Written in 1955, Vladimir’s Nabokov’s Lolita can be considered many things: a memoir, a love story, satire, an atrocity, but perhaps the most important thing to remember is the fact that Lolita is a fictional novel written to resemble a real-life memoir. From the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to a world where the line between fiction and reality is immediately blurred. For the remainder of Lolita, it is up to the interpretation of the audience to decide how much of the memoir is accurate, or if all the actions are figments of its charismatic narrator, Humbert Humbert’s imagination. The novel, which did not reach critical claim until years after its publication, uses Humbert as an unreliable narrator to force its readers to …show more content…
The relationship between art and experience and reality and aesthetics often envelope the reader in a shroud of inaccuracies where we can misinterpret the very actions we are reading. It’s impossible to read Lolita without considering the genius of Nabokov who is consciously aware of the moral mind games the novel plagues on its victims. The reader’s response to the memoir is manipulated because Humbert “present[s] a poetic portrait of Lolita and his life with her” (Perkins). Assuming that Humbert writes the autobiography to be considered a piece of art, rather than a novel based on truth, one can argue that the Lolita he describes is of his “own creation”; a doppelganger of the lost loves of disturbed authors. He conceives of his relationship with Lolita in “aesthetic terms”, allowing him to refer to her as an object of desire not as a subject with feelings, thoughts, or wishes (Marcus). The novel also contains little dialogue from Lolita which could attribute to many readers lack of sympathy for her. She has no voice, but rather assumes the voice of Humbert as all dialogue is a reproduction of his
After looking past its controversial sexual nature, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita can be read as a criticism of the capitalist system. Nabokov uses the relationship between the novel's narrator, Humbert Humbert, and the novel's namesake, Lolita, as an extended metaphor to showcase the system's inherent exploitive nature in a way that shocks the reader out of their false consciousness, by making the former a man in the position of power - a repulsive, manipulative pedophile — and the latter a young female victim — as well as a spoiled, vapid, unruly child. Each is to the other nothing more than a commodity — Lolita being the perfect consumer and Humbert Humbert being a man of privilege who views others only as objects to be used, or consumed.
Therefore, it is apparent that the dystopian paradigm presented by Nabokov challenges the preconceived concepts of the future through exaggerations of conformity, forced abolishment of knowledge, and an individual’s metaphysical reality, thus highlighting that the future is contingent on the present to a significant
"و لنا في الخيال حياة" - Through Imagination we live (an Arabic proverb). In Iran during the late 1990s is a setting of a private book club in Tehran, where Professor Azar Nafisi, author of the book, meets weekly with seven of her most prominent female students to discuss banned western literary work. Azar Nafisi writes her memoirs, shedding light on the transformation of the self through literature, the book discussions are no longer limited to exploring the characters, but rather intertwine with the group members' lives hopes and dreams. Nafisi's journey with her students revolves around the imagination's role in opening spaces, an act subversive in itself against the existent
Who is Nabokov, What is Humbert? Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of, or at least that's what they are supposed to be made of. After reading Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, written almost a half a century ago, one must wonder what he was thinking as he penned the book. Nabokov tells us in his essay, "On a Book Entitled Lolita," that his sole purpose in writing such a controversial novel, had "no purpose other than to get rid of that book"(Brink 311). Nabokov's not-so-clear explanation leads many minds to wonder about the "true meaning" of Lolita. One of the most often asked questions, is, of course, Nabokov's personal sexual preference: was he a pedophile? It seems unimaginable that a person could write the tale of such an incredible obsession and that, that obsession could be pure fiction: "The patterns of Lolita have psychological as well as aesthetic significance, and Humbert's language is more than a virtuoso display of effects: it is a strong but delicate instrument that registers the slightest, as well as the wildest, occillations of Humbert's distressed mind and heart"(Pifer 110). One example of Humbert's obsession with Lolita can be found on page 65 in The Annotated Lolita: I knew I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not be forever Lolita. She would be thirteen on January 1. In two years or so she would cease being a nymphet and would turn into a "young girl," and then into a "college girl"--that horror of horrors. The word "forever" referred only to my own passion, to the eternal Lolita as reflected in my blood. The Lolita whose iliac crests had not yet flared, the Lolita that today I could touch and smell and hear and see, the Lolita of strident voice and the rich brown hair--of the bangs and the swirls at the sides and the curls at the back, and the sticky hot neck, and the vulgar vocabulary--"revolting," "super," "luscious," "goon," "drip"--that Lolita, my Lolita, poor Catullus would lose forever. So how could I afford not to see her for two months of summer insomnias? Two whole months out of the two years of her remaining nymphage." For any reader, among the main issues of Lolita are representations of incest, child-molestation, obsession, and pedophilia. This essay will examine relevant details in Nabokov's biography and attempt to discover the connection between Humbert Humbert and Nabokov.
