Relationships Between Humbert And Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita and Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho both show the stories of seemingly regular men based off of how they interact with people in their lives while in public view. The main characters from each novel are not normal functioning men of society. Humbert Humbert from Nabokov’s Lolita is a middle aged man who has an obsession with young girls around the age of twelve. Patrick Bateman from Ellis’s American Psycho is an incredibly narcissistic, egotistic, man who is an investment banker by day and serial killer by night. Both men have had a privileged upbringing.

What is a relationship? Is it a sharing of understanding and trials with another human being, a connection between a man and a woman emotionally and sexually, or could it be, just simply, a compassion or love intertwined between two souls? These aspects of relationship and more are illustrated in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Macbeth. The way Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship changes drastically throughout the play is an example of how fragile a relationship really is. With one word or action a relationship can erode itself away. This play is a perfect example of a promising relationship that messes with a power greater than themselves and in the end falls into a hopeless swamp with no way out, nowhere to turn.

At first glance, one might find it difficult to draw comparisons between the two protagonists: James Gatsby, from The Great Gatsby, and Humbert Humbert, from Lolita. Gatsby’s is the tragic story of a self-made man who built himself an empire for a woman who would never love him. Humbert Humbert, on the other hand, is a manipulative and witty pervert who lusts after the vulgar nymphet, Lolita. Both men are extremely similar in one key aspect, however. Both Gatsby and Humbert have idealized an encounter from their youth and that idealization has become a driving obsession in each of their lives.

While many works of fiction portray love through a utopian perspective where true love is easy to achieve, the story of Cyrano follows a failed quest for intimacy, where Cyrano’s own tragic flaws stop him from achieving the romance he dreams of. It is these same tragic flaws that help to define Cyrano as a tragic hero in Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and it is these same flaws that eventually lead to Cyrano’s tragic fall. However, some of these flaws are also the admirable traits of the large-nosed hero’s character that also help to define him as hero. Due to this fact, Cyrano is able to gain respect from others, but never truly reaches his ultimate goal of having Roxane’s love. While Cyrano never truly experiences Roxane’s

Relationships are seen everywhere at all times, there are many different types of relationships. There are relationships between students and teachers, mother and father, an employee and their boss, and there are romantic relationships. All these types of relationships mentioned, plus many more, have an impact on our daily life no matter where we are. In the science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury the relationships in that society are very distinct from the ones present in today's society. Ray Bradbury creates a very interesting twist on how people's perspectives on relationships have been changing throughout the years. The lack of communication in Fahrenheit 451’s society has a negative effect on relationships because it prevents wisdom from spreading to younger people and to new generations, causes people to lose self worth, and it causes isolation to those in relationships.

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.

In the Scarlet Letter relationships are commodified based on social/religious standing. Human relationships are asserted and denied to further someone in the social and religious hierarchy. Bonds can merely be tossed aside for the benefit of a person. This is illustrated all throughout The Scarlet Letter in the relationships between the characters.

Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.

Do the relationships in ones life define the individual himself or even the fate of that individual or are the relationships a reflection of the individuals characteristics, personality and choices? In the literary masterpieces, King Lear and 1984, the character relationships are the essence of the stories themselves. In each of these pieces, both Winston, the protagonist of 1984, and the major characters in King Lear are put through a series of situations, including isolation and betrayal, in which the relationships with other characters are important to their fate. In almost every instance, the connections between each character when based on love, trust and sex lead to the downfall of one of the individuals or both. Relationships that

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,

Though often times in the world one may get caught up in the secrets and rumours about them or those around them, it is these secrets and rumours that shape a human being’s character and relationships with those around them. In the Shakespearean tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, the effects that secrets have on characters’ relationships shape the play, yet more specifically, it is the literal secrets regarding relationships that shape such relationships, which, in turn, shapes the play. Different relationships as outlined thoroughly in the play are not only a result of the secrets themselves, but the location in which these certain secrets are initially portrayed.

A relationship is usually seen between the teller of a tale and the tale that he or she decides to share. Chaucer’s pilgrim, the Merchant, uses his feelings on marriage to teach a lesson in his tale. The Wife of Bathe also relies on her life experience to tell her tale. The two relationships in the tales can then be compared.

What is a good relationship? Many people get asked this question every day and there are many different answers. Throughout history love and lust has been a very interesting topic to write about or in portraying in writings. Two stories that portray love in a different light, that are intriguing, is “The Boarding House” by James Joyce and "Women Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros. These so-called love stories’ main theme is disillusionment. “The Boarding House” and “Women Hollering Creek” both have a conflict, thematic development, and the epiphanies.

“If stories were depopulated, the plots would disappear because characters and plots are interrelated” (76). I chose to do my analysis paper over the short story Lust by Susan Minot, in this analysis I will be going over how the use of characterization in lust contributes to the message about relationships. The first-person narrator starts off by detailing her sex life likes it’s a grocery list or some kinds of list of things to do on the weekend. It just goes to show how meaningless these relationship with her sex companions mean. Although we do not know what the reader looks like we do how she thinks and feels. We can feel the narrator become more detached and emotionless towards the end of the story. Even though she is emotionally removed for the story at the end she also becomes more self-aware of what she is doing, and comes to the realization that she is looking for a relationship in all the wrong places.

The tangled web of relationships that connect each character in this story are what drive Congreve's play forward. With each past affair (or current) affair that