Lolita: a critical analysis of Nabokov's novel

Female Lolita

Nabokov's famous novel, Lolita, would have some important and essential differences had it been written by a woman. A female writer would have created a more complex and sympathetic characterization for Lolita, expanding on Nabokov's treatment of Lolita as simply a vulgar personification of the qualities of the nymphet. The impact of Humbert's obsession with Lolita and their sexual affair would have been explored more thoroughly by a female author. Further, Humbert would have felt a deeper remorse for his actions in the hands of a woman writer.

Lolita is, in essence, the story of the middle aged Hubert Humphrey's obsession and ensuing affair with a prepubescent girl. Early in his life, Humbert was traumatized by the death of his childhood love for Annabel Leigh. This death renders Humphrey attracted to young, prepubescent girls, or nymphets. Humphries meets Lolita, the beautiful young daughter of the bitter widow Charlotte Haze. He marries Charlotte to stay near to Lolita, and begins an affair with Lolita when Charlotte dies. Humbert and Lolita travel across the U.S. For a year, and Lolita eventually disappears. Humbert later finds out that Lolita has run away with Clare Quilty, who eventually discards Lolita after she refuses to appear in a child pornography film. Humbert kills Clare Quilty, and is thrown in jail, while Lolita dies while giving birth. The foreword reveals that Humbert dies in captivity.

Several aspects of Nabokov's Lolita would have been entirely different if a woman had written the novel. While Nabokov is a masterful and often lyrical storyteller, Lolita is clearly written through a man's experiences and viewpoint. A woman novelist would have incorporated a more female-oriented perspective into the novel. This female perspective would have significantly altered the characters in Lolita, the novel's treatment of the repercussions of Humbert's actions, and the growth of the male character Humbert to understand the impact of his actions.

Lolita's character would have been more complex and sympathetic if written by the hand of a female novelist. In Nabokov's male viewpoint, Lolita is little more than the personification of the nymphet. She is seductive (at least to Humbert), and described largely only according to Humbert's perception. The novel begins with Humbert describing his obsession for Lolita. Writes Nabokov, "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul." Later in the novel, Nabokov continues to describe Lolita, but always in light of his needs and desires, and rarely taking into consideration her point-of-view. Writes Nabokov of Lolita: "She was musical and apple-sweet... Lola the bobby-soxer, devouring her immemorial fruit, singing through its juice... And every movement she made, every shuffle and ripple, helped me to conceal and to improve the secret system of tactile correspondence between beast and beauty -- between my gagged, bursting beast and the beauty of her dimpled body in its innocent cotton frock." female novelist would have brought a rounder and more complex characterization to Lolita. In the novel, she is little more than the embodiment of Humbert's object of desire, albeit a bit vulgar and coarse. A female novelist would have allowed Lolita's motivations to be more transparent; the reader would better understand why Lolita became Humbert's lover, and why she rejected him. From a woman's perspective, Lolita would have perhaps been drawn to be more conniving and intelligent that Humbert perceives. As such, a woman novelist would have drawn layers of complexity into Lolita and her motivations for her affair with Humbert, and her attraction to Quilty.

The impact of Humbert's actions on the female characters would have been shown more clearly if a female novelist had written Lolita. As written, Nabokov's novel tells little of how the female characters perceive Humbert, or how his actions impact their lives. For example, all we know of Haze is that she is a widow who is desperate for attention, and that she is angered by Humbert's attraction to Lolita. Similarly, we know little of the impact of Humbert's actions on Lolita, except that she leaves him and falls in love with Quilty. A female novelist would be careful to investigate the impact of Humbert's actions on the female characters. Haze's reaction to Humbert's attraction to Lolita would be draw in more complexity and detail in the hands of a female novelist. Similarly, a female novelist would be more careful to describe the impact that Humbert's obsession has on the developing Lolita.