Lolita Essay, Research Paper
Vladimir Nabokov s Lolita
When Vladimir Nabokov finished writing the novel Lolita he knew the explosive subject matter that he was now holding in his hands. After being turned down by publishing houses on numerous occasions to unleash his controversial story to the public, it was finally published by the French in 1955. Many critics were shocked and called it pornography while others praised his work. How could a pure thinking author conjugate ideas on issues so dark and depraved? What were his intentions of doing so, and in the end how did it become hailed as one of the greatest novels of all time.
It s easy to think you can judge a man by the novels he writes. Is not the creation, at least in some part, the creator? Surely only a twisted mind, a depraved heart could conjure up such an explicit narrator, capable of violating young girls, though remaining very humanistic. Vladimir Nabokov s inspiration for writing Lolita, came from hearing about a ape who was taught to draw after being locked up in a cage, while given treats to encourage certain behavior. After many months of confinement, the ape finally drew a picture of the bars of his cell. Consequently this is what Nabokov s narrating character Humbert practiced on Lolita. Humbert constantly used the reward system to bribe Lolita for sexual favors. In other words, like the scientists had trained the ape s actions to
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respond to enslavement every time the substance of positivism was given, Humbert did the same to Lolita, forcing her out of her nature from a child to a women. Nabokov and Humbert did have something in common, which was a direct passion. Humbert s passion was the worship and possession of Lolita, but in the pursuit of these passions he also manages to study, capture, and abuse her. This destroys Lolita s innocence. Nabokov, an avid butterfly collector adored these creatures which he found beautiful, rare, and frail. He then killed, preserved cataloged and literally, pinned them down. Memories and dreams also play a large part in many of Nabokov s writings. Nabokov succeeded with Lolita by taking human experiences and passions and turning them to create an inhuman character. This concluding that the creation was depraved, but not the creator.
The story of Lolita, traces a middle aged professor obsessive sinful involvement with his twelve year old stepdaughter Lolita. The book focuses on Humbert s constant manipulation of events to finally being able to have the young girl in his possession. After marrying Lolita s mother, a vulgar women, the haze women, the big bitch, the old cat, the obnoxious mama, she conveniently dies leaving Lolita as his ward. This leads to a road trip across America where Humbert seduces Lolita in various hotels becoming both her lover and her father. Unaware of the fact that a mysterious character is following them, who keeps visually appearing in the most unexpected places by the name of Claire Quilty. Meanwhile, Lolita escapes Humbert by running off with the peculiar man, the rival Quilty, leaving him an emotionally broken and unstable man. In the end he eventually stalks down both the now pregnant Lolita and his archival.
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Realizing Lolita never truly cared for him, he tracks down his alter ego Claire Quilty and murders him for what pain he put him through.
Lolita exemplifies many different types of themes to the reader, such as fate, sex , consummation of desire, and homicide. Some moments of great interest in the novel all indicate the presence of fate and random chance. Horrible deaths seem to occur frequently in Lolita, beginning with Humbert s mother who died at a picnic after being struck by lightning. This was followed by unexpected deaths of Annabelle [his first love], Charlotte Haze [his wife], and Claire Quilty [his nemesis], and finally Lolita at the very end of the book. Who would think that Charlotte Haze would be struck by a car which had swerved to avoid hitting a wild dog, right after she read Humbert s journal and his real opinion of her and her daughter. Humbert sums it up by saying the car and the dog and the sun and the shade and the wet and the weak and the strong and the stone all contributed to Charlotte s death.
Sexual Desire plays a large part in the novel. After Humbert loses his first love Annabelle at age fourteen to typhus he longs for the memory of her, particularly the fact that Humbert never completed the sexual act with her. This brings us to the Lolita syndrome. Lolita quickly sparks memories of Annabelle and the feelings he once had for her. Humbert has strong sexual cravings from the moment he lays eyes on Lolita.
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Humbert disguises himself reading a book or tanning himself while actually watching Lolita s every move. Humbert finds reasons to walk by her room, or to collide
into her. In these moments, he said, I had stolen the honey of a spasm without impairing the morals of a minor. When Lolita s mother decides to send her to summer camp, Humbert becomes so frantic, plots form in his mind about ways to rid Charlotte.
The second half of Lolita, deals with the consummation of Humbert s sexual desire. Humbert is craving Lolita and even resorts to giving her sleeping pills on their first night alone together at the Enchanters Cottage, so he can have his way with her. The gentle and dreamy regions through which I crept were the patrimonies of poets-not crime s prowling ground. The next year they were on a journey together, spending their nights in various hotels having sex. Lolita learns how to play tennis, so they can have other physicality s in common. Humbert takes her swimming so he can watchfully eye her body, also while buying her clothes and treats but not until she had done her morning duty.
The loss of Lolita to the unidentified man revealed later as Claire Quilty, leads to the final desperate act of murder. This is a major theme in the story because by killing Claire Quilty, he s killing his dark side, his alterego, so that the murder is in effect an attack upon himself. Because you took advantage of a sinner, because you took advantage, because you took, because you took advantage of my disadvantage because of all you did, because of all I did not . YOU HAVE TO DIE.
Vladimir Nabokov s writing style was to be excessive with words, because he has a personal love affair with the English language. This excessive trait changed the book
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Lolita from being viewed as pornography to being viewed as a work of beauty, for there is not one single obscene term in the whole book. Nabokov also had a nack of inventing new ways to present a story, for example he does a lot of foreshadowing events and characters. This type of writing lends a lot of interest to the story, especially when Humbert finds out the identity of Claire Quilty at the end of his life, while the book points to his existence at the start of the narration.
The writer s use of Humbert as the narrator explaining his passion for Lolita is well served. It tends to soften his ulterior motives due to the sincerity of his desire, also the story is told from his point of view. Nabakov uses a lot of humorous rhymes such as welcome, fellow, to this bordello, puns and play on words like a halter with two little to halt, are examples of this. These traits certainly helped the novel achieve writing standards that were never seen before.
Reading the novel Lolita and researching its author has proven to be a far more daunting task then expected. What were Nabakov s reasons for writing this story? Many found it hard to believe an author could come up with such a subject matter without some backround into the topic, but that could never be proven. So we as readers are left with this beautifully written novel, one of Nabakov s best about a taboo subject with no moral message only our own boundaries to explore. The evidence proves Nabakov took a huge gamble in writing Lolita but it paid off when critics now looked upon his work with new respect. In the end, Nabakov found himself in a fight for privacy, once saying Lolita is famous, not I.
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Works Cited
Appel, Alfred, Jr. The Annotated Lolita New York: McGraw Hill publishing, 1970.
Field, Andrew, Biographies of Nabokov. New York: Viking Press, 1977.
Nabakov, Vladimir Lolita. Published by Alfred A. Knoff inc. First Published 1955.
Nabakob, Vladmir, Memoirs by Nabakov. New York: Harper publishing, 1951.
Parker, Steven, Vladmir Nabakov . Published by University of South Carolina Press,
1987.
Proffer, Ellendaa. Vladmir Nabakov, A Pictorial Biography, Compiled and edited by
Ellendaa Proffer, (Ardist Publishers 1991).