Paper #2
Professor Anthony Anemone
Henry O’Reilly
April 17th, 2017.
Ladies and Gentleman of the Jury;
The unreliable narration of Humbert Humbert
“ Gentlemen of the jury! I cannot swear that certain motions pertaining to the business in hand- if I may coin an expression- had not drifted across my mind before. My mind had not retained them in any logical form or in any relation to definitely recollected occasions; but I cannot swear- let me repeat- that I had not toyed with them (To rig up yet another expression), in my dimness of thought, in my darkness of passion.” (Nabokov, 69)
Unreliable narration is not an unfamiliar technique in literature, or in the novels and short stories we have read this semester by Nabokov. But I believe in …show more content…
Throughout the novel, we, the reader and audience addressed, are entranced by Humbert's elegant, lyrical style of prose. It’s this delicate language that is the first technique used to lure the audience. But when looking closely at Humbert’s language, we begin to see how his voice is often changed or morphed by the present situation and how his temperamental mood changes the reality of the environment. When looking at this we can see linguistic patterns and themes emerge that betray Humbert’s intention into creating a specific image of …show more content…
While that may not be very unique, what Nabokov is doing by making Humbert an unreliable narrator is something remarkable. By showing us how to spot the unreliable narration and in turn giving us the tools to engage with this book, Nabokov allows us to alleviate ourselves from the conventional, topical reading of Lolita. That this is not a book that works to justify, explain, or understand Humbert’s love (and it is about the nature of this “love”, though pedophilia is the vehicle) but to display a history of pleasure and passion, that exists simply as that and defies categorization or definition. This is why understanding why Nabokov uses an unreliable narrator here is so crucial to freeing ourselves from the trappings of that many fall into when reading
Professor Anthony Anemone
Henry O’Reilly
April 17th, 2017.
Ladies and Gentleman of the Jury;
The unreliable narration of Humbert Humbert
“ Gentlemen of the jury! I cannot swear that certain motions pertaining to the business in hand- if I may coin an expression- had not drifted across my mind before. My mind had not retained them in any logical form or in any relation to definitely recollected occasions; but I cannot swear- let me repeat- that I had not toyed with them (To rig up yet another expression), in my dimness of thought, in my darkness of passion.” (Nabokov, 69)
Unreliable narration is not an unfamiliar technique in literature, or in the novels and short stories we have read this semester by Nabokov. But I believe in …show more content…
Throughout the novel, we, the reader and audience addressed, are entranced by Humbert's elegant, lyrical style of prose. It’s this delicate language that is the first technique used to lure the audience. But when looking closely at Humbert’s language, we begin to see how his voice is often changed or morphed by the present situation and how his temperamental mood changes the reality of the environment. When looking at this we can see linguistic patterns and themes emerge that betray Humbert’s intention into creating a specific image of …show more content…
While that may not be very unique, what Nabokov is doing by making Humbert an unreliable narrator is something remarkable. By showing us how to spot the unreliable narration and in turn giving us the tools to engage with this book, Nabokov allows us to alleviate ourselves from the conventional, topical reading of Lolita. That this is not a book that works to justify, explain, or understand Humbert’s love (and it is about the nature of this “love”, though pedophilia is the vehicle) but to display a history of pleasure and passion, that exists simply as that and defies categorization or definition. This is why understanding why Nabokov uses an unreliable narrator here is so crucial to freeing ourselves from the trappings of that many fall into when reading