Justin Riddle - Tim Gospo
Saugus high School AP Literature Author Comparison
Project
Vladimir
Vladimirovich Nabokov
Table
of Contents
I. Biography of Nabokov
II. Overview of Lolita
III. Overview of Pale Fire
IV. Author Style Elements
V. Nabokov: Freudism
VI. A Sociological Criticism
VII. Reader Response Read
VIII. Historical Read
IX. Biographical Read
X. Quiz
XI. Works Cited
I. Biography
Vladimir Nabokov was the oldest of a distinguished and noble
family and is quoted to say that his childhood was “perfect.” He grew up in an environment sophistication
learning to read and speak fluent English, Russian and French in a household
where all three languages were spoken commonly.
His trilingual roots began his mastery of the English language.
His family moved frequently in his
teenage years at Russian revolutions swept the country. In 1917 his family left Saint Petersburg in
1918 expecting to return shortly but destined never to see the city again. Nabokov is also known for his work as a
lepidopterist, the study of butterflies, in which he has made several
significant discoveries and advancements.
This influence is seen in his literature and lends itself to his
well-roundedness.
His first 9 novels are written in
Russian while his later works are in original English. These Russian novels are even more renowned
in their English translations than the original Russian. Nabokov is known for his incredible
manipulation of language to form vivid and awe-inspiring imagery that impress
and relates to the reader simultaneously.
He inherited this beautiful home as
well, and it would be the only home he
ever owned.
II. Lolita Overview
Nabokov’s most famous and
controversial work is Lolita, a story
about an older man in his forties, Humbert Humbert lusting after what he terms
as “nymphets,” children from nine to twelve.
In the novel Humbert will go to any length to obtain his desired life’s
goals. With his wit, influence and Fate
chancing upon this monster of a man, Humbert accomplishes this divine release
but to what cost? Battling ghostly
apparitions fueled by insomnia and paranoia, Humbert’s trail is filled with
uncertainty as his ecstasy breaches human containment and pretentious rage
shows a disregard for human life.
III. Pale Fire Overview
Pale fire starts with the character
John Shade and his long poem. It starts out depressing but later becomes
hopeful until the poem is over and the character John Shade is dead. Charles
Kinbote, a friend of John's, informs the reader that the poem is missing a
single line, and that John has been murdered. Kinbote offers commentary on the
poem and tells the reader stories. Ultimately the reader becomes aware of a
great king Charles Xavier of Zembla who was exiled by revolutionaries who were
aided by the soviets. As it turns out according to Kinbote an assassin was sent
to kill Charles Xavier, only to accidentally kill John Shade. Of course this
means that Charles Kinbote is, in fact, Charles Xavier.
Of course it is also a possibility
that Charles is just crazy. In the end, as implied and stated by Nabokov,
Charles commits suicide just after finishing his work on the book, and so as
far as the reader is concerned, nothing is known for sure.
IV. Author Style Elements
Metaphor
– Used often and effectively, very creative such as “[…] and then pulled the
pistol’s foreskin back, and then enjoyed the orgasm of the crushed trigger”
(page 274)
Allusion –
Nabokov often references other authors and famous political and social figures
such as
“Pichon’s sumptuous La Beaute Humaine”
(page11)
Rhetoric of
the sublime – Humbert overwhelmed by the sight of Dolores Haze playing tennis
overwhelms him
to the point where ecstatically embellishing his excitement and utter ecstasy
at the sight
(Pages 230-234)
Repeated subtle
imagery – Throughout the novel butterflies are referenced with specific
significance
given that Nabokov is a lepidopterist, it is metaphorically ironic that the
process of
metamorphosis
in which an ugly caterpillar grows into a beautiful creature where as for
Nabokov he
uses this ironically to portray the decay in Lolita’s beauty over time to
Humbert’s
helpless
desire for youth. (page 234)
Foreshadowing
– Nabokov writes in the first person, almost having a conversation with the
reader and offering insight into the future having a perspective of a certain
time looking back and recalling the past (page 77)
V. Nabokov: Freudism
Freudism and
all it has tainted with its grotesque implications and methods appears to me to
be one of the vilest deceits practiced by people on themselves and on others. I
reject it utterly, along with a few other medieval items still adored by the
ignorant, the conventional, or the very sick
—Vladimir Nabokov, Strong Opinions 23-24
It is said about Lolita that “the day will never come
when it is not a disgusting book” and that is due to its explicit depiction of
prepubescent “nymphets” as Nabokov refers to girls between the ages of nine and
twelve of particular beauty (Metcalf par. 1) (Lolita 16). Nabokov’s view
of Freud characterized in the quote above is one of the many mockeries found
throughout the novels Lolita and Pale Fire. Nabokov challenges psychoanalytical readers
by making a mockery of their gross generalizations in his specifications such
as the character Kinbote in Pale Fire
“as both actively homosexual and paranoid” which “is the only mental
composition rendered explicitly impossible by Freudian theory” (Boyd, American 435).
