The Unreliable Narrator in Vladimir Nabokovs Lolita Essay -- Nabokov

Distracted by his charm, his wit, his intelligence, and - yes - his murderers fancy prose style, we whitethorn momentarily forget that he is indeed the monster he says he is (Rivers and Nicol 153). In his On a Book Entitled Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov recalls that he snarl the first little throb of Lolita run through him as he read a newspaper article about an ape who, afterward months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal this sketch showed the bars of the poor creatures cage. The image of a working class so complete that it dominates and shapes artistic expression (however limited that expression whitethorn be) is a moving and powerful angiotensin-converting enzyme, and it does, indeed, reflect in the text of Lolita. Humbert Humbert, the novels silvery poet-narrator, observes the world through the bars of his obsession, his nympholepsy, and this confinement deeply affects the quality of his narration. In particular, his powerful sexual desires prevent him from understanding Lolita in any substantial way, so that throughout the text what he describes is not the real Lolita, just an abstract creature, without depth or substance beyond the complex right of symbols and allusions that he associates with her. When in his rare moments of exhaustion Humbert seems to lift this literary veil, he reveals for a moment the violent contrast between his intricately manipulated narration and the stark ugliness of a very different truth. In one of the most elaborately vivid scenes in the novel, Humbert excites himself to a sexual closing while Lolita sits, unaware, on his lap. Rejoicing in the unexpected and unnoticed fulfillment, he asserts that, Lolita has been safely solipsized (60)... ... 3-18. Bloom, Harold, ed. Vladimir Nabokovs Lolita. Modern Critical Interpretations. naked York Chelsea House, 1987. Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov The American Years. Princeton Princeton University Pres s, 1991. Centerwall, Brandon S. Hiding in Plain Sight Nabokov and Pedophilia. Texas Studies in Literature and Language 32 (1990) 468-84. Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. New York Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1992. Rivers, J.E., Charles Nicol. Nabokovs Fifth Arc Nabokov and Others on his Lifes Work. Austin University of Texas Press, 1982.