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Gender and roles of women in literature
Gender and roles of women in literature
Gender and roles of women in literature
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In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, the overruling drive of the narrator, Humbert Humbert, is his want to attest himself master of all, whether man or woman, his prime cravings, all-powerful destiny, or even something as broad as language. Through the novel the reader begins to see Humbert’s most extreme engagements and feelings, from his marriage to his imprisonment, not as a consequence of his sensual, raw desires but rather his mental want to triumph, to own, and to control. To Humbert, human interaction becomes, or is, very unassuming for him: his reality is that females are to be possessed, and men ought to contest for the ownership of them. They, the women, become the very definition of superiority and dominance. But it isn’t so barbaric of Humbert, for he designates his …show more content…
Perhaps it is because he realizes deep down that he is not in control of Lolita even when he is: particularly, upon the act of sex. At one instances he describes, perhaps with sheer passion and without much of the intellect and enlightenment that he uses to deal with the people he lives amongst and the very same that he criticize to be merely commercial, Lolita atop a chair with her leg over its arms: “I would shed all my masculine pride-and literally crawl on my knees…” (192) Humbert, in his love with Lolita, is unconsciously over his head: perhaps it is love, that he has succumbed to Lolita and was giving and assuming (in contrast to his first seeing her); that it was no longer his love, but love. And while it sounds splendid, Humbert’s captious need to belittle everything entails that a part of him is missing, that he no longer feels superior, and has to bring the world down to his plane, becoming at some points a
... to see that Humbert is sorry for his sexual rape of Lolita and is regretful for taking her childhood away. Given that he is genuinely sorry for his actions there is a greater chance that the close reader will forgive Humbert for his molestation of Lolita.
Louise Mallard is a woman who enjoys freedom and independence. She feels soaring relief and fiery triumph upon realizing that, yes, she is finally free. She is free of the weighted ropes of marriage. She fantasizes of her days ahead, living for herself and only herself. “A kind intention or cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination” (Chopin 234). She views the imposing of one’s will on another person as a crime, no matter the intention behind it. She has a taste of freedom after Mr. Mallard’s death and can finally see days without stress ahead of her. Prior to her husband’s death, young Mrs. Mallard feels tied down and even oppressed. “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 233). Despite the typical oppression of women throughout the centuries prior to the 1920s, Mrs. Mallard possesses a free spirit.
Humbert's main strength is his sense of humor. Nabokov is sure to throw Humbert's way all the American kitsch he can handle - mostly in the form of Charlotte Haze. His sly insults sail over her head, but Humbert wins our approval by making sure we understand them. Similarly, we admire him be...
Contrastingly, Mrs. Darling, his wife, is portrayed as a romantic, maternal character. She is a “lovely lady”, who had many suitors yet was “won” by Mr. Darling, who got to her first. However, she is a multifaceted character because her mind is described “like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East”, suggesting that she is, to some extent, an enigma to the other characters, especially Mr. Darling. As well as this, she exemplifies the characteristics of a “perfect mother”. She puts everything in order, including her children’s minds, which is a metaphor for the morals and ethics that she instils in them. Although ...
Without a doubt, Humbert is a villain, but by empathizing with him, we have subconsciously forgiven him in his wrongdoings. All along, Humbert had deeply loved and long for Lolita and all throughout his time with her, he acknowledges the depth of his immorality. What had triggered our sympathy was his persistency to obtain what he loved most and the disclosure of his guilt, which he claims could never be forgiven. However, we as readers, seeing the he sincerely feels guilty and castigates himself, makes us accept him
...Piercy badgers the reader with Comstock's view of women (mostly in the descriptions of his dutiful wife and obedient daughter) to illustrate his sexism, however, the belabored point begins to fall flat and instead leaves the character feeling one-dimensional. Likewise, even men initially introduced to the reader as pro-feminist, like Theodore Tilton, meet with a predictable sexist ending. These men were no doubt chosen to embody the patriarchal society of then and today, but the unyielding portrayal began to feel overwhelmingly oppressive (perhaps her intent) and a novel so based in realism, on that point, began to feel contrived, therefore unrealistic. Nevertheless, Piercy compares and contrasts the experiences of the characters', offering them up to the reader, perhaps in hope that similarities can be identified and a feminist dialogue can be started or continued.
In Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita delusional love encourages violent actions. The protagonist Humbert Humbert is infatuated with prepubescent Dolores Haze. This vulgar love is based in possession and control, yet Humbert does not feel that he is in any way hurting young Lolita, also known as Dolores, and he feels that because he loves her there is no wrongdoing. By believing that she loves him back in the same way that he loves her, he is setting himself up for tragedy. When she is taken from him by an unknown predator Humbert embarks on a multi-year long journey in search of his lost nymphet. When he finally finds Dolores, barefoot and pregnant, she tells him of her stay with a relative named Clare Quilty whom she fell in love with. At Dolly’s home Humbert begs for her to return to him. Only when she denies him this he realizes the traumatic effects he has had on the girl because of his delusional love for her. By realizing that he, all along, was the villain of the story, he feels that he needs to murder Quilty in order to do right by Dolly, as a type of twisted
What world are you living in? Over the past hundreds of years psychologists have been studying the functions of the human mind. It is a task that seems to prolong as information and new methods arrive. What makes us dream or imagine things? The fact that we have dreams and ambitions in life strives us to believe through imagining and dreaming that we will eventually get a break in life. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov, is a novel that characterizes these types of situations. It implies similarity in plot and theme between Lolita and certain fairy tales. Furthermore, Nabokov implies the folk characterization in Lolita to show the paradoxical relationship of art and reality thus showing how real life people live out the lives of fictional fairy tales. It is also evident that because of the folkloristic material portrayed in Lolita, it is seen that man lives between two worlds, the imagined one and the true one. The image of Lolita had such effect on society in the way that pre pubescent children wanted to be like her, they wanted to be as pretty as her and wear those heart shaped sunglasses like her thus living in a world of fantasy. Even today's society still has, more then ever that Lolita syndrome thus causing a lot of pre pubescent kids to live in a fantasy world instead of the real one.
The story of Lolita was written in the United States during the 1950’s. Authors in the fifties were considered the Beat Generation and the movements were sexual liberation and disregard for traditional values in writing. Narratives seemed more liberated and open like Lolita because it is far from conservative and
For example, he treats some women with little respect. The novel states, “ And [Robert] related the story of Alcee Arobin and the consul’s wife; and another about the tenor of the French Opera, who received letters which should never have been written…” (20). This shows that Alcee has been with multiple women, and he has, from what can be inferred, written bad letters to them. He seems to have casted these women aside now and moved on showing little respect for them which was not what a man should have. Moreover, he moves in on married women. The novel states, “When he leaned forward and kissed [Edna], she clasped his head, holding his lips to hers” (84). Although Edna returned the kiss, it still does not excuse the fact that Alcee initiated the kiss on a known married women. Men during the time did not try to take what other men already had as the reader is shown when Robert says goodbye to Edna for the reason of her marriage to Leonce. Additionally, Alcee does what he wants to women. The novel states, “‘ I am, after I have said good night[,]’ [said Alcee.] ‘Good night,’ [Edna] murmured. He did not answer, except to continue to caress her. He did not say good night until she had become supple to his gentle, seductive entreaties” (94). Edna tries to tell Alcee to leave, although not in a very commanding way, but he refuses until he gets what he wants from her. Men at the time had more respect from
Throughout history society has been controlled by men, and because of this women were exposed to some very demanding expectations. A woman was expected to be a wife, a mother, a cook, a maid, and sexually obedient to men. As a form of patriarchal silencing any woman who deviated from these expectations was often a victim of physical, emotional, and social beatings. Creativity and individuality were dirty, sinful and very inappropriate for a respectful woman. By taking away women’s voices, men were able to remove any power that they might have had. In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient women, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty emotionless shell. In men’s eyes this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
In his essay, "On a Novel Entitled Lolita," Vladimir Nabokov tries to answer the age-old question, "What is the objective of the novel?" He quickly replies, "...I happen to be the kind of author who in starting to work on a book has no other purpose than to get rid of that book..." (311). There is more to his response than this, however. He goes on to say that his book was not written to celebrate pornography or pedophilia, nor was it written to promote Anti-Americanism (313 - 315). What's the purpose of his novel then? Well, Nabokov writes, "For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm" (314 - 315). He sees his novel in simple terms: art. Whether it be the novel Lolita or the name Lolita, a sexual meaning has been given to the word Lolita, and this is largely due to the strong sexual overtones used by the novel's main character Humbert to describe his character of obsession Lolita; thus resulting in different and confusing interpretations of the novel and the author's intentions.
