''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses ''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
- 112 - Lolita seems to be maimed: not things only but persons too. There is Miss Opposite, the crippled neighbour, Lolita's almost deaf husband, his friend Bill who has lost an arm in the war; a man wiping Humbert's windshield has a broken nose. A "hunchbacked and hoary Negro" takes Humbert's and Lolita's luggage into the Enchanted Hunters Hotel, and there are the tennisplaying "Boschean cripples". 24 It appears throughout that the world in which Humbert and Lolita move is in the same way "maimed" morally. "But let us be prim and civilized" Humbert Humbert admonishes himself at one point (21). This "civilized" has an ironic ring about it when it is taken to refer to a civilization that accommodates Miss Lester and Miss Fabian, Gaston Godin, Clare Quilty, and Lolita's schoolmates for that matter, without taking offence at their habits or even sharing them. Gaston Godin, suitably placed at Beardsley, with his predilection for little boys, is the favourite of all his neighbours, "crooned over by the old and car- ressed by the young" (179), because he easily manages to fool them all about his infirmity. Fowler sees him as almost representative of the hypocrisy and self- deception which is practised by so many of the other members of society as it emerges from Lo ita: The sentimental gauze which surrounds and disguises Gaston is part of the relentless selfdeception that all philistines practice in this novel;.. hyper-middle class Charlotte; and John Farlowe, solid burgher and anti-Semite; and Mona Dahl... who has already had an affair with a marine; and Mary Lore... who helps Lo escape
- 113 - with Quilty; and, of course, Pr1ýt, the headmistress of Beardsley School... Quilty's case is different. There does not seem to be any attempt at secrecy about his perversion, but there is no suggestion of a scandal either. On the contrary, he is rich, he is a public figure, he has a reputation as a talented playwright. His plays are staged at girls' schools, and his picture is pasted on walls in girls' bedrooms. He knows the corruption of others (of the chief of police for instance) and can there- fore make them his instruments. He has no difficulty finding "friends", ready to join in his "games" and to figure in his films. They know of his criminality and are indifferent to it, just as they are indiffer- ent to his death. Again, Fowler sees all that goes on around Quilty as representative of the attitude of society, "of everything that is not Humbert in this novel. " 26 Thus, apart from the psychoanalytical and the moral approaches being parodied, any moral judgement that might be made about Humbert is ironically turned back on society in much the same way in which the ridicule heaped on Pnin is flung back on the world. Any moral judgement that society might pronounce on Humbert would, indeed, only add to its own hypocrisy. The final irony which adds the supreme grotesque touch to the background of Humbert's story, as it has now emerged, is the fact that even the children are not the innocent creatures Humbert naively believes them to be. He has all his "conventional notions of what twelve-year-old girls should be" (123) disabused
- Page 67 and 68: - 61 - there must be some "model" a
- Page 69 and 70: - 63 - P NI N In their appreciation
- Page 71 and 72: - 65 - For the sake of convenience
- Page 73 and 74: - 67 - Pnin's appearance is comic,
- Page 75 and 76: - 69 - all-the time. He suffers an
- Page 77 and 78: - 71 - existence" (13). In his pres
- Page 79 and 80: - 73 - is going to give, on his per
- Page 81 and 82: - 75 - exist in such big sea" (60).