Freud obsessed over sexual symbols
and relied heavily on ancient mythology—“unlikely orifices and old Greek
myths”—to classify the human mind (Strong
Opinions 641). Nabokov strongly
disagreed with this method of classification and instead believed in the
opposite ideal that all cases are specific and unique to the individual
(Metclaf par 5). He offers Humbert
Humbert as a European pedophile living in America because it is a unique
perspective and with Nabokov’s mastery over rhetoric Humbert becomes a
character that infinitely challenges Freudian established beliefs. Nabokov also mocks Freud with obviously
phallic images such as a “powerful red car” in Pale Fire and the phallic nature of a gun in Lolita as he expounds wittily about how ridiculous and puerile such
a belief in his stream-of-consciousness writing style.
Pale
Fire is often credited to parallel Freud’s The Wolf-Man in its thematic approach of reader interpretation;
wherein the reader is left to discover the true story within the fabrications
of an unreliable narrator (Cohen par 10).
This form of personal speaker involvement with the reader (referencing
the reader directly often with polite requests) is common with Freud as well to
suggest Nabokov has a deeper respect for the grand scientist than he lends to
believe. A prominent trap for the
psychoanalytical reader in Lolita is
as the protagonist Humbert Humbert reminisces about a physical relationship
with his childhood lover, Annabel, and his subsequent sexual suspension at her
age is explainable by a simple psychology of him trying to fill this lost love
in his present love life (Lolita,
11-15). However as the novel progresses
this simple explanation is readily acknowledged by Humbert and openly mocked;
this blatant shunning reveals Nabokov’s intentions to baffle the psychologist
with his head mirthfully thrown back.
“Let
the credulous and the vulgar continue to believe that all mental woes can be
cured by a daily application of old Greek myths to their private parts. I
really do not care” (Strong Opinions 66)
VI. A Sociological Criticism
Vladimir
Nabokov was an individualist. He had no need for the notion of an individuals
expression or freedom. Psychoanalysis was a gimmick to him and he was a Russian
who rejected totalitarianism. As a writer his stories are complex, he is
clever, and he embraces alliteration and word play. Two of his most famous
novels; Lolita and Pale Fire, would help rise him to the level of one of the
most brilliant writers of his time. And what these books have in common that
creates their merit is that they break away from the clichéd norm, and instead offer
a world in a depressing state that at the same time leaves the reader with a
sense of hope because they enjoy the depravity so much that they want
everything to be resolved in the end even though they know it won't be a
happily-ever-after ending.
None
of Vladimir Nabokov's novels seem to fall into the norm. They all seem to be
pushing the limits of what is socially acceptable. So critics are left to
wonder: what effect is this having on the readers? The key ingredient here is
that in both novels there is a world that by todays societies standards is to
be looked down upon and reject. In Pale Fire we have a scare story of a world
invaded by totalitarianism, and in Lolita we have a degenerate man who embraces
the societal taboo of pedophilia.
