This direct address to the reader preludes a scene where Humbert clandestinely pleases himself while the ignorant Lolita is sitting next to him. The poetic language he uses in the passage seems to act as a ploy to convince the reader that his desire for Lolita is innocuous. Although he views this scene as harmless, the reader interprets this as disturbing because Humbert is normalizing the action of gaining sexual pleasure at the expense of Lolita’s innocence. When Humbert is speaking to the implied readers, he refers to them as “learned readers”. Attributing the readers is Humbert’s pursuit to familiarize himself with his implied readers. His request for the reader’s participation is unwanted, for he is asking the reader to examine this immoral and disturbing event and interpret it as innoxious. He is trying to draw the reader’s attention to his argument. Humbert is using his insanity as a tool to convince the readers to identify and sympathize with him. In addition, he attempts to forge a bond with the reader by defining the individuals who are reading his narrative.
The interplay between the narrator and the reader deepens when the reader takes an active part in the novel’s discourse. One profound moment in which he is trying to gain the sympathy of the reader is when he addresses the jury. The issue of Humbert’s guilt is central to the novel as he consistently disregards the immorality of certain situations and never fully takes responsibility for his actions. When he addresses the jury about the times when he and Lolita were engaged in sexual intercourse, Humbert defends his actions by claiming to follow nature. His deranged rationality of these situations only emphasizes the degree of his psychological instability and his...
... middle of paper ...
...ating in the novel could be fabricated to downplay the seriousness of his crimes. This is due in part to his mental insanity and pedophiliac obsession. Additionally, his obsession for “nymphets” deeply affects the quality and validity of his narration. However, since we as readers are aware of the deceptive nature of Humbert Humbert’s personality and the degree of his psychological instability, we must not participate nor validate the affirmations he is making. Humbert is a mentally unstable individual who is completely taken over by his obsession of nymphets. The deceptive nature of Humbert Humbert, the character, reflects the unreliability of him as a narrator. With all the evidence, the reader can make this drastic claim that the story of Lolita could all be this fanciful delusion that is a product of this psychological instability and his pedophiliac obsession.
Lawrence creates a sarcastic tone throughout his essay to exhibit Hester’s iniquitous behavior. He utilizes the biblical story of Cain and Abel to describe how “this time it is Mr. Dimmesdale who dies [while Hester] lives on and is Abel” (Lawrence). Lawrence mocks Hawthorne’s depiction of Hester by calling her Abel, which is ironic because Abel was the victim of the story. The sarcastic tone portrays Hester as a complete divergence to Abel, who was faithful to God and trustworthy. This tone also urges the readers to examine Hester and conclude that she goes not have these morally good characteristics like faithfulness and trustworthiness. Lawrence claims that placing Prynne on the scaffolding and exploiting her sins will “[become] a farce” (Lawrence). His mocking tone underscores the severity of adultery, which Hawthorne falsely describes Hester’s transgression as a “farce”. Lawrence’s use of sarcasm implies that her sins were substantial and grave. This conveys to the readers that Hester is a deplorable character and was portrayed wrongly by
While it is tempting to see the Shakespearean concept of rape entirely in such terms, such a view is not adequate to explain the complex interactions of dishonor, shame, and guilt found in The Rape of Lucrece. Carolyn Williams, by contrast, focuses on the tensions in early modern thought between a culture of "shame" and one of "guilt," two codes which differ not only in their account of the nature of the crime, but also in the consequences for the victim and the importance of her statements in determining her status. In the "shame culture," rape is "a crime against property," (like Harris’s definition) and "the victim’s refusal of consent…is irrelevant: her physical condition determines her status" (94). In the culture of "guilt," however, the woman is seen as a "responsible human agent." Therefore "her utterance is crucially important. Lack of consent defines the rape…Her ability to tell her story afterwards vindicates her honour" (95).
Justine, too, is an ‘idealised figure’, described during the trial as having a countenance which, ‘always engaging, was rendered, by the solemnity of her feelings, exquisitely beautiful.’ She is the archetypal innocent, being beautiful, weak and entirely accepting of her fate to the point of martyrdom.
Whether it be the long established bible for favoritism of gender or contemporary Thirteen Reasons Why for its explicit illustration of suicide, books are constantly banned for one reason or another. Sometimes, however, censored literature proves to be the most insightful and most original. Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita has been subject to criticism and censorship since its first publication in 1955. Critics constantly degrade the novel as repulsive and an endorsement of pedophilia. Although Lolita was censored for its sexual and obscene content, the characterization of protagonist Humbert Humbert proves it to be just as appropriate as other literature.
In Lolita Humbert Humbert describes the circumstances in which he believes his obsession with nymphets began. He describes a time when he was about thirteen and met his first love Annabel who was around the same age. So enraptured with each other, they tried to sneak off from their parents multiple times for sex. However they were so closely watched and so often int...
