Lolita
by Amila K.
Brief Summary: Lolita is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov and published in 1955. The storyteller is thirty something year old Humbert, a recent immigrant to the United States. Humbert moves in with Charlotte Haze and her 12 year old daughter Dolores aka Lolita (only called that by Humbert). Humbert basically starts having an obsession with nymphets (the pre-pubescent girl Lolita) and tries to seduce Lolita. In order for Humbert to live with Mrs. Haze, he marries her but behind her back constantly thinks of Lolita. After the mother finds a diary and letters of Humberts desires for Lolita, she tries to leave him but ends up dead in a car accident. After that Humber takes Lolita, they flee together and have a “sexual-relationship”………
Lolita
While many were cynical of Vladimir Nabakov’s Lolita in the 1950’s due to its shocking sexual content and controversial subject, many suggested the novel was portraying American mass culture. The novel possessed a “satiric portraiture of American manners and morals”, in an era when sexuality and gender roles ruled the country (Lodge 618). In "Lolita Misrepresented, Lolita Misclaimed: Disclosing the Doubles" by Elizabeth Patnoe we gain a better perspective as to why Humbert was often not regarded as a pedophile by many and how some even believed he was the victim in the novel.
According to Elizabeth Patnoe, the novel purveys the notion that “femaleness, femininity, and female sexuality are desirable but dangerous –even deadly “(Patnoe 83). This is evident in the images of Lolita in the film and the description of her in the novel. Nabakov himself describes nymphets as being "Deadly little demons” and as having a “demonic ability to attract men at least ten years older than themselves” (Patnoe 82). In other words, it is Lolita, the seductive adolescent girl that lures Humbert to fall for her. In Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan we learn that femininity was imposed on girls at a young age by the sex-directed educators. As Patnoe describes the novel, we come to learn that many readers believed Lolita asked to be in a sexual relationship with Humbert, however while reading Friedan's work, we come to realize that living in the 1950’s meant if you were female you had to conform to the feminine role. In other words, Lolita was the product of her culture and she was acting out a part imposed on her.
After Lolita’s mother passes away, Humbert takes Lolita with him and has sex with her. Although Humbert is clearly a pedophile, Lolita is portrayed as a seductress and it is she who wanted to leave her childhood and become part of the "adult" world. As Friedan suggests however, girls had to “less consciously stop their own growth to play the feminine role” (Friedan 176). While Lolita's actions might have been considered as sexual implications by Humbert, Lolita was still a child that assumed a role and had to play along. In the novel Lolita tells Humbert of a “childs game”, that which is “foreign to him “, clearly referring that Lolita is still a pre-pubescent girl that does not choose to live and engage in sexual relations with Humbert but is forced because she like many other girls of her age “were arrested in their mental growth, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, by conformity to the feminine image” (Patnoe 89 and Friedan 175).
In the end Lolita finally escapes from Humbert, however only by joining another elderly “accomplished” man Quincy. In the novel the male figure is often rewarded for assuming the masculine role, such as Humbert, he is educated, employed and in the end received his reward; Lolita. Quincy on the other hand is a playwright, also a provider and he too conquers Lolita in the end. However, Lolita for assuming the feminine role in the end gets punished. Humbert has destroyed her “joy for living he has induced in her cynicism alien to the world of childhood” (Levine 472).
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique, New York, 1997
Levine, Robert T., “My Ultraviolet Darling”: The Loss of Lolita’s Childhood, Modern Fiction Studies, 25:3 (1979: Autumn) p. 471
Lodge, Davis, Carl R. Proffer, “Keys to ‘Lolita’” (Book Review), Modern Language Review, 65:3 (1970:July) p.618
Patnoe, Elizabeth, Lolita Misrepresented, Lolita Reclaimed: Disclosing the Doubles, College Literature, 22:2 (1995: June) p.81
Brief Summary: Lolita is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov and published in 1955. The storyteller is thirty something year old Humbert, a recent immigrant to the United States. Humbert moves in with Charlotte Haze and her 12 year old daughter Dolores aka Lolita (only called that by Humbert). Humbert basically starts having an obsession with nymphets (the pre-pubescent girl Lolita) and tries to seduce Lolita. In order for Humbert to live with Mrs. Haze, he marries her but behind her back constantly thinks of Lolita. After the mother finds a diary and letters of Humberts desires for Lolita, she tries to leave him but ends up dead in a car accident. After that Humber takes Lolita, they flee together and have a “sexual-relationship”………
Lolita
While many were cynical of Vladimir Nabakov’s Lolita in the 1950’s due to its shocking sexual content and controversial subject, many suggested the novel was portraying American mass culture. The novel possessed a “satiric portraiture of American manners and morals”, in an era when sexuality and gender roles ruled the country (Lodge 618). In "Lolita Misrepresented, Lolita Misclaimed: Disclosing the Doubles" by Elizabeth Patnoe we gain a better perspective as to why Humbert was often not regarded as a pedophile by many and how some even believed he was the victim in the novel.
According to Elizabeth Patnoe, the novel purveys the notion that “femaleness, femininity, and female sexuality are desirable but dangerous –even deadly “(Patnoe 83). This is evident in the images of Lolita in the film and the description of her in the novel. Nabakov himself describes nymphets as being "Deadly little demons” and as having a “demonic ability to attract men at least ten years older than themselves” (Patnoe 82). In other words, it is Lolita, the seductive adolescent girl that lures Humbert to fall for her. In Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan we learn that femininity was imposed on girls at a young age by the sex-directed educators. As Patnoe describes the novel, we come to learn that many readers believed Lolita asked to be in a sexual relationship with Humbert, however while reading Friedan's work, we come to realize that living in the 1950’s meant if you were female you had to conform to the feminine role. In other words, Lolita was the product of her culture and she was acting out a part imposed on her.
After Lolita’s mother passes away, Humbert takes Lolita with him and has sex with her. Although Humbert is clearly a pedophile, Lolita is portrayed as a seductress and it is she who wanted to leave her childhood and become part of the "adult" world. As Friedan suggests however, girls had to “less consciously stop their own growth to play the feminine role” (Friedan 176). While Lolita's actions might have been considered as sexual implications by Humbert, Lolita was still a child that assumed a role and had to play along. In the novel Lolita tells Humbert of a “childs game”, that which is “foreign to him “, clearly referring that Lolita is still a pre-pubescent girl that does not choose to live and engage in sexual relations with Humbert but is forced because she like many other girls of her age “were arrested in their mental growth, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, by conformity to the feminine image” (Patnoe 89 and Friedan 175).
In the end Lolita finally escapes from Humbert, however only by joining another elderly “accomplished” man Quincy. In the novel the male figure is often rewarded for assuming the masculine role, such as Humbert, he is educated, employed and in the end received his reward; Lolita. Quincy on the other hand is a playwright, also a provider and he too conquers Lolita in the end. However, Lolita for assuming the feminine role in the end gets punished. Humbert has destroyed her “joy for living he has induced in her cynicism alien to the world of childhood” (Levine 472).
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique, New York, 1997
Levine, Robert T., “My Ultraviolet Darling”: The Loss of Lolita’s Childhood, Modern Fiction Studies, 25:3 (1979: Autumn) p. 471
Lodge, Davis, Carl R. Proffer, “Keys to ‘Lolita’” (Book Review), Modern Language Review, 65:3 (1970:July) p.618
Patnoe, Elizabeth, Lolita Misrepresented, Lolita Reclaimed: Disclosing the Doubles, College Literature, 22:2 (1995: June) p.81
posted by Leslie Madsen-Brooks at 10/22/2006 10:33:00 PM
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