The Power Struggle in Vladimir Nabokovs Lolita :: Nabokov Lolita Essays

The Power effort in Lolita According to literary theories and the theories of Fredrich Nietzsche, human beings have an unquenchable draw for power and will use morals, and everything else, in order to increase their authority. In Nabokovs Lolita, we see how Humbert controls Lolita in the beginning stages of their relationship but eventually finds himself issue mad because of her deceitful ways and the control she has over his inner desires. The romance introduces HumbertHumbert, a man with charm and the dignity of being a teacher in Paris. Yet, we instantly find he is a sexually sick(p) man, lusting for young, prepubescent girls. His perversions are obvious--we can tell from his journal--and the thinkers are highly obsessive with the topic of young girls. His mind is always on his first neat love, his young Annabel, who died a short time after his first sexual encounter with her. Humbert says, I see Annabel in such general basis as honey-colored skin, thin arms, brown bobbed hair, long lashes, big bright mouth (11). This, in fact, becomes his outline for a nymphet, or a girl between the ages of 9 and 14. One who meets his strict criteria is to become a gem in his eyes, yet treated with the same objectivity as a whore. He considers them all sexual objects for his enjoyment because he is a man who wishes to dominate these girls at such a young age. apply Nietzsches theories on power and dominance over others, we can see that Humbert is a man who meets his criterion of someone driven on obtaining the control and repute of those who can be easily manipulated. In a theory authorise The Superman, he writes The strong man must rid himself of all idea that it is disgraceful to yield to his acute and ever-present yearning for still more than strength. There must be an abandonment of the old slave- object lessonity and a transvaluation of moral values. The will to power must be emancipated from the bonds of that system of e thics which brands it with infamy. (Mencken 105) Nietzsche sees someone with total power as one with no learn for anyone other than himself.