LOLITA ‘While Humbert is perfectly willing to say that he is a monster, the reader of Lolita finds herself unable to agree with that assessment’. Discuss.
‘Vladimir Nabokov uses the chestnut tree as a symbol of death and extinction in his 1955 novel Lolita. Humbert Humbert refers early on to the chestnut and later, during their cross-country trip west, likens their sojourn to the westward spread of the American chestnut tree.’ Ann McCauley Basso’s interpretation of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita is clearly flawed, since the marginal appearance of chestnuts in the novel is easily overlooked and the supposedly underlying motive of death does not fully coincide with Humbert Humbert’s relationships. The chestnuts are not mentioned in conjunction …show more content…
As the writer of his defence against his scheduled murder trial, he elaborates the story of how he obsesses about, abducts and rapes the twelve-year-old Dolores Haze, also known as Dolly, Lo or Lolita. The reader gets to know an extensively proud narcissist, who seeks to fill the drained void of lust that has opened since his ‘unsuccessful first tryst’ ; a failed juvenile sexual experience; by fantasising about so-called nymphets: nine to fourteen-year-old girls. He argues that the shock of his young love ‘consolidated the frustration of that nightmare summer and made of it a permanent obstacle to any further romance’2 in his youth. His manuscript is littered with ensnaring attempts to justify his actions and opinions. While Humbert is indeed proud, he is more so vain, for he ‘feels the need to manifest his excellence and gain the reader’s approval’ . He does this with the most cunning secrecy: by gaining the reader’s trust by condemning his paedophile thoughts actions and then malevolently embedding them amidst the content of his disgustingly perverted daydreams. Just before he plans to rape Lolita in her sleep he cries: ‘I should have known (by the signs made to me by something in Lolita – the real child Lolita or some haggard angel behind her back) that nothing but pain and horror would result from the expected rapture.’4 But then in the next paragraph he goes on by describing his ‘translucent …show more content…
Humbert Humbert lives in a façade in which fantasy and reality are not separated. His attempts of conforming to the oppressions of the law drive Humbert into insanity: ‘while my body knew what it craved for my mind rejected my body’s every plea. One moment I was ashamed and frightened, another recklessly optimistic.’ Therefore one could argue, that he is not really a monster, but mentally ill. In the second half of the novel, characterised by Humbert’s daily devouring of Lolita, he finds his mental health wavering into severe paranoia. This could be a reaction to the changes in Lolita’s attitude, shown by her demanding more latitude, her general discontentment and depression. During their cross-country trip Humbert describes ‘her sobs in the night – every night, every night – the moment I feigned sleep.’ On their second cross-country trip, they are secretly followed and surveyed; this is the height of Humbert’s paranoia. Quilty, Lolita’s former dentist helps Lolita escape and leaves Humbert devastated. From that point onwards Humbert and embarks on a deliriously insane chase mission, whose purpose is to hunt down and slay the culprit. In his dazed state after Quilty’s murder, Humbert confesses his deepest remorse towards his actions, and apprehends the damage he has inflicted upon Dolores. He realises that he depraved her of her childhood and that his actions were nothing but egoistic. Some say this is the
‘Vladimir Nabokov uses the chestnut tree as a symbol of death and extinction in his 1955 novel Lolita. Humbert Humbert refers early on to the chestnut and later, during their cross-country trip west, likens their sojourn to the westward spread of the American chestnut tree.’ Ann McCauley Basso’s interpretation of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita is clearly flawed, since the marginal appearance of chestnuts in the novel is easily overlooked and the supposedly underlying motive of death does not fully coincide with Humbert Humbert’s relationships. The chestnuts are not mentioned in conjunction …show more content…
As the writer of his defence against his scheduled murder trial, he elaborates the story of how he obsesses about, abducts and rapes the twelve-year-old Dolores Haze, also known as Dolly, Lo or Lolita. The reader gets to know an extensively proud narcissist, who seeks to fill the drained void of lust that has opened since his ‘unsuccessful first tryst’ ; a failed juvenile sexual experience; by fantasising about so-called nymphets: nine to fourteen-year-old girls. He argues that the shock of his young love ‘consolidated the frustration of that nightmare summer and made of it a permanent obstacle to any further romance’2 in his youth. His manuscript is littered with ensnaring attempts to justify his actions and opinions. While Humbert is indeed proud, he is more so vain, for he ‘feels the need to manifest his excellence and gain the reader’s approval’ . He does this with the most cunning secrecy: by gaining the reader’s trust by condemning his paedophile thoughts actions and then malevolently embedding them amidst the content of his disgustingly perverted daydreams. Just before he plans to rape Lolita in her sleep he cries: ‘I should have known (by the signs made to me by something in Lolita – the real child Lolita or some haggard angel behind her back) that nothing but pain and horror would result from the expected rapture.’4 But then in the next paragraph he goes on by describing his ‘translucent …show more content…
Humbert Humbert lives in a façade in which fantasy and reality are not separated. His attempts of conforming to the oppressions of the law drive Humbert into insanity: ‘while my body knew what it craved for my mind rejected my body’s every plea. One moment I was ashamed and frightened, another recklessly optimistic.’ Therefore one could argue, that he is not really a monster, but mentally ill. In the second half of the novel, characterised by Humbert’s daily devouring of Lolita, he finds his mental health wavering into severe paranoia. This could be a reaction to the changes in Lolita’s attitude, shown by her demanding more latitude, her general discontentment and depression. During their cross-country trip Humbert describes ‘her sobs in the night – every night, every night – the moment I feigned sleep.’ On their second cross-country trip, they are secretly followed and surveyed; this is the height of Humbert’s paranoia. Quilty, Lolita’s former dentist helps Lolita escape and leaves Humbert devastated. From that point onwards Humbert and embarks on a deliriously insane chase mission, whose purpose is to hunt down and slay the culprit. In his dazed state after Quilty’s murder, Humbert confesses his deepest remorse towards his actions, and apprehends the damage he has inflicted upon Dolores. He realises that he depraved her of her childhood and that his actions were nothing but egoistic. Some say this is the