Pedophilia

Before I begin to even attempt to give any insight on the meaning of this work of literature, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, I must say that I have never read something so grotesque. As we were talking in class today, I guess somehow reading these words somehow makes this horrible situation that much more vivid to me rather than watching it in a Law and Order SVU or CSI television show. I also must give Nabokov my complete respect for being able to tap into the mind of a pedophile. I never would think this way and really can only think that someone who is truly sick with this disease of pedophilia (I think maybe that's a made up word?) could even write such things about a child. However, whether Nabokov truly feels this way towards children or not, he does an excellent job depicting the mind of a sicko.

I must say that the reading for today (pages 62-109) were slightly more easy for me to handle today. I felt like maybe I understood more that was going on during the narration than I had before. In this passage that I read, I felt that there were some specific instances depicted in the marriage of Humbert and Charlotte, that even though this marriage was built on a one-way love, that look like many marriages we see in modern society today. For instance, all the plans the wife has for the husband and how the husband just gets drug along through them and is expected to just go along for the ride. As soon as Charlotte and Humbert get married, she goes on a frenzy of redecorating the house and planning cute little trips for them to go on. Then finally one day she crosses the line and he vocalizes his opinion and says, "No, wait a minute, The present matter is only incidental. I am concerned with a general trend. When you wanted me to spend my afternoons sunbathing on the Lake instead of doing my work, I gladly gave in and became a bronzed glamor boy for your sake, instead of remaining a scholar and, well, and educator. When you lead me to bridge and bourbon with the charming Farlows, I meekly follow. . . I love being bossed by you, but every game has its rules. I am not cross. I am not cross at all. .. But I am one half of this household, and have a small but distinct voice." (page 91). I feel like this is probably happens in a few households in America. Where there's a domineering wife and the husband finally stands up for himself and the wife is just taken aback and doesn't know what to do. Although, I'm not sure that women now would respond the same was as Charlotte and say, "You're my god. Please forgive me. Let's have sex now." (not a direct quote of course) but nonetheless be surprised. I definitely liked this scene, that even though I am not a fan of Humbert in ANY way, I thought it was good that he was sticking up for himself.

This whole scheme of marriage that Humbert came up with really just blew up in his face. He thought he would be able to be closer to Lolita by marrying this woman that he was in no way attracted to. He even has to think of Lolita while he is intimate with Charlotte just so he can be turned on. He says, "I would manage to evoke the child while caressing the mother" (page 76). But, Charlotte apparently hates her daughter and plans to send her to a boarding school so she can have her new perfect life with her husband. This, however, does not fly with him. No, he is head over heels in love with this twelve-year-old girl who is also apparently wasting away months of her young beauty at this Camp Q. Humbert does try to kill Charlotte, but he has too much compassion for that. He thinks about it all the time (that's how deranged this man is) but he simply can't bring himself to kill her. But, fate takes care of that setback only after she finds everything out about his fantasies about her daughter. What an experience that must of been for Charlotte. She thought she was going to read maybe some secret love letter Humbert had written to her or maybe even some old secret of a former lover, but no, he's in love with her pre-teen daughter. Awesome. So she furiously writes 3 letters, goes to mail them, and is hit by a car and dies. Irony. But this is the time we actually see some normal human emotion in Humbert. He cries. He says, "Fat fate's formal handshake. . .brought me out of my torpor; and I wept. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury--I wept" (page 103). I don't know if maybe he was just so drunk that he actually cried or maybe he was just so excited about the time he was going to get alone with Lolita now that he was crying for joy. Whatever it is, I suppose this emotion came at the right time in the story for him to at least seem sad for his wife's passing.

Is there deeper meaning here? I'm not sure. Maybe Nabokov is trying to tell us something by this situation that he as just depicted, but I have yet to come to the meaning. I know in some of the parts he was satirizing the action of wives and the way they control their husbands lives. Also those parents who feel the need to send their kids off to a boarding school. But I shall just have to keep reading to see what else Nabokov has in store for me.