The book Lolita is a highly controversial novel written by Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita tells the story of a man, Humbert Humbert, and his utter infatuation with a young “nymphet” named Lolita. The book and subsequent film adaptations, specifically Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 adaptation and Adrian Lyne’s 1997 adaptation aim to create a feeling of sympathy for the protagonist, Humbert Humbert. Through the use of first person narration, Humbert Humbert is able to manipulate readers with simple inaccuracies, making him an unreliable narrator.
Vladimir Nabokov throughout his novel Lolita and Sam Mendes in his film “American Beauty”, both discuss the inappropriate desires felt by their male protagonists. Despite the texts having contrasting settings and time periods, both authors present the idea of inappropriate desires through depictions of middle aged men lusting after young minor girls, whilst allude to the negative implications which are perceived with such incongruous feelings. Throughout both texts, Nabokov and Mendes employ similar literary and film techniques of descriptive language/cinematography, symbolism, characterisation, narrative voice, and tone, in order to demonstrate the extent of the inappropriate desires each of their protagonists and minor characters feel throughout.
“Lolita. Light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.” (Nabokov 9). Lolita is a story written in the 1950's by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov in which the narrator, Humbert Humbert, falls in love with a 12 year old girl.
Humbert Humbert, who had quite a fortunate childhood, falls in love with a girl by the name of Annabel Leigh. She and him started off as friends which eventually escalades into a sexual relationship but never consummate due to her death at age 13 from Typhus. This traumatizes Humbert Humbert and strangely triggers an attraction to young girls for the rest of his life. To accommodate his loneliness, he eventually marries a woman that has child-like characteristics so he can have somewhat of a normal life. After his uncle passes away, he has been left with an inheritance but only if he shows interest in his uncle’s business. When he presents this to his wife that he must travel to America, she confesses that she has been having an affair with another man, a taxi driver. He travels, lonesome, to America and joins the household of a widow, Charlotte Haze, and her twelve year-old daughter, Dolores Haze, whom which goes by the name of Lolita. Instantly, he realizes he has found the one, the one that will make Annabel become a person of the past and let him deliberately try to find a way to be with Lolita without her mother finding out. When Charlotte ships Lolita off to summer camp, she confronts Humbert Humbert, informing him of her feelings for him. She suggests that they either get married or he find another place to stay. Through panicked thoughts, he decides to marry Charlotte in order to stay near Lolita. When Charlotte discovers Humbert Humbert’s diary confessing his hatred towards Charlotte and his infatuation with her daughter, she runs out of the house, threatening to leave and expose him but instantly dies from being hit by a car. He arrives at Lolita’s summer camp to pick her up and spend the night at the Enchanted Hunter...
