Lolita: Depicts the Nuptials Between Humbert and Charlotte
This section of the book Lolita depicts the nuptials between Humbert and Charlotte, and it allows the reader to get inside Humbert's head to discover - as if readers didn't already know - the real strategy behind this wedding. He is cunning, and ruthless in his ruse. But it's fascinating. At the outset it is worth reviewing briefly the style of Nabokov's work, because it creates a wonderland of mental images for the alert reader (and even for the reader who is perusing through or skimming through). Indeed, Humbert explains his actions with such narrative attention that the reader is taken on a journey of images that transcend mere male-female interaction and male longing for female attention. There is plenty of that. Enough of that in fact to make an adult male reader (who had at one time a crush on a girl far too young to be legal) become sensually aroused.Of course Humbert also mocks himself and has fun with his own alliteration and ironies, and the Chapter 18 narrative is typical. He says, while speaking to Lolita on the phone (p. 74) - he is "trembling and brimming with my mastery over fate" during the phone call - that he was going to marry her mother. But this is a twelve-year-old girl, and fun is on her mind at the camp
76) that the wedding ceremony could have had a "touch of vivid vermeil" (vermeil is usually thought of as a gift of sterling silver and gold) if Lolita had been there. " Age seems to offend Humbert at this stage of his existence, now that he has tasted the sheer sensual delights of seeing and being around Lolita. But the reader doesn't get a sense that Humbert is feeling any guilt over marrying the mother of the little girl he craves like a dog in heat. That is quite a remarkable bit of audacity on his part. Little things mean a lot when a man is obsessing over the body and charm of a gorgeous little babe. When he was exhibiting a "solemn exasperation" she took it as the "silence of love" (79). All of these silly patterns shown through Charlotte worked perfectly as far as Humbert's ongoing romantic ruse was concerned. On page 77 he reminds readers that he had gone from "lodger to lover" - and experienced some "faint tenderness" albeit he wielded a "conspiratorial dagger" when it came to his relationship with his wife. So they had drinks together ("highballs") before going to bed and he obviously is fantasizing touching Lolita while in reality touching his wife. Humbert sees an "intolerable tenderness" in Charlotte and obviously Charlotte either doesn't know men well or is thoroughly fooled by Humbert. Charlotte was clearly pleased that she had a man, and that their commingled money seemed like quite a lot.
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Acceptance Essays
