Lolita and Humbert - Research Paper Example

Lolita Lolita is a novel by a Russian born who first wrote the story in English detailing the story of Humbert Humbert a literature professor who is obsessed with a twelve year old girl whom he nicknames Lolita. The novel is a narrative by the protagonist of the story who is aware of his wayward behaviour and unnatural preferences. The narrator refers to himself as a hebephile, a condition he attributes to the death of his childhood ‘sweetheart’ Annabel Leigh. This condition is attributed by Humbert to be the cause of having unsuccessful marriages because he is always seeking out young replicas of dear departed Annabel Leigh. At one point in life Humbert suffers a mental breakdown and upon recovery he moves to a town where he where he get married to Charlotte haze, Dolores’ mother. This is in order to remain close to Dolores or Lolita who is a madly in love or obsessed with. According to Lee and Lee (76), the novel is acclaimed to be an erotic novel that can be interpreted to be a representation of the author’s native country social and political problems. The novel is rich source of various themes that can be explored to create an argument. For the purposes of this paper, the theme or aspect that comes out to the reader of this book is pedophilia, hebephilia or ephebophilia. This can be explained by conflicting thoughts that go through a readers mind when he learns the point of Humber’s attraction and sexual desires. It raises questions of the legality of his actions, and the moral or ethical considerations partaken by the author in writing this novel. Hebephilia is a term used to refer to sexual preference for individuals with a particular physical appearance of either sex with a strong relevance to the age of that individual ((Nobokov 188). Humbert’s behavior can be considered to be a manifestation of chronophilic preferences which boarders on pedohilia , hebephilia and ephebophelia. All of these classifications concern definition of sexual preferences with people who are below the legal age limit allowed for consensual sex and intimacy. This novel was based on events were happening in the United States (US) during the early 1950s to the late 1950s, and it requires that one look into laws of that period. This is required to understand the protagonist’s thoughts and motivators of his actions. It will be useful in understanding why Humbert did not seem consider the repercussions of his actions towards a minor. It would be important to understand at this juncture, that this period in American history was characterized by the climax of the Civil Rights Movement. Thus, it would be appropriate to conclude that individual rights especially those of women, girls and children were not strongly advocated for or protected. This perspective can be used to explain Humbert’s disregard of the fact that he was defiling a minor. The novel illustrates that he was aware of the evil nature of his intentions when he drugs Dolores/Lolita with sleeping pills in order to unknowingly defile when she was asleep. This does not change the fact that he accepted her sexual advances when she initiated sex for the first time. According to the Sexual Violent Predator Act (SVPA) classifications, Humbert fits perfectly into the classification of a pedophile. He exhibits a mental anomaly that predisposes him to having volitional and emotional capacities to commit sexual offences to both adults and minors. In today’s world, people of Humbert’s predisposition are placed on global watch lists of sexual predators in order to increase society’s protection from such individuals. If an individual qualifies for one of the SVPA conditions and classifications, the law requires that they be committed to civil mental institutions where they receive specialized psychiatric evaluation and treatment for as long as it takes to cure them or reform their behavior. This predisposition was not regarded as mental condition during Humbert’s time, and it is characterized by some states in the US lacking legislation against such acts. It can be construed that Humbert’s travels with Lolita through various states with her as his captive, was informed by the fact that there existed no laws to deter his sort of behavior. Or it can also be assumed that Humbert knew that such issues were of rare concern to people of areas he visited with her as to raise any form of concern or alarm. Morality and ethics or that period leave the reader wanting and in awe of the fact that a seventeen year old girl could get married and fall pregnant without any intervention from the authorities. The protagonist’s morals are definitely apparent to the reader because of the way he justifies his sick and perverted ways in his narration. The use of his weakness as a human being to justify his perverted desires and preferences, the protagonist displays a sense of disconnect with reality. Pedophilia or chronophilia has been categorized as mental disorder that requires psychological treatment and evaluation, a notion that Humbert as a learned fellow does not remotely consider. Humbert sees Lolita as the source of his salvation in a feeble attempt to escape the fact that he is sick and need medical attention in through psychiatric help and treatment. The protagonist’s fondness of ‘nympets’ is not only based on Lolita, but is a long and insatiable appetite for the forbidden and he tries to satisfy his desires by moving around the American countryside scouting for potential victims. Humbert discovers Lolita quite by accident in the small northern-eastern town where he is ready to settle for anything as long as his desires are satisfied. The novel does the description and illustration of Humbert’s ill manners through the use of comedy and satire to take the sting off the actual events. Humbert’s attempts to portray himself as the victim of Lolita’s beauty and sex appeal are not lost to the reader. He postulates that he cannot control his want and desire for Lolita, an aspect that is discerned from his attempts of recovering her from the hands of her captor who he eventually murders. Lolita’s thoughts, emotions and perceptions are subdued by the narrator, which can be seen his of way advancing his needs