2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

perversity a more significant moral fact than his ability to love’ (Green, 1966). In other words, Humbert argues his points extremely effectively and is able to manipulate the course of events in order to relieve himself of responsibility, as if blinding himself from recognising his illicit acts, and even make himself more likeable. The lengths Humbert will go to, to confuse and distort the reader whilst attempting to gain the reader’s sympathy, show there is obviously something to hide, hence deeming him significantly unreliable via the distinct textual signals of unreliability. Nabokov has bridged the gap between the reader and the protagonist via Humbert’s morality and amiable façade, be that via the references of Augustinian monks, or Nietzsche perspectives, hence not only bragging his intellect but also creating a comical façade. ‘The point of using an unreliable narrator is indeed to reveal in an interesting way the gap between appearance and reality, and to show how human beings distort or conceal the latter’ (Lodge, The Art of Fiction: Illustrated From Classic and Modern Texts, 1993) Humbert’s mental state Throughout the novel, the extent at which Humbert’s mental health affects his reliability is certainly to be questioned. As Humbert continues his story, the character Claire Quilty is introduced, which many critics suggest is the potential alter ego of Humbert. Humbert is obviously unaware of this, which further pushes the reader to question the extent of which Humbert is mentally sane and that his story is genuine. ‘It is possible, that Lolita parodies the tradition of the double literature so as to represent different manifestations of a single personality’ (More, 2001). The character of Claire Quilty seems to fit this, representing the reality principle which torments Humbert, as demonstrated in page 249; “He mimed and mocked me”.

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