov through psychoanalysis and provide reasoning behind the characters actions in this controversial novel.
Through the decades, many novels that were banned are now an immense controversial topic, from Harry Potter novels to The Great Gatsby. If read carefully, those novels have many themes and ideas that have made a huge impact on the newer generations. The book, Lolita, was banned shortly after it was published. Lolita has value to young readers because we need to learn how to be open minded about topics. One can see why it is very controversial. The main character’s words sometimes seem magical and can convince some readers that his actions are okay. In a way, he persuades us to see that his obsessive tactics are at least not so severe ( why ‘lolita’). But before I get ahead of myself, let us look back at the history.
Lolita, the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, tells the story of Humbert Humbert, who is a perfect example of a pedophile. Although the character Humbert Humbert describes his feelings toward the twelve year old Lolita as love, in actuality, it is obsessive lust. Nabokov does an excellent job displaying the characteristics of pedophilia through this character. Reading Lolita makes us conscious of the need to be more aware that pedophilia is alive and well in our society today. In developing this point, I will examine pedophilia and its clinical characteristics as they relate to Humbert Humbert and our society.
So far, so good. Having had intercourse with Lolita earlier that morning Humbert, not surprisingly, sees her as his victim, sees both her childlike innocence and the signs of his own brutal assault on that innocence. But at the end of the passage, Humbert's understanding of Lolita and her "lost innocence" changes radically as he proclaims her to
The relationship between Annabel and Humbert is one marked with sexual restraint. Humbert describes an important sexual encounter, when they escaped to a mimosa grove while their chaperones play bridge, in great depth and it is this encounter that haunts Humbert for the rest of his life. Shortly after this moment, Annabel is called away by her mother and Humbert never gets to reach his sexual climax. He also never sees Annabel again because she dies of typhus four months later. Because of her death, Annabel is kept sacred and perfect in Humbert’s memory. The unsuccessful first tryst plagues the rest of Humbert’s relationships with women. Ellen Pifer reiterates this in her book, Demon and Doll, saying that “It is Humbert’s longing for the unattainable, for ideal perfection – what he calls the ‘rosegray never-to-be-had’ – that fires his imagination and fuels his desire for nymphet beauty” (68). This unattainable perfection which Pifer speaks of appears to be the ever-young Annabel.
From the first, he juxtaposes the ordinary with the sexual in his descriptive odes to love as well as simple statement reflecting her youth. The juxtaposition of youth and sexual desire is the driving force behind the novel and the controversy. The wording, however, is a mixture of romantic lyricism and obscene allusion. The tension is derived through the sensuous beauty of the words rather than the image of the young girl, just “four feet ten”. “The tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps” refers to Humbert’s tongue and the palate he wishes to “tap at three on the teeth” is Lolita’s. Evidently, Humbert’s clever choice of words masks the interdict aspect of his sexual desires for Lolita. Poetic lines such as “light of my life, fire of my loins” become fundamental in understanding the contextual allusion from immorality in Humbert’s deviant sexual desires and behavior.
The film does seem to grasp most concepts that the book portrayed. The film also does a good job on the timeline of everything. What I mean by that is that the film seemed to follow the order of events pretty much “to the t.” I like how Kubrick had Lolita quote the book exactly when she was talking to Humbert one morning, “Don’t tell Mother but I’ve eaten all your bacon.” (Nabokov 32). Overall in the scheme of things that line doesn’t mean anything and did not need to be in the movie, but I feel Kubrick did that because he wanted to be as true to the storyline of the book as possible. Nabokov’s novel is about a middle aged man who has an attraction to a prepubescent girl Delores Haze. Humbert uses the name Lolita as a term of endearment that he uses. Humbert tells his story of how Lolita is the love of his life and the film follows this concept very well. Kubrick shows how when he was just a little boy how his first love died, who was 11 years old. “Since then Humbert has not been able to emotionally move past that tragic loss” (Study Guides and Book Summaries). Just as in the book, the film showed how Humbert was attracted to Lolita. Humbert was actually not even interested in renting the room until he saw Lolita. Humbert explains, “Let’s get out of here at once, I firmly said to myself...” (Nabokov 25) that is until he actually saw Lolita then he changed his mind. Humbert Humbert went as far as to marry Lolita’s mother, that way he could be closer to Lolita, “There may have been times—there must have been times, if I know my Humbert — when I