Many critics question how far an author can detach themselves from the morality of their main characters--especially when exhibited in such a convincing portrayal of first person narration. However, the narratorial unreliability that is observable in Humbert Humbert is not product of Nabokov’s literary carelessness or likeness, but rather of his sharp, biting sense of irony. The antisocial behavior of Humbert Humbert masterfully reflects many of the antisocial behaviors occurring on a societal level during the respective time period (Maddox). The medley of irony present in Lolita extends from dramatic to situational and circumvents back again. Nabokov’s personal involvement vanishes from a perceived immoral perspective to a deep well of literary, witty involvement that relies on abstract thinking and considerate
Novelists have long strived to make their works original, to either add variety to their work or to not have stories that are too similar to one another. At the same time however, authors still want to play it safe and stick with a formula for writing that is familiar. This can ease the writing process and ensure that their readers will enjoy their writing. It has long been a struggle for many authors to find an equilibrium to his issue, wanting to write unique stories, yet, wanting to create something they know will be popular. Nabokov finds balance to this struggle in his novel, Pale Fire. Pale Fire, published seven years after Nabokov’s most well known title, Lolita, had a lot to live up to. Lolita was controversial yet, considered one of
The interpretation of Lolita still consisted on the ideas of sex and the book as well as the character became a scandal. Nabokov has rebuffed sex themes since the beginning of the book’s publishing. In his famous interview with Playboy, Nabokov rejects the interviewer bringing up America’s sexual mores with “Sex as an institution, sex as a general notion, sex as a problem, sex as a platitude—all this is something I find too tedious for words. Let us skip sex.” (Toffler). His refusal to even talk sex proved how little his tolerance was when it came to humoring the audience about sex themes and sex related questions. In an interview with CBC during the early 1960s, Nabokov is quoted agreeing with an interviewer that believes “sex has become such a cliche, so that people can’t recognize anything else.” (...) which further shows how 1960’s mentalities could see nothing else outside of the realm of sex. In the same CBC interview, Nabokov disputes sex themes more openly and admits that his writing of the book has more to do with Humbert’s artistic nature and how that alienates him and creates unattainable love (...). While Nabokov wrongly uses a young girl’s abuse as a tool of illustrating a man’s “misfortunes” of being an artist, the novel is more than what the 1960’s audience perceived it to be. Nabokov did not intend to write a book about a fetish, nor did he, according to Playboy, wish to satirize American culture. The text included more substinance than what people perceived it to be and as did the character Lolita herself, who was more than a teen temptress. His writing of the book has nothing to do about sex, although his initial theme is flawed and an important example of men’s inability to write books featuring authentic female characters, unless they are being used as tools or over sexualized. And much like Humbert Humbert, no matter how hard Nabokov tried to manipulate the text, feelings of empathy still is evoked
What Nabokov has mastered in Lolita is one of the most extensive game productions in contemporary literature. From the first words, in the Forward itself, the game has begun. Nabokov begins his production by impersonating John Ray, Jr., Ph.D. as he introduces himself as the editor of Humbert Humbert’s manuscript. With this, the reader is made to believe in the reality of the story they are about to participate in (I say participate in, as opposed to bear witness to because the reader, by opening this novel, has signed up as the sole player of game orchestrated to defeat), and are roped into this charade. This aspect of the game is the largest and most apparent, as we soon learn the novel is fictitious and thus ends this game. But, the novel itself is rampant with diversions, plots, and ploys that will be discussed further.
Clarice Lispector, a Brazilian female writer of Jewish descent, tied her writing with her very life, for her writing reflects her viewpoint on many aspects of her life. She was well-known for her existentialist writing involving themes revolving around women’s roles. Through the characters and their interactions in her works, Lispector explores the societal status of women. The male subjugation of women influences many of the themes found in her works and a better understanding of women’s social status ultimately leads to a better understanding of the relationship between the characters in her works and actions by those characters. Thus, the evaluation of women in the society contemporary to the era Lispector lived in influences the overall existentialist ideas and the motif of women’s roles in her work.
In all his novels, Nabokov uses the power of language, deceptiveness, and aesthetics to lure in and charm readers. With his critical thinking of science, he is able to create a theoretical framework. One thing that is quite evident throughout novel Lolita is his affinity for mind games. This novel can be compared to Johan Huizinga’s Homo Luden. An important component in Huzinga’s games is the “tension.” Nabokov uses this component in his writing to keep readers engaged and to challenge them to work their way through the game.
In Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, the underground man struggles between two opposing beliefs. The first acknowledges that his fictional existence has been predetermined, subject to his author’s conduct. The is the underground man’s insistence that the only possible world humans can live in undetermined world which extols and situates free will within a human. In order to try and solve this problem, the underground man turns to writing, to try and be honest with himself, probe into why he is this way, and to not reject any truth that comes forth, horrifying or not. Through this exercise, he comes to realize that his self awareness sheds light on how little control he has over his actions even though he continues to believe in free will. This understanding within the underground man, and acceptance from the reader, engenders with humility brings forth what I believe to be a humbling message to the now indurate reader, who, after reading Notes from Underground, returns to their own, undetermined world with a new sense of duty.