Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita

The narration In Vladimir Nobakov’s Lolita, seeks to compel the reader’s opinion of Humbert Humbert through its use of rhetoric to rationalize and romanticize Humbert’s wrong doings throughout the book. With Nabokov’s decision of letting Humbert narrate his and Lo’s despicable story, He’s able to draw attention to his own demise rather than Dolores’s which allows the readers to witness the vulnerable side of the antagonist. His failure to participate in normal relationships gains him sympathy as he describes his actions as if they were logical and romantic. Although melancholy, this novel’s disturbing aspects still shines brighter like the sun against the stars in the sky. Critics till this day argue about their inappropriate view about the
By removing his guilt it allows him to write with malice and deception which carries out to his own advantage. His removal of the personal ‘I’ entices the readers to reach one step closer, burrowing themselves further down Humbert’s deception as they hunt for the writer’s emotions. But even though his rhetoric isolates him from the crime, while doing so Humbert’s also pleads
He brings up pathos when he mentions “my very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three, and, save for a pocket warmth in the darkest past,” He begs for the reader’s sympathy in a very obvious way at the start of the book. The mention of a family death acquires him the sympathy immediately.He also mentions the start of it all, his childhood, his child love. Humbert’s obsession with “nymphets” stems from his “love” for the twelve year old Annabel. This first love propeles his pedophelic thoughts as he never mends his love for the 12 year old. Her death leaves him stranded in what Sigmund Freud called the Genital period. This fixation is what’s causing Humbert’s atrocious sexual