and ways of justifying himself as the victim. The lack of Lolita’s input, participation or influence on the protagonist goes to illustrate the regard with which women and girls were held with during this period in the US. According to Lee and Lee (108), Lolita can be viewed as the agent of causation of all events that take place in this narrative. This is because the protagonist’s actions are all directed at attaining Lolita’s love and attention and they permeate every aspect of his life. It is also not clear why the author does not include Lolita’s contribution to the events, while it is apparently clear that she had a significant role to play. This is strengthened by the fact that she initiated their first sex encounter since she had already had experience at camp. Lolita’s influence and impact on Humbert’s life can be experienced through his constant reference to her role in his life the numerous efforts he makes to reconcile with her she after she run away from hospital. It is also possible for the reader to learn of Lolita’s indifference to Humbert, and the fact that she does not approve what he does to her when she runs away from hospital with another man. Lolita seeks freedom by reaching out to her theatre producer or director with whom she elopes in order to escape her ‘step-father’s’ attention.  She shouts and rebels against Humbert, she exhibits more than the frustration of an ordinary adolescent. She clearly feels trapped by her arrangement with Humbert, but she is powerless to extricate herself ((Nobokov 210). Throughout her life, Lolita sustains an almost complete lack of self-awareness. As an adult, she recollects her time with Humbert dispassionately and doesn’t seem to hold a grudge against either him or Quilty for ruining her childhood. Her attitude suggests that as a child she had nothing for them to steal, nothing important enough to value. Her refusal to look too deeply within herself and her tendency to look forward rather than backward, might represent typically American traits. Humbert objectifies Lolita, and he robs her of any sense of self, and she exists only as the object of his obsession, never as an individual. The lack of self-awareness in a child is typical and often charming. As an adult, Lolita’s the absence of self-awareness seems tragic. The novel is classic illustration of how a pedophile’s mind works and their points of view with respect to their victims. Humbert draws the reader’s sympathy by emphasizing on his mental condition which predisposes him to commit sexual offences against Lolita. There is no attempt by the protagonist to go against his sickness instigated desires and behaviors, but he instead accentuates them by pursuing Lolita (Nobokov 221). Lolita on the other hand is the perfect victim for Humbert because she is overly sexual, a fact that is displayed when she initiates sex with him in the motel. Her sexual nature leads her to make a series of wrong or unfavorable decisions with regard to her relationship with Humber. As case in point is when she habitually accepts gifts from Humbert in exchange for sexual favors. This shows that she to some extent condoned what was being done to her. Humbert and Lolita are both exiles, and, alienated from the societies with which they are familiar, they find themselves in ambiguous moral territory where the old rules seem not to apply. Humbert chooses exile and comes willingly from Europe to America, while Lolita is forced into exile when Charlotte dies. She becomes detached from her familiar community of Ramsdale and goes on the road with Humbert (Lee and Lee 89). Together, they move constantly and belong to no single fixed place. The tourists Humbert and Lolita meet on the road are similarly transient, belonging to a generic America rather than to a specific place. In open, unfamiliar territory, Humbert and Lolita form their own set of rules, where normal sexual and familial relationships become twisted and corrupt. Both Humbert and Lolita have become so disconnected from ordinary society that neither can fully recognize how morally depraved their actions are. Humbert cannot see his own monstrosity, and Lolita shows only occasional awareness of herself of a victim. Though Humbert sweeps Lolita away so that they can find a measure of freedom, their exile ultimately traps them. Lolita is bound to Humbert because she has nowhere else to go, and though Humbert dreams of leaving America with Lolita, he eventually accepts that he will stay in America until he dies (Lee and Lee 115). Though each of them undergoes one final exile, Lolita to Dick Schiller and Humbert to prison, it is clear that they are first and foremost exiled from their own selves, an exile so total that they could never return to their original places in the worlds they once left.  Lee and Lee argue (120) that Lolita may be responsible for the trend of finding an abusive male figure dominating his senseless consort the most romantic thing possible. This disturbing trend has been popping up in literature more and more recently, specifically “50 Shades of Grey” and “Twilight.” (Lee, C. J. and Lee, J. 158). The popularity of these kinds of novels is particularly concerning because these “love” stories are teaching their female readers that if a man tells you that he loves you, it’s perfectly acceptable for him to be abusive. This literary technique is gaining ground with many writers and society is playing a major in promoting Lolita-like figures in society. Abused victims of rape, sexual assault and gender violence are commercializing this aspect and turning it into a cash cow. This through wring of books about their harrowing experiences, movie rights and other commercial processes that victims get to profit from crimes perpetrate on them. It is not wrong to write a book about one’s experiences and even selling it, but other factors should be considered. Criminals and pedophiles might take these acts as glorification of their acts and grow even boulder by committing acts that are even more atrocious. Works Cited Lee, C. J. and Lee, J. Celebrity, Pedophilia, and Ideology in American Culture. New York: Cambria Press. 2009. Print. Nobokov, V. Lolita. New York: Penguin Books Limited. 2012. Print. Read More