The novel Lolita exposes the pedophilia and perversion in the text; however, the child pornography invoked is very similar to the abrasive ads, commercials, and images viewed in America. It seems sanctimonious that such a controversial novel because of the pedophilia, does not take into account objectifying young girls. Integrity is not the concern in Lolita; a novel that represents the exploitation towards the young girls is. While Humbert is a perverse and gruesome man that has pedophiliac desires, Lolita’s use of language, form, and contextual writing sends a message towards the extortion of young girls. To be more specific, in the article, Lolita speaks: ‘Sexting,’ teenage girls and the law mentions how Karaian considers Lolita to symbolize
In Nabokov’s Lolita and Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs, asserted male superiority is shown persistently through the idea of manipulation. Within the texts, towering and authoritative character positioning is used to enhance the dominating masculinity of Humbert and Lector. Charlotte Haze becomes obsessed with Humbert to the point where she is “on her knees… clawing at [his] trousers”, alluding to Humbert’s symbolic, dominate masculinity, heavily contrasting to Charlotte’s inferiority as a female. Demme makes a similar point when Clarisse attempts to interview Hannibal Lecter and he immediately urges her to “sit please”, suddenly creating a disparity of power between the two as Lector now looks down on Clarisse. This is extrapolated through Demme’s use of low camera angles to enhance Lector’s dominance and high camera angles to show Clarisse’s inferiority. Through their use of dominant character positioning, both texts employ the idea that men have an initial superiority over women showcased through Humbert and Lector’s controlling actions. Furthermore, both Hannibal Lector and Humbert Humbert assert their dominance as men by manipulating women for selfish desire. After falling in love with the 12-year-old Lolita, Humbert takes advantage of her mother’s obsession with his to get closer to her daughter. By “fake acting” and “making up stories about books” Humbert creates an appealing façade to Haze, that he uses to manipulate her with his attraction, to be closer with Lolita. Similarly, Clarisse interrogates Lector to which he agrees to terms on a “quid pro quo” basis, where he would
The men who show their obsessions in Fear and Lolita do so in a more aggressive manner. Humbert, who has always had in interest in young girls, is instantly taken with Dolores, the 12 year old daughter of his landlady - “It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.” She is the whole reason for his decision to stay at the house, as he is initially put off by her mother, the domineering Charlotte. Humbert takes extreme measures by marrying Charlotte for the sole purpose of staying close to Dolores. After Charlotte’s death, Humbert takes Dolores on the road for an indefinite road trip. He is so attached to her that he becomes easily panicked when he is faced with the possibility of her leaving him. This causes him to be incredibly possessive over her, limiting her interaction with friends her own age to prevent
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
Lolita is much like her mother in her fondness for Humbert. Her admiration for him is visible throughout the book. For example, Lolita has various scribbling and doodles of the two of them together on the walls of her room and the cliched DL & HH, enclosed in a heart, carved into her headboard. She also make her adoration evident by the affection she displays. She never leaves his side when they are together and is very flirtatious with him. When Humbert picks Lolita up from Summer Camp after her mother's death, Lolita informs Humbert that she had been unfaithful to him by experimenting sexually with a boy from camp. Lolita is seemingly mature for her age, and is referred to by Humbert as a nymphet. This allegation proves true by her promiscuity at camp
Blindly driven by his lust for Lolita, he uses any set of words in order to defend his actions. For example, he claims that Lolita is the one that came onto him and that she had complete control in their relationship. However, in truth, Humbert is the adult who restricts Lolita’s money and freedom. It is only at the end of the novel in which Humbert finally admits to being the one who stole Lolita’s childhood.
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,
In chapter 3, he explains there are two different ways of remember people. There's recreating an image in your head while awake and there's recreating in your head with the great memories rushing through your head. Humbert uses parenthesis to explain the differences. He says, "and then I see Annabelle.)" when explaining [the open eye way.] He goes on and says," (and this is how I see Lolita)" after explaining the in depth way. He uses the parenthesis [to make you stop and think of how he thinks of both of them]. From the context, you [can pick out he liked] Lolita [a lot more than] Annabelle; although this [may be] the case, he uses Annabelle as an excuse for his love for Lolita. H.H. writes," All I want to stress is that my discovery of her was a fatal consequence of that 'princedom by the sea' in my tortured past." He writes this because he wants to make you think about [who it could be]. He uses "" around princedom by the sea [to make you] consider [who he could be talking about.] He's saying losing Annabelle "by the sea" [was what] caused him to love little
To do so, Levy turns to the experiences of several young women whom she interviews. From her interpretations of these experiences, Levy reaches the conclusion that these women’s sexual nature revolves around their need
Humbert Humbert’s Obsession of Dolores Haze Lolita is one of the Vladimir Nabokov’s most well-known novels. Nabokov is a Russian-American author, whose works have impacted popular culture. Lolita is one of the greatest novels in twenty-first century. It contains one of the most controversial characters in history.
The use of language in literature can affect the way in which the reader interprets something. Language allows authors to manipulate the specific meaning he or she chooses to create. In the novel Lolita, written by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator, Humbert Humbert, employs language in a specific manner meant to stimulate emotion in the reader. Rather than exposing him as a pedophile, the narrator’s altering speech is intended to accentuate the artistic nature for his inappropriate relationship with a young nymphette. This suggests that even the most alarming obsessions can be temporarily disguised by the splendor of his skills.
(285) In an effort to provide himself with a justification for his fixation with Lolita, Humbert details his relationship with Annabel, Lolita's "predecessor" at the beginning of the novel. Of his teenager relationship with Annabel, he writes "the spiritual and the physical had been blended in us with a perfection that must remain incomprehensible to the matter-of-fact, crude, standard-brained youngsters of today." (14) It is suggested that the reader will thus understand the beauty of that relationship, as well as his relationship with Lolita. In the end, though, catastrophic realism emerges within his
Oddly enough this sexual conflict between America and Europe will be soon overturned during the journey of Humbert and Lolita’s rather troubling relationship when we see that Humbert has fallen victim to Lolita’s nymphetic spell and her rather “vulgar American sensibilities”. Though Humbert tries his best to further educate and refine Lolita he always seems to fail. Nonetheless these same qualities that Humbert attempts
Lolita becomes ill, and is forced to go to the hospital. Humbert comes into the hospital one morning only to find that she has been checked out of by another man.
Vladimir Nabokov, one of the 20th century’s greatest writers, is a highly aesthetic writer. Most of his work shows an amazing interest in and talent for language. He deceptively uses language in Lolita to mask and make the forbidden divine. Contextually, Lolita may be viewed as a novel about explicit sexual desire. However, it is the illicit desire of a stepfather for his 12-year old stepdaughter. The novel’s subject inevitably conjures up expectations of pornography, but there in not a single obscene term in Lolita. Nabokov portrays erotic scenes and sensual images with a poetic sensibility that belies the underlying meaning of the words. The beautiful manipulation of language coerces one to understand Humbert’s interdict act of