Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - Book Report/Review Example

LOLITA

Introduction

Lolita is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov and was published in 1955 by Olympia Press. The novel is well known for the protagonist, who is also the narrator using the first person narration. He is a middle aged professor who is unreliable and obsessed with a 12-year old child called Dolores Haze. Lolita is a private nickname that the protagonist, Humbert Humbert, comes up with for Dolores (Nabokov 148). It is the language and style of language used in the text of the novel Lolita that makes Humbert Humbert the narrator, to appear likeable to the audience despite being an objectively horrible person.

Plot Summary

‘Lolita’ is a novel that mainly focuses on a literary scholar and a professor called Humbert Humbert. He is also the narrator and describes his life and premature death of his childhood girlfriend called Annabel Leigh. In the novel, he suggests that his love for Annabel caused his fixation. He tries to satisfy his sexual fantasies by pretending to be reading a book in public parks, and getting aroused by young girls playing around in the park. After this, Humbert marries an adult woman who has childish mannerisms, called Valeria. However, Valeria cheats on Humbert and end up separating.

After the marriage does not work out, Humbert starts having fantasies about molesting and abusing a 12-year old girl from an impoverished family, the McCoos that he has agreed to rent an apartment. A land lady by the name Mrs. Charlotte Haze offers him accommodation. Humbert gives the lady some polite visits. He later becomes infatuated with Mrs. Haze’s 12-year old daughter called ‘Lola’. He finds her with striking resemblance to his first love, Annabel. He agrees to live in Charlotte’s house, for the sole purpose of being near her daughter. He even privately gives her a nickname ‘Lolita’. His obsession grows a big deal to the extent that he starts a diary for her, where he describes all Lolita’s characteristics, and the memories that they had had together. In the diary, there are very mean and hateful comments about Charlotte.

As time goes by, Charlotte dies, and Humbert begins taking full advantage of Lolita. They take road trips, and Humbert becomes very possessive and jealous over Lolita. During one of the road trips, Lolita gets sick, and is admitted into one of the nearby hospitals as Humbert stays in a nearby motel. One day when he goes to the hospital, he is told that Lolita was checked out by his uncle. On this piece of news, Humbert embarks on a quest to find her and her kidnapper.

When she turns 17, Lolita calls Humbert and tells him that she is married, pregnant and she is in need of money. Humbert tracks her down, and finds her. He establishes that her kidnapper was Mr. Clare Quilty, who he kills in his own mansion. The story ends as Humbert writes his best wishes for Lolita, and after a while, they both die, their deaths only one month apart.

Analysis

The text used in the novel brings out the unreliable narration as an ironical style of language. According to the text the author, who is also the character, is seen as a well spoken person yet horrible in his actions. A distance is actually created between what the author means to imply, and what the narration appear. For example, Humbert is seen to be an unreliable when he says that Lolita seduced him. He even goes ahead to say that she is in complete control of the relationship. However, as the readers, we know that he is the adult, and he is actually the one in control. He controls Lolita’s freedom and money, and even asks for sexual favors from her. It is very clear that he has the upper hand, and by telling the readers that she seduced him is falseful, and completely unreliable. Unreliability in Humbert is also seen when he gives contradicting comments about his memory and says, “A murderer with a sensational but incomplete and unorthodox memory” (Nabokov 217).

In the novel, the text portrays a style of playing around with language to appeal to the readers, and actually make the readers have sympathy on the character. The author has written the story in a way that ironically describes him as the character. For instance, he uses a different tone, a self-mocking one, and uses it to distract the reader’s attention from what he actually describes. Although unreliable, he uses language skillfully, and he manages to persuade the readers to have sympathy on him, and also convinces them to view things in his perspective. “Lolita” is a very impressive book. However, this is not only about the storyline, but also about the language used (Nabokov 127). The way the language is used allows the readers feel the emotion brought out by the text. To some point along the text, the readers develop conflicting emotions about Humbert, the character. For instance, sometimes the readers could find him disgusting, and at times he could appear compassionate. The changing voice is used to emphasize and show the character’s appreciation for nymphets. As the reader reads across the text, he or she is trapped to the idea that even what is wrong can momentarily look, or be made to look good. This is evident in the section that talks about the character’s obsession for nymphets because of his past childhood relationship. Anybody who had ever experienced his or her first love especially during childhood is likely to agree with the feeling that the text tried to bring out when talking about the character.

The text also shows the use of figurative language and changing voices, which not only reveals the character as being an unreliable narrator, but also a person who uses such a technique to cover up the disturbing and immoral relationship with an adolescent. It is quite evident that the narrator is aware of his changing voice when he says, “You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style” (Nabokov 9). In most parts of the novel where Humbert’s obsessions for nymphets arise, he changes the voice from narrating the story, to another voice which is full of figurative language, probably to ease the effect of the story on the reader.

In the novel, the text reveals the character as possessing some aspects of a trickster. An example is where he tricks psychiatrists and uses all the tricks he has on them. He says, “trifling with psychiatrists: cunningly leading them on; never letting them see that you know all the tricks of the trade; inventing for them elaborate dreams, pure classics in style” (Nabokov 34). He also creates a fantastic detail where he tries to hide the truth about his pedophilia, or his delusions. He also acquires some sense of entitlement by deceiving others using his creative style. Throughout the novel, Humbert uses a stylistic mask where he tries to hide parts of his unappealing memoir. An example of this is where Lolita seats on his laps, becomes aroused. In this part, Humbert uses his artistic language, such that such an awful thing does not sound very harsh. As much as he is an undesirable character, the readers actually get to like him through how he artistically uses language. In this scene for example, he describes every detail of how Lolita was, including the dress she had on, the fitting and the colors. This is actually meant to distract the readers from thinking that he was actually devoted to a very young girl considering his age.

Humbert also makes use of poetry in his text. For example, in the book we have, “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. 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” (Nabokov 9). In another instance, he uses poetry and he does this mainly to manipulate his improper reaction to a young girl. This is especially seen as he describes how Lola was eating the apple. He does this to invoke the audience/ the readers to appreciate Lolita’s beauty, while trying to hide the fact behind it. The truth of the matter is that it the absence of the artistic language and styles used by Humbert, that ordinary language would have shown the situation for what it was without hiding any detail.

Another style used in the text is the first person speech. With this, the author is able to appeal more to the audience. He gives the narratives from his own perspective, and in this position, he is able to manipulate the readers to view things in his perspective. For example, when Lola is checked out of the hospital, he assumes that she was kidnapped, and even makes the reader believe that she was kidnapped, and that he needed to find her, while all he did to her was control her and use her to satisfy his sexual urges. Using the first person speech, he is also able to seek sympathy from the audience. He expresses how he feels and even uses his pedophilia to seek sympathy.

Conclusion

Nabokov’s work “Lolita” is an exception example of art. The manner in which he narrates the story is enough evidence for this. He engages the audience with a lot of word play, and uses this to appeal to them. The skill used in making the language beautiful for the audience is mainly meant to cover up for his pedophilia. The artistic language is used to distract the readers from the unacceptable deeds and thoughts he had over Lola. Due to how he manipulates language, he actually gets the readers to like him and having sympathy on him despite being a bad character. However, at the end of the novel, it is evident that nothing at all, including artistic language with purpose can compromise morality.