Focus on Characters (Chapters 15-33, End of Part One)
I'm about halfway through Nabakov's Lolita at this point, with this blog post covering up until the very end of Part One, or through Chapter 33. It continues to be an emotional rollercoaster, with disgust and discomfort being by far the most prevalent feelings I've experienced throughout my reading of the first 33 chapters.
In this post, I want to cover the major characters in the novel -- at least those of which appear in Part One -- and give my thoughts on their traits, as told by our narrator Humbert, who I am finding increasingly difficult to believe.
To begin with, Humbert Humbert, our narrator, is a European man in his late thirties who has moved to America. He has a sexual fixation on certain young girls between the ages of 9 and 13, whom he refers to as "nymphets" -- however, one girl specifically catches his attention and subsequently becomes known as "his Lolita". The entire novel is written as a testimony to a jury, who is trying him for murder, according to the introduction. We see him readily refer to "ladies and gentlemen of the jury" regularly, especially in moments when he is recounting pedophilic or other morally questionable feelings and actions. He describes himself as exceptionally physically attractive, informing the reader on multiple occasions of his popularity with women of all ages, although he expresses no genuine interest in adult women. He moves in with Dolores (Lolita) and her mother Charlotte while she is 12, and subsequently marries Charlotte in an attempt to become closer to Dolores and have jurisdiction over her. Through a series of events Humbert describes as "fate", Charlotte finds out about his feelings towards her daughter, runs crying into the street, and gets hit by a car and killed. This leaves Humbert as Lolita's guardian, and towards the end of Part One we see him attempt to molest her in her sleep while staying at a hotel, only to see an apparent massive shift as Lolita apparently initiates sex with him of her own accord. (I say apparently because Humbert is quite clearly an unreliable and biased narrator, and I'm not entirely convinced his account is fully accurate).
Dolores "Lolita" Haze is the 12 year old girl who Humbert falls in love with. She develops a schoolgirl crush on him while he is staying with her and her mother, and even gives him a kiss before being sent off to the summer camp that prevents her from witnessing any of the courtship between Humbert and Charlotte. According to Humbert, she is full of sass and very youthful, with somewhat bad manners and a flirtatious way about her. She tells Humbert that she has been sexually experimenting for quite some time, both with other girls and a boy named Charlie. She doesn't see sex as intimately or as powerfully as Humbert appears to -- rather, she experiences it as childish fun. Much of Lolita's character is difficult to understand, especially considering how likely it is that Humbert's perception of her actions and desires are so skewed. She is portrayed as a seductive being for him to tame, which is intended to leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth.
Charlotte Haze is Lolita's mother, and the woman Humbert married in order to become closer to her. She is wistful and romantic, loving Humbert's French heritage and sneaking in parts of the language to her own vernacular. She is lonely and possessive, and falls deeply in love with him, only to be utterly heartbroken and disgusted at the realization that he only married her to gain influence over her daughter. Her death is a turning point in the novel, and almost seems to contribute to the sense of circumstance surrounding all the events thus far.
There aren't all that many major characters thus far in the novel, though Annabel Leigh also should be talked about. Her name, an allusion that I discussed in my first blog post, is instrumental to understanding her role. She was Humbert's first love, and sparked in him his love for "nymphets" -- he grew older, but the girls of his affection did not. They experimented sexually but never actually engaged in intercourse, which left him almost stunted and traumatized following her untimely death.
Although there are other characters mentioned, I haven't found any others important enough to discuss in detail here. I'm very invested in seeing where this novel goes, for sure!
In this post, I want to cover the major characters in the novel -- at least those of which appear in Part One -- and give my thoughts on their traits, as told by our narrator Humbert, who I am finding increasingly difficult to believe.
To begin with, Humbert Humbert, our narrator, is a European man in his late thirties who has moved to America. He has a sexual fixation on certain young girls between the ages of 9 and 13, whom he refers to as "nymphets" -- however, one girl specifically catches his attention and subsequently becomes known as "his Lolita". The entire novel is written as a testimony to a jury, who is trying him for murder, according to the introduction. We see him readily refer to "ladies and gentlemen of the jury" regularly, especially in moments when he is recounting pedophilic or other morally questionable feelings and actions. He describes himself as exceptionally physically attractive, informing the reader on multiple occasions of his popularity with women of all ages, although he expresses no genuine interest in adult women. He moves in with Dolores (Lolita) and her mother Charlotte while she is 12, and subsequently marries Charlotte in an attempt to become closer to Dolores and have jurisdiction over her. Through a series of events Humbert describes as "fate", Charlotte finds out about his feelings towards her daughter, runs crying into the street, and gets hit by a car and killed. This leaves Humbert as Lolita's guardian, and towards the end of Part One we see him attempt to molest her in her sleep while staying at a hotel, only to see an apparent massive shift as Lolita apparently initiates sex with him of her own accord. (I say apparently because Humbert is quite clearly an unreliable and biased narrator, and I'm not entirely convinced his account is fully accurate).
