Female Objectification

Today, women are still sexually objectified to some degree. Because literature often reflects the views of a culture, the sexual objectification of women commonly appears in literature. Whether they have small or large roles in a plot, female characters are sexually submissive in some way and portrayed as subservient to men.

Objectification is a concept that has been defined as ‘the seeing and/ or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object’. American philosopher Martha Nussbaum lists the features that are involved in this controversial phenomenon by proposing seven forms of objectification that have been proved to reinforce gender inequality. Three additional features of subjugation were also put forward by philosopher Rae Langton which

notes:

As a work of art, it transcends its expiatory aspects; and still more important to us than scientific significance and literary worth, is the ethical impact the book should have on the serious reader; for in this poignant personal study there lurks a general lesson; the wayward child, the egotistic mother, the panting maniac- these are not only vivid characters in a unique story: they warn us of dangerous

Through the perspective of Humbert, Dolores is presented as a passive and compliant being. She only becomes relevant when he chooses to mention her, therefore her existence in the text is solely based on how he chooses to present her in his writing. Not only Dolores, but every female introduced in the novel is described only for the enjoyment of male subjects through the “scenes” he allows his readers to relive. The objectification of women through their sexuality then reinforces the representation of women as submissive- only to be desired with no other purpose throughout the entire novel. Humbert attempts to defend his depiction of Dolores by asking “Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child”. In only relating Dolores to his past lover whom he refers to as a ‘nymphet’, this influences Humbert’s further disregard for her by reincarnating Annabel- Leigh in Dolores. He brings Dolores alive in the text by naming her: “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul…She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita”. He then goes on to state, “What I had madly possessed as not she, but my own creation…having no consciousness— indeed, no life of her