The
world of Pale Fire is full of death. It is a depressing creation. One of our
main characters, John Shade, talks about his dealings with death and even the
suicide of his daughter only to reveal that writing is how he copes with the
world and then the reader is told that he is murdered. The other character
telling the story is Charles Kinbote who is later revealed to be Charles
Xavier, an exiled king. As he finishes the story he himself also commits
suicide. Many of the other characters die as well including Iris Acht who is
murdered but it is believed to be suicide. About Pale Fire, Brian Walter said,
“The design of Pale
Fire thus assigns enormous responsibility to the reader. If Shade's
poem comprises the thesis, and Kinbote's commentary represents its infernal
antithesis – the underworld subtext Nabokov offers the reader as a byway to
understanding not Shade's poem, but the work overall – then it is only by
virtue of the reader's efforts to extrapolate a novel from Pale Fire's
tenuously connected parts that the work can achieve synthesis” meaning that the
reader must accept Charles' portion of the novel as an opposite to Shade's to
see the whole novel as a representation of a hope for society but at the same
time the reader must take more from the novel than is offered to come to this
conclusion. What this all leads the reader to, is that the actions of
revolutionaries who are supported by the soviets have made life not worth
living by exiling Charles. It is the soviets fault that Charles has been
dethroned and Nabokov would have his readers believe that this could be a
potential society even though society does not want to believe it. The reader
wants everything to be ok, but Nabokov is warning of the dangers of a
totalitarian power with a society that is riddled with death, murder, and
suicide.
Lolita
deals with not death, but another societal taboo. The obsession with the young
female. Professor Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed with his stepdaughter
Delores and for its time, and even still, its a very graphic story. The average
good citizen of world will look down upon Humbert Humbert for embracing his
lust. The story is tragic when Humbert Humbert is still obsessed with Lolita
even when she is no longer a child and he must leave her, as he goes to kill
another man who was obsessed with Lolita. He gets arrested and dies in prison
and in the end Lolita dies too, during
childbirth. It is a sad society fueled by Humbert's depravity but at times
light because its is a very clever criticism of American society. The reader
will see whats wrong with the society created in the novel and want to “fix” it
to fit what they believe is right. Susan Sweeney described it as “Nabokov
designed his novel, in other words, so that readers feel compelled to resolve
its convoluted narrative structure.” In other words the readers want to fix the
novel because they feel Nabokov has made it more confusion. One such example
from her would be, “In Lolita,
several factors make judging Humbert's case particularly difficult. Humbert
concludes his confession by announcing that he is not guilty of murder, but
rape; and that his victim is not the man he killed, Clare Quilty, but his own
stepdaughter, Dolores Haze.” At the same time that Humbert Humbert is a
pedophile, he is also trying to protect her from another pedophile who had
wanted Delores to be in a pornographic film. The reader at this point does not
know whether or not know whether they should like Humbert or not. Why is this
important; it is important because Nabokov himself referred to Humbert as
"a hateful person" and "a vain and cruel wretch" and yet it
is hard to tell whether or not he is a likable character. Nabokov's criticism
is that society is naïve and does not know how to properly deal with these
subjects because it avoids them and treats them lightly.
It
may seem like a stretch at times, but it is very clear that the societies in
both of these books are deplorable by todays standards, and thus Nabokov's
criticism is obvious: If these societies are so bad, why do we live in a world
with totalitarian governments, and in a world where we can ignore certain
taboos just to avoid talking about it? When the reader sees the societies in
these novels he rejects them, but they are really the dark side of a modern
society and the reader should conclude; this is not acceptable.
VII. Reader Response Read
Lolita
- Despite the main character being a
degenerate, the reader is bound to like him
- A tragedy with a sense of humor
- Considered an analogy for
totalitarianism
- Racy topic meant hesitant readers
- Despite Humbert being almost
identical to his counterpart Quilty, the reader finds that
Humbert is a likable character, while
Quilty is despicable
Pale Fire
- In its time many condemned the
book
- Was not accepted on its own merit at
the time of its publication
- At its best it was praised for its
sense of humor but was not endorsed
- Finally translated and accepted
into Russia in the 1980's
- Praised pre-publishing but even
that review was criticized
VIII. Historical Read
- Intolerance
to pedophilia especially in the 1950’s when society held stringent rules
as to what was publicly acceptable.
- Lolita was a
center of much controversy in a developing nation already being questioned
in its double-standard towards women and minorities.
- In the
age of developing psychoanalyzation, Nabokov adamantly rejected the ideas
of Freud and created many psychological impossibilities and mockery of the
art.
IX. Biographical Read
- Nabokov
was a lepidopterist which shows up as a great influence in his works as
butterfly imagery runs rampant through his works such as Lolita’s ironic
de-metamorphosis.
- His
knowledge of French and Russian is apparent in Lolita when he speaks in French nearly every other page.
- Nabokov
is from outside of the United States of America similar to Humbert Humbert
in Lolita which leads to many
debates over culture and societal issues.
