Student Scholarship

Document Type

Research Paper

Publication Title

Aletheia

Volume

4

Issue

2

Abstract

Many who read Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita express negative reactions at its conclusion, such as revulsion, anger, and outright dismissal of its highly controversial plot. However, the contents of this story constitute only half of its importance. The other half is the hypnotic and slippery mode in which it is told. The dual configuration of the narrator as the protagonist allows the main character to craft his own version of the events that have taken place in his life through a demented, artistic frame.

This essay argues for the interpretation of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita as a dark fairy tale. My argument draws from the fairy-tale references made in the text itself, the “othering” done by the main character to classify his sexual prey as a mythical creature, the mirroring of the two main characters, and the unreliability of the manipulative, delusional narrator. I postulate that the same distortion that makes this a fairy tale also causes the audience to sympathize with the main character despite his crimes and conclude that novels such as this are dangerous in their seductive, fantastical characteristics.

Publication Date

Fall 2019

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Faculty Sponsor

Justine Pas

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