2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

Introduction When reading Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita, one question comes to mind, can one trust the narrator, Humbert Humbert? To what extent is his story correct, reliable, or tarnished in any way? Additionally, Humbert’s mental state could also add to the unreliability of his story, as he demonstrates signs of hallucinations, schizophrenia and even a split personality. Although the narrator demonstrates perverted tendencies, he proves to be witty and even comes across at times as alarmingly likeable to the reader. The term ‘unreliable narrator’ is defined as ‘a narrator who expresses values and perceptions that stingingly diverge from those of the implied author’ (Lodge, The Rhetoric of Wayne Booth , 1966). Humbert has already been deemed unreliable by numerous critics; however, Nabokov’s purpose of this creating unreliability remains a topic less discussed. ‘Three dominant sources can be outlined as the sources of unreliability: the narrator’s limited knowledge, his personal involvement and his questionable morals’ (Rimmon-Kenan, 2001) . Rimmon-Kenan continues to mention another sign as to “when narrators display a personal involvement in the story, they portray characters or events in a subjective way (perhaps having an ulterior motive)”. All these key signs are applicable when analysing Humbert’s perspective. During the process of conducting background knowledge on this novel, it was evident that there was an abundance of varying sources (namely research papers) on a wide range of topics. This included unravelling underlying themes and highlighting techniques used to create such an unreliable narrator. However, there was very little research discussing the purpose behind the creation of an unreliable narrator in the novel Lolita. By understanding the purpose of the overall novel, it allows for the reader to deepen their understanding as to why Nabokov published such a novel on the delicate and taboo topic of paedophilia.

2