X. Quiz
1. How many of his first
novels were written in Russian?
a. Ten
b. Fourteen
c. Six
d. Nine
2. What other thing was
Nabokov known for studying?
a. Butterflies
b. Physics
c. Child Psychology
d. Jesus
3. What did Humbert lust for?
a. Children
b. Women
c. Men
d. Nymphets
4. Nabokov's most
controversial work is considered to be...
a. Lolita
b. Pale Fire
c. Ada or Ardor
d. Laughter in the Dark
5. Who wrote the poem that
begins the story of Pale Fire?
a. Charles Xavier
b. John Shade
c. Charles Kinbote
d. Iris Acht
6. How close was John Shade
to Finishing his poem?
a. One line
b. One canto
c. He didn't finish, so it is unknown
d. He did finish
7. Nabokov Often
References...
a. Nymphets
b. Political Figures
c. Nineteenth century US presidents
d. Jesus
8. Nabokov's feelings toward
Freud can be described negatively
a. I strongly agree
b. I agree
c. I disagree
d. I strongly disagree
9. Nabokov used mocking
Freudian imagry, such as
a. “powerful red car”
b. “long cigar”
c. “blood covered knife”
d. “soviet assassin”
10. Kinbote can be described
as
a. Homosexual
b. Magical
c. Fun
d. Happy-go-lucky
11. What happened to Iris
Acht?
a. She is in prison
b. She ran away
c. She is dead
d. She lost her job
12. Who did Humbert Humbert
kill for vengeance?
a. Claire Quilty
b. Delores Haze
c. John Shade
d. Charles Kinbote
13. What kind of story is
Lolita?
a. Drama
b. Tragic Comedy
c. Tragedy
d. Comedy
14. When was Pale Fire taken
to Russia
a. 1980's
b. 1970's
c. 1990's
d. Never
15. Lolita is controversial
because of double standards between...
a. Women
b. Minorities
c. A and B
d. C but not A
16. Given the subject of
Pedophilia, the book Lolita was considered vary...
a. Interesting
b. Fun
c. Controversial
d. Historical
17. Humbert Humbert is born
in...
a. Paris
b.
c. 1908
d. 1912
18. Is Zembla real?
a. Yes
b. No
c. It is unclear
d. Zembla is actually
19. Who aids the
revolutionaries to kick out the king?
a. Nazis
b. Soviets
c.
d.
20. What is Nabokov's first
name?
a. Vladimirovich
b.
c. Nicolas
d. Dmitrievich
21. What did Nabokov reject?
a. Love
b. The
c. Freedom
d. Totalitarianism
22. Oddly, some critics
consider Lolita an analogy to...
a. Death
b. Drug trafficking
c. Pedophilia
d. Totalitarianism
23. The alleged assassin
seeking the exiled king supposedly killed who?
a. Charles Kinbote
b. Charles Xavier
c. John Shade
d. Iris Acht
24. Delores Haze is how old
when she meets Humbert Humbert?
a. 15
b. 17
c. 35
d. 12
25. Humbert's childhood
girlfriend was...
a. Annabel
b. Delores
c.
d. Lolita
XI. Works Cited
Cohen,
David. “My Potential Patients: Origins, Detection, and Transference in Pale Fire
and Freud's Case
of the Wolf-Man.” <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/cohen1.htm>
Keep,
Christopher. “Pale Fire.” The Electronic Labyrinth. <http://elab.eserver.org/hfl0244.html>
“Major Themes.” Gradesaver.com. Gradesaver.
1999. <http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/lolita/themes.html>
Metcalf,
Stephen. “Lolita at 50.” Dec. 19,
2005. Slate. 1998.<http://www.slate.com/id/2132708>
Nabokov,
Vladimir. Lolita. New York: Random
House Inc., 1997.
Nabokov,
Vladimir. Pale Fire. New York: Random House Inc., 1995.
Rolo,
Charles. “Lolita, by Vladimir
Nabokov.” TheAtlantic.com. Atlantic
Monthly. September 1958. <http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/195809/lolita-review>
Relevent Links
http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/lolita/themes.html
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/cohen1.htm
http://www.slate.com/id/2132708/
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/195809/lolita-review
http://elab.eserver.org/hfl0244.html