...seful miscommunication between men and women. Lastly, when looking through the imagined perspective of the thoughtless male tricksters, the reader is shown the heartlessness of men. After this reader’s final consideration, the main theme in each of the presented poems is that both authors saw women as victims of a male dominated society.
From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the blockbuster movie Titanic the struggle against social convention, class structure and awakening desire is universal. Virgins and gypsies are both fascinating to our society by reason of depleting numbers. The sexual awakening that occurs in Mansfield and Lawrence depictions occurs through different means but conveys the same message. Every individual goes through a natural right of passage from childhood to adulthood. With the change of adolescence come sexual desire and maturity. The outcome or moral underlying these two stories is to become aware of the struggle of conformity versus consciousness of ones own sexual desire.
Humbert Humbert in the book Lolita is the type of person who will do anything to satisfy his needs. When Humbert is institutionalized in an insane asylum he toys with the doctors. Once he got to a certain age Humbert felt like he needed to get married to suppress his sexual desires, so he did. Later on Humbert realizes the only way he can be with Lolita is by marrying her mother, Charlotte. After Hubert loses his control on Lolita he gets the need to get revenge on the person who has taken Lolita from him. A person can grow up into being a very needy person or someone who always needs to be in control by how they are raised and their surroundings.
With his 1955 novel Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov invents a narrator by the name of Humbert Humbert who is both an exquisite wordsmith and an obsessive pedophile. The novel serves as the canvas upon which Humbert Humbert will paint a story of love, lust, and death for the reader. His confession is beautiful and worthy of artistic appreciation, so the fact that it centers on the subject of pedophilia leaves the reader conflicted by the close of the novel. Humbert Humbert frequently identifies himself as an artist and with his confession he hopes “to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets” (Nabokov, Lolita 134). Immortalizing the fleeting beauty and enchanting qualities of these preteen girls is Humbert Humbert’s artistic mission
Imprisonment is defined as placing a certain entity into forcible detention. With Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in ‘The Scarlet Letter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne and, the servants and daughters of Bernarda in ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’ by Federico Garcia Lorca, there is a constant dwelling around the collision between the pursuit of personal freedom and the imprisonment that subdues the characters’ lives. Moreover, Hester and Dimmesdale are imprisoned by the consequences of their own actions, an adulterous affair; whereas the residents of the Albas’ household are confined involuntarily, due to Bernarda’s crave for power and high social stature. The imprisonment present in both works furthermore deprives the characters from taking joy of their lives. Notwithstanding, it is interesting to analyze whether the characters could escape their respective forms of imprisonment or abide a state of confinement.
Humbert reminds the reader of his effectiveness at both seduction and therefore dominance early in the novel: “I was, and still am, despite [my misfortunate], an exceptionally handsome man.” (25) Even after all that he has went through, as this is written in his prison cell, he still claims to be as powerful as he ever was. And with such a disposition, he boasts of his ability to dominate the opposition by seducing any female, (even though he does so sometimes with exceptional motives.) He exemplifies it by wedding ...
Rape Fantasies by Margaret Atwood "Rape Fantasies" was written by Margaret Atwood in 1977. Basically, this short story is about the narrator, named Estelle, recalling a conversation between several women during their lunch hour. It starts with one of Estelle's co-workers, asking the question 'How about it, girls, do you have rape fantasies? ' (pg 72) The story goes on with each woman telling their supposed 'rape fantasy' to one another.
In Lolita you understand and get to know the archetypal vampire, getting a first person perspective from the perpetrator. In The Lovely Bones you don't get that. It is from the victim's perspective, so there is no way you can possibly come to understand Mr. Harvey the perpetrator. In Lolita Humbert does what he does with a seemingly willing victim while Mr. harvey (from The Lovely Bones) does not have a willing victim. When viewed from an ethical standpoint is one truly better than the other? Or are we just convinced by Humbert that he is better than Mr. harvey? Regardless, the decisions made by Mr. Harvey and Humbert express a selfish desire to satisfy perverted needs while corrupting the minds and bodies of innocent young girls. Justified or not they both still did what they did to pleasure themselves and themselves only. They never took into consideration what the victim thought or felt. They are both true literary vampires despite their apparent
the narrator tells Humbert had always a hard time in relationships because of the fact of his
Everyone has a deviant side to them. Sigmund Freud explains there are three parts to the mind: the id, ego, and superego. The ego is the conscious, the superego is the conscience and the id is the deviance in people. By using Sigmund Freud’s method of psychology while reading “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning, you see how someone who cannot control their id acts. In this poem, Browning uses setting, symbolism and irony to portray that the id takes over the super ego.