Beauty’s sisters marry rich men, who seemingly have acceptably desirable attributes as husbands. One man is detailed as a man of good looks. The other man is noted for having great wit. The two possess qualities most women seek in a husband, but it is indicated in descriptions that the two sisters are both unhappy in their marriages. Although the first husband is handsome, this serves him as a drawback, for he is a narcissist, only concerned with himself. The second husband’s wit is also a severe disadvantage due to the fact he uses his wit to torment other people, including his wife. It is when Beauty reviews her sisters’ marriages and the unhappiness her sisters experience in relation to their husbands that helps Beauty realize The Beast’s true worth and her love for him: “I should be happier with the monster than my sisters are with their husbands; it is neither wit, nor a fine person, in a husband, that makes a woman happy, but virtue, sweetness of temper and complaisance and Beast has all these valuable qualifications.” (9). The juxtaposition made between the husbands and The Beast create the disclosure of the appropriate masculine qualities a man should encompass. De Beaumont presents the contrast of characters to the reader as a method of emphasizing the
What is interesting to note is that Humbert is asserting himself to be a murderer. Why confess this, especially when most of the novel is Humbert telling people of his relationship with a young girl? Maybe he feels that he needs to admit the truth right away, and will use his prose to explain and detract the reader from the true atrocity. People will often start by telling others something that is ugly in nature, then go on to explain so that it does not appear to be that bad; Humbert could be doing the same thing here. By telling us that he is a murderer, and framing the story of his relationship with Dolores as something that is not bad, it could also be him trying to explain the murder as something that is similar to his relationship with Dolores: simultaneously telling readers the truth of his actions and deceiving them into thinking that it is not malicious. Nonetheless, his fancy prose frames his rhetoric. He uses great detail to detract readers from the actions that he commits. “I seemed to have shed my clothes and slipped into pajamas with the kind of fantastic instantaneousness which is implied when in a cinematographic scene the process of changing is cut” (128). Here he describes himself stripping out of clothes when he is about to fondle Lolita, but he uses the art of cinematography to describe this in a round about way. He uses great imagery that is supposed to
Not attempting to hide, Mrs. Mallard knows that she will weep at her husbands funeral, however she can’t help this sudden feeling of seeing, “beyond [the] bitter moment [of] procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (Chopin, 16). In an unloving marriage of this time, women were trapped in their roles until they were freed by the death of their husbands. Although Mrs. Mallard claims that her husband was kind and loving, she can’t help the sudden spark of joy of her new freedom. This is her view on the release of her oppression from her roles of being a dutiful wife to her husband. Altogether, Mrs. Mallard claims that, “there would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” (Chopin, 16). This is the most important of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, as she never officially states a specific way when her husband oppressed her. However, the audience can clearly suggest that this is a hint towards marriage in general that it suffocates both men and women. Marriage is an equal partnership in which compromise and communication become the dominant ideals to make the marriage better. It is suggested that Mrs. Mallard also oppressed her husband just as much as he did to her when she sinks into the armchair and is, “pressed down by a physical exhaustion