Dolores "Lolita" Haze is the 12 year old girl who Humbert falls in love with. She develops a schoolgirl crush on him while he is staying with her and her mother, and even gives him a kiss before being sent off to the summer camp that prevents her from witnessing any of the courtship between Humbert and Charlotte. According to Humbert, she is full of sass and very youthful, with somewhat bad manners and a flirtatious way about her. She tells Humbert that she has been sexually experimenting for quite some time, both with other girls and a boy named Charlie. She doesn't see sex as intimately or as powerfully as Humbert appears to -- rather, she experiences it as childish fun. Much of Lolita's character is difficult to understand, especially considering how likely it is that Humbert's perception of her actions and desires are so skewed. She is portrayed as a seductive being for him to tame, which is intended to leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth.
Charlotte Haze is Lolita's mother, and the woman Humbert married in order to become closer to her. She is wistful and romantic, loving Humbert's French heritage and sneaking in parts of the language to her own vernacular. She is lonely and possessive, and falls deeply in love with him, only to be utterly heartbroken and disgusted at the realization that he only married her to gain influence over her daughter. Her death is a turning point in the novel, and almost seems to contribute to the sense of circumstance surrounding all the events thus far.
There aren't all that many major characters thus far in the novel, though Annabel Leigh also should be talked about. Her name, an allusion that I discussed in my first blog post, is instrumental to understanding her role. She was Humbert's first love, and sparked in him his love for "nymphets" -- he grew older, but the girls of his affection did not. They experimented sexually but never actually engaged in intercourse, which left him almost stunted and traumatized following her untimely death.
Although there are other characters mentioned, I haven't found any others important enough to discuss in detail here. I'm very invested in seeing where this novel goes, for sure!
Sophia,
ReplyDeleteI went back to also read your first blog post, and I must say that your posts are easy to follow along with and helpfully descriptive in nature. I particularly liked your discussion of Humbert Humbert (is that really his name?) because while I've enjoyed following along with other blogs about Lolita, I have yet to come across a mention of Humbert talking to a jury. That is a fascinating detail and one worthy of discussion. Other people have discussed his nearly expert knowledge of psychology, and I was wondering if you found that to be present in his acknowledgement of the jury. Perhaps that would help him win over the jury? I also find Lolita's character to be very interesting. Does she strike you as a typical 12 year old? How has her instincts as a pre-teenager helped or hurt her precarious situation with Humbert?
Have fun reading your next section!
Sophia, you've summarized the characters of the novel well, and you've discussed aspects of their characters well, such as Humbert's unreliable nature. Are there any other insights you can offer about them, perhaps as similar to other characters you've read about?
ReplyDeleteI can't say that any of them remind me terribly of other characters, though Dolores/Lolita has a bit of an attitude that one could compare to Scout from "To Kill A Mockingbird" or Freddy from "The Brothers K" -- however, it's difficult to draw such a comparison when so much of what we see of her personality and desires is skewed by Humbert's account. Humbert being an unreliable narrator notably differs from others (including Offred) because he is not necessarily misinformed, but instead trying to change the jury's perception of him.
DeleteHi Sophia, nice job on this post! One of the things I noticed is that most of the things you use to describe Charlotte and Lolita are their actions, rather than traits about them. I think this is really significant, given that we really don't know much about who they really are at all. This comes with the first person narration through the eyes of Humbert. All we know about who they are is what Humbert thinks about them, and he mostly only describes their actions and appearances with some other opinions mixed in.
ReplyDeleteIt might be worth considering not only what Humbert says about them, but also how, with such limited information, we get any sense of who they are through his writing. Humbert uses a lot of techniques, paying special attention to tone, what names he refers to them as, and the way in which he constructs the scenes to show the reader who he thinks they are. To him, Charlotte is a roadblock, and Lolita is an object of beauty that he wants to conquer. Are there any techniques you noticed that characterize them?
Hi Sophia!
ReplyDeleteYou have some really good and detailed comments about the characters, and I agree with you about Humbert's unreliability as a narrator and Lolita's "apparent" attempts at sexual relations with him. Nice job with that!
What do you think about Charlotte's reaction to Humbert's creepy and sexualized writing about her daughter? Do you think she was horrified for Lolita's benefit, or her own?
Can't wait to hear more of your thoughts on Lolita!
Grace
Hi Sophia! I really enjoyed reading this post, as I don’t know a lot about Lolita, and you did a nice job filling in what’s going on in the story. I was horrified by the things that you described happening in the plot, especially regarding the actions of Humbert, and can see why it’s very hard to like him as a character and, as you mentioned, to believe what he is saying. I know that we discussed this briefly in class, when we talked about the fact that sometimes the author is purposely making the main character really hard to root for. That being said, Humbert does sound like he’s still an interesting character, and the rest of the characters you mentioned sound intriguing too. Which one of them is your favorite so far?
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
DeleteHumbert is certainly extremely interesting -- you hate him but he has occasional moments where you can't help but feel for him a bit, on a purely human level.
I'd say that Lolita is my favorite character, because even though it's hard to determine exactly which parts of her character are accurate and which are delusions from Humbert, I feel for her. She's been through a lot and I can't help but wish that she, as a person, had more time to grow up in a normal setting. That part is explored a lot in the third and fourth quarters of the book, especially.