Obsessive love -Lolita

Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov

Summary: 

Regarded as a tragicomedy, the story revolves around the narrator, Humbert and his seduction of his teenage stepdaughter, Dolores - 'Lolita', it was a story which was quite controversial during its publication in 1955 (modernism). The portrayal of Humbert and Lolita is complex and ambiguous- some readers claim that Humbert is the victim of a manipulative underage seductress while others see the other view by which Lolita is the innocent victim of a dangerous predator. (source: Sophie's Desk)

Themes and analysis: 

The novel is a 'banned book' and is extremely controversial. There is an exploration of the psyche of a sociopath and paedophile and his attempts to rationalise his behaviours which he knows are wrong. Humbert is an insane, unreliable narrator- which makes the novel interesting to read. The themes which I came across were: 

-Unrequited love: Lolita's unreciprocated feelings for Humbert

-Illicit love: She's his stepdaughter... he is sexually attracted to her- red herring flags everywhere for this one

-Destructive love: Lolita, quite literally drives Humbert mad, yet he is completely infatuated with her, and continues to love her

Important bits you can memorise:

-Language & Communication in 'Lolita' - Humbert does confess to his bad behaviour, but he still offers highly poetic descriptions that serve to distract the reader from the subject at hand. If it were not for his skill with language, we would be faced with the reality of the situation, a story of rape, paedophilia, incest, murder and explotiation- and yet he manages to turn it into a beautiful 'enchanting' novel, whereby the reader symphatizes with him 

Other forms of diction that he uses is making appeals through legal language, sneaking in justifications and defences of his behaviour

Quotes about this: ''Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta." --Everything about Lolita fills Humbert with pleasure, even the feeling of saying her name, there is no single part of her that he does not turn into a fetish object. 

Love in 'Lolita' - There is an argument, that Humbert doesn't love Lolita, as he is the narrator and he controls the images that we see in the play, and therefore it is difficult to know if he is using love as some perverse excuse for his behaviour. Its also difficult to understand his feelings as he has written the book in retrospect- reflecting and recording his story after many years of the events occurring. 

Quotes about this: "I knew that I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not forever be Lolita" There is an expression of genuine feelings of love for Lolita, but its difficult to process because the love, it would seem, would be dead as it is congintent on Lolita being a nymphet. 

Sex in 'Lolita' -  Humbert describes Lolita as ''Fire of my loins'', but then also calls her ''Light of my life''. It questions which one it is. There is indeed, a lot of lust in Lolita, mostly revolved around Humbert and Quilt, though Lolita participates in her fair share of voluntary sexual activity- at Camp Q especially.

Much of the sex in the book is very dark and perverse, almost criminal with rape and paedophilia and incest at the front of the line. 

Quotes about this: ''Her legs, her lovely live legs, were not too close together, and when my hand located what it sought, a dreamy and eerie expression, half-pleasure and half-pain, came across over those childish features.'' This is pretty self-explanatory...

Youth in 'Lolita'- It is obvious by now, if you've been paying attention to this, that Humbert is sexually obsessed with the younger girl, Lolita, her youth. He has an obsession with 'nymphets' with college-age girls being way past his age-range. He does recognise, however, the unrefined silliness and consumer vulgarity of youth, but that's a small price to pay. Sitting on a park bench watching young girls play hopscotch and skip rope, Humbert is in bliss, ''Let them play around me forever. Never grow up''

Quotes about this: "Now I wish to introduce the following idea. Between the age limits of nine and fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travellers, twice or many times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic (that is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as ''nymphets''." Humbert has a very precise definition of nymphet- and wants to make sure we, as readers know exactly which kind of girl he adores. It is almost incriminating. 

Innocence in 'Lolita'- Humbert knows of the lack of innocence in Lolita, and he always seems to take advantage of it, simply because of his lack of it. He is, after all, telling this story from jail, where he rots because he had murdered someone. Even though he doesn't try to play off that he did no wrong, he still tries to win the reader to his side. In other words, he is not innocent. 

Quotes about this: "...it was she who seduced me." I mean, COME ON. Really? Even after he revealed his perverted actions about what he'd do to her. 

Tone and Analysis overall:

With Humbert as our controlling, and slightly insane, narrator, the tone comes across as sly, superior, darkly comic and intellectual, alternating between bemused weariness and sweeping Romanticism. He uses dark humour and wit, and it serves as part of the narrative's smoke and mirrors, seeking to erase some of the horror in trivialising the subject matter by offering jokes where shock may be more readily expected. 

His writing style is deeply poetic, with a humorous and ornate style as a result of double entendres, multilingual puns, anagrams and coinages. The style is also highly visual, with Humbert often compelling the reader to see what he sees, "You can always count on murder as a fancy prose style". He is blunt, but in the most refreshing way possible, basically, guys, read this book if you can- its actually quite interesting, not even for the exam, but just as general reading- its not badly written for a guy who didn't even speak English as his first language, you go, Vladimir!