Bloom's Literary Themes - ymerleksi - home

96
Vladimir Nabokov
imagination. When she is “solipsized” into a creation all his own, then,
and only then, he is her lover. Humbert can thus claim to be a “poet”
in that he is a creator, and his creation is the object of his affection and
passion, his Lolita, not Dolores Haze.
The problem with this interpretation of events, presented so
compellingly by their principal actor, is that, in the context of the
fictional events of the novel, Dolores Haze is not just a creation of
Humbert’s fevered imagination: she is a real little girl, and one he
abuses. At the very end of the novel, Humbert himself realizes this:
he is standing on a hillside, overlooking a small town, and he hears the
sounds of a group of children at play. At that point, and only at that
point, he comes to understand “that the hopelessly poignant thing was
not Lolita’s absence from my side, but the absence of her voice from
that concord” (Lolita 310).
Some readers of Lolita find Humbert to be pathetic; others believe
he is a dangerous criminal. Some say they find him likable, in a repellent
sort of way; others find him disgusting. These are all, I believe, legitimate
reactions, and they make for animated and worthwhile discussion.
They also invite us to ask even more questions, such as: What is the
difference between a criminal imagination and an artistic one? What
do we mean by “madman?” If a person understands exactly what he is
doing, can he be a lunatic? Can we like someone, and still find that
person disgusting? And perhaps the most important and interesting
question of all: Can a book dominated by a powerful, perverse, and dark
voice be an attractive and even uplifting work of fiction?
It also leads to questions about the role of females in the book,
and whether the book is degrading to women because it treats them
as objects of the male fantasy instead of real people. Many reads question
whether the women in Lolita are full characters, or whether they
are simply animated stereotypes. If the latter is true, to what extent
does this actually represent the final position of the novel (or even
its author) and to what degree is it a manifestation of Humbert’s
deformed vision? Should modern readers view Charlotte Haze, Lolita’s
mother, as a degrading representative of women? What about other
female characters in the work? And, of course, what about Dolores
herself? This is an issue on which many thoughtful students and critics
have taken opposite sides (in itself, a valuable lesson and observation).
My reading of the novel is that it is Humbert who has turned threedimensional
female characters into reductive and simplistic versions