- Page 83 and 84: - 77 - directly from Pnin's peculia
- Page 85 and 86: - 79 - them at least 10ok like his
- Page 87 and 88: - 81 - indeed only the very thinnes
- Page 89 and 90: - 83 - but the group of academics w
- Page 91 and 92: - 85 - "schools and trends", and is
- Page 93 and 94: - 87 - which induces the reader to
- Page 95 and 96: - 89 - and-smiles at, there emerges
- Page 97 and 98: - 91 - More depth and reality are a
- Page 99 and 100: - 93 - cp. 180). The narrator also
- Page 101 and 102: 95 - being accurate in every point,
- Page 103 and 104: - 97 - standing of a "truly human b
- Page 105 and 106: - 99 - eternal beauty, and his conv
- Page 107 and 108: - 101 - One luckless early critic w
- Page 109 and 110: - 103 - says "well-read" Humbert Hu
- Page 111 and 112: - 105 - surface, into the initial m
- Page 113 and 114: - 107 - age. She was the "initial g
- Page 115 and 116: - 109 - and implies in the parody t
- Page 117: - 111 - He is equally inaccurate in
- Page 121 and 122: - 115 - or to hold her on his knee
- Page 123 and 124: - 117 - ations ) (98). And he descr
- Page 125 and 126: - 119 - a strident, harsh high voic
- Page 127 and 128: - 121 - When Humbert talks of his d
- Page 129 and 130: - 123 -- could victimize her poor d
- Page 131 and 132: - 125 - this twelve-year-old girl s
- Page 133 and 134: - 127 - done her morning duty" (161
- Page 135 and 136: - 129 - experience, up to a certain
- Page 137 and 138: - 131 - her: "... -a life full of t
- Page 139 and 140: - 133 - Looking at it for a moment
- Page 141 and 142: - 135 - and Axel Rex delightful. Bu
- Page 143 and 144: - 137 - critics have made her, and
- Page 145 and 146: - 139 - not record images of the sy
- Page 147 and 148: - 141 - ous hallucination" (287). 6
- Page 149 and 150: - 143 - No hereafter is acceptable
- Page 151 and 152: - 145 - be possible for him to be t
- Page 153 and 154: - 147 - and it is also appropriate
- Page 155 and 156: - 149 - But Humbert's view of Lolit
- Page 157 and 158: - 151 - the truth of the theory dev
- Page 159 and 160: - 153 - part of it. Even with the i
- Page 161 and 162: - 155 - THE REAL LIFE OF SEBASTIAN
- Page 163 and 164: - 157. - consistent set of characte
- Page 165 and 166: - 159 - gathered from various sourc
- Page 167 and 168: - 161 - a very close one, and it se
- 112 -<br />
Lolita seems to be maimed: not things only but persons<br />
too. There is Miss Opposite, the crippled neighbour,<br />
Lolita's almost deaf husband, his friend Bill who has<br />
lost an arm in the war; a man wiping Humbert's windshield<br />
has a broken nose. A "hunchbacked and hoary<br />
Negro" takes Humbert's and Lolita's luggage into the<br />
Enchanted Hunters Hotel, and there are the tennisplaying<br />
"Boschean cripples".<br />
24<br />
It appears throughout that the world in which<br />
Humbert and Lolita move is in the same way "maimed"<br />
morally. "But let us be prim and civilized" Humbert<br />
Humbert admonishes himself at one point (21). This<br />
"civilized" has an ironic ring about it when it is<br />
taken to refer to a civilization that accommodates<br />
Miss Lester and Miss Fabian, Gaston Godin, Clare<br />
Quilty, and Lolita's schoolmates <strong>for</strong> that matter,<br />
without taking offence at their habits or even sharing<br />
them.<br />
Gaston Godin, suitably placed at Beardsley, with<br />
his predilection <strong>for</strong> little boys, is the favourite of<br />
all his neighbours, "crooned over by the old and car-<br />
ressed by the young" (179), because he easily manages<br />
to fool them all about his infirmity. Fowler sees him<br />
as almost representative of the hypocrisy and self-<br />
deception which is practised by so many of the other<br />
members of society as it emerges from Lo ita:<br />
The sentimental gauze which surrounds and disguises<br />
Gaston is part of the relentless selfdeception<br />
that all philistines practice in this<br />
novel;.. hyper-middle class Charlotte; and John<br />
Farlowe, solid burgher and anti-Semite; and<br />
Mona Dahl... who has already had an affair with<br />
a marine; and Mary Lore... who helps Lo escape
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