Lolita And The Dark Tower - 1384 Words

My first thought was, he lied in every word, That hoary cripple, with malicious eye Askance to watch the working of his lie On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford Suppression of the glee, that pursed and scored Its edge, at one more victim gained thereby. (lines 1-6) Nabokov’s character Humbert Humbert from Lolita is perfectly described in this stanza from Robert Browning’s â€Å"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.† Nabokov compares Humbert to many poets throughout Lolita. Humbert likens himself to a Romantic poet with the intent of rationalizing his crime of pedophilia as an artistic endeavor. To Humbert, in particular, life really does imitate art. Art also imitates life. Nabokov created the character of Humbert in the image of Edgar Allan Poe. Humbert’s life as a character closely resembles Poe’s literary works of art, and Nabokov’s art, the character of Humbert in Lolita, bears an interesting resemblance to Poe’s true life. Edgar Allan Poe married his aunt’s daughter Virginia, who at age thirteen was seven years his junior. Poe’s aunt also happened to be his landlady at the time (Lepore). In the same way, Humbert started an explicit relationship with Charlotte’s daughter, Dolores, age thirteen, after Charlotte’s death. Charlotte was Humbert’s landlady. This is an example of art imitating life. Humbert fancies himself a poet with discerning taste in â€Å"nymphets,† which excuses his preference for young girls because they are subhuman devils. HumbertShow MoreRelated Lust, Loss, and Immorality in the Little Mermaid Essay1866 Words   |  8 Pageschildhood. At the onset of the story, the sea kingdom is described: â€Å"where the waters are as blue as the petals of the cornflower and as clear as glass, there, where no anchor can reach the bottom,† and where â€Å"[one] would have to pile many church towers on top of each other† in order to reac h the surface (Andersen 217). The sea describes the deep consciousness of the Little Mermaid as a young child, which is characterized by emotion, beauty, imagination, purity and innocence - representative successively