Thursday, October 22, 2009
Lolita
After reading the remainder of Nabokov's novel do we think humberts actions are justified towards his relationships with lolita? We see how there are people who can cause more harm to other such as Quilty. Do Humberts actions make us sympathize with his character? Since Humbert is essentially defending Lolita is it possible that his interest in Lolita is more than a sick obsession? Are we able to accept Humbert because of his extreme actions when murdering Quilty or do we think he is more psychotic than passionate?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Although I believe Humbert is a perverse and obsessive character, I feel sympathy for him to certain extent. To me, he is infatuated with Lolita because he has not yet filled his desires with a nymphet. Also, he cannot grasp her full attention so he is constantly "chasing" after her. His actions of killing Quilty were not justified. I despise Quilty's character and I realize he hurt Lolita and diregarded her, however, it's not Humbert's duty to defend Lolita since he hurt just as much. Lolita was constantly upset by Humbert and his refusal to make her be a normal young girl. I feel bad for Humbert because at the end of the novel truly showed he did love her but after all he put her through plus the murder of Quilty, he does deserve to be in jail.
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the book I can definetely see some remorse in Humbert. He starts to feel guilty for being so forceful with Lolita, and then later feels guilty for ruining so much of her childhood. However I do not feel this justifies his actions. His guilt does not make me like his character anymore. There are plenty of times in the book where Humbert is with Lolita and feels guilt, yet he never does anything to better the circumstance. Although Humbert seems to be the lesser of two evils when compared to Quilty, I still think that Humbert had plenty of oppertunities to change his own actions.
ReplyDeleteHumbert's character allows us to see the crazy and obsessive side of him. These characteristics allow us to have no sympathy for him. The only aspect in which we sympathize with him is failure to fall in love with someone. Humberts inability to fall in love leads him to a sick obsession over Lolita. Humbert essentially took away her childhood, and forced her to grow up too fast. She matured at an early age, and ran off with Quilty. Humbert is angry when he finds out that Quilty is abusing Lolita, and then he murders Quilty. The murder of Quilty can be based on his love for Lolita, but he took it too far this time. Humbert has a psychotic breakdown, and deserves to go to jail. Love is something that would never occur between Lolita and Humbert, because love is being passionate about one another. Lolita never truly loved Humbert, but he was never able to face the reality that love is more than just obssession.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that Humbert was in love with Lolita. It was more than just a sick obsession. It might not be a love that was socially acceptable, but I don't doubt that it's what he was truly feeling. In his mental state, he loved Lolita to his fullest ability. Knowing how he felt about her helps me understand his actions, and even sympathize with his character. In a fictional world, it's acceptable that he murdered Quilty because he was committing this crime out of passion. Yes, Humbert may not have been much better than Quilty, but I do not think readers place enough blame on Lolita when it comes to her relations with either of the two. Maybe she didn't understand what her actions were supposed to mean, but she definitely wasn't as innocent as people want to believe the average young teen is. It could be that it's partially Humbert's fault that she ran off with Quilty, but her tendency to commit acts such as these existed before Humbert came into the picture, otherwise, she wouldn't have committed them to begin with. I feel that Lolita was just as "crazy" as Humbert, but readers ignore that because of her age. Humbert definitely had psychological issues, I won't ignore that. However, his actions after becoming involved with Lolita were definitely more passionate than crazy.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe there are any clear heros or villians in Lolita. I think in that sense the book seems to be realistic because in the real world things are not so black and white, there are some shades of grey as well. However, the novel certainly portrays Humbert as a more sympathetic character then Quimbly and even more sympathetic the Lolita herself which should theoretically be the victim in the story. I think it has a great deal to do with the fact that the person who is supposedly doing something wrong is the person telling us the story. Obviously people tell stories with themselves in the best of light.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see his love for Lolita isn't an obsession and he cares deeply for her. But this does not give an excuse to justify his actions. I think he should have realized what he was doing was wrong. And by killing someone who might have been "evil" is even worse. I think he is still crazy, no matter what his actions are after being in love with Lolita. The way Humbert talks about things in the book we can definiately feel some remorse for him, but that shouldn't get in the way of our feelings towards a pedophile.
ReplyDeleteAs we read the book, we get swept up in Humbert's passion for Lolita. When Lolita escapes from him, the reader feels pity for Humbert. Since we get inside Humbert's head in the novel, Humbert tries to get the reader to see Humbert's act of murdering Quilty as a condonable act of justice. He wants the audience to view this event as Humbert showing that he loves Lolita like his lover instead of his mistress. Even though I feel that I should be sympathetic to Humbert's character, I do not feel any sympathy for a pedophile like him. I feel that the book just shows us the true depths of his insanity that he would condemn a man for doing something almost as despicable as him and still expect to be seen in a positive light.
ReplyDeleteOn psychological level, no I don’t think Humbert actions can be justified. On a more formal level, compare Roman Polanski real life to the fictional character of Humbert. As it were, he committed this same act over thirty years ago and the law is still going after him. As a matter of, if we look even deeper our country as a whole is in an uproar over his actions. It is important to point out real life events are often seen with specs of morality.
ReplyDeleteThe crucial presence of, Humbert, as were he narrates the story, in turn the reader is able to deeply read this character. However, I can’t straight away write him off as cruel. With the significance of background and structure, of Humbert, he's right to feel guilty when he realizes he robbed Lolita of her childhood. Humbert’s actions are over the limits of acceptance. But, I like, to think all that was bad shall be made good again. As for the question of psychotic than passionate murder; I feel it’s a little of both. Matters of the heart can consist of both psychotic and passion
I think Quilty is a character that makes Humbert look better in comparison. I'm not sure whether Humbert murders Quilty because of his "love" for Lolita, or just because he took her away from him which prevented him from fulfilling his "lusty desires." Either way, they both represent adults taking advantage of youths and those actions are in no way redeemable. If Humbert did kill Quilty to defend Lolita's honor, than that brings his psycho level down a bit because I think most people would agree that a man like Quilty deserves to be killed. This fact brings the reader on a level equal with Humbert, but very soon after we are reminded again of who it was that brought Lolita to leave with Quilty.
ReplyDelete