Lolita vs. Frankenstein Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Lolita vs. Frankenstein - Essay Example It is almost in the same period that Vladimir Nabokov gave vent to a world clung to puritanical thoughts in Lolita. Lolita was very sensational in United States in the late 1950s because of its controversial substance. Many critics branded the novel as pornographic trash, and they condemned this masterpiece as a piece of poor quality literature. However, there were many other critics who praised the work for its uniqueness, genuineness, and vivacious wit. In this novel, Nabokov formed the character of Humbert Humbert as complex mixture; he is a mad rakehell as well as wild romantic at the same time and Lolita falls a victim of his incessant obsession for her but ended it as form of murder. The essay seeks to bring out a comparative and contrastive study between the two novels in terms of their themes, character sketches and the over all setting and treatment of both the novels. While Frankenstein depicts the story of the hero who is ruined by his unchecked pursuit of knowledge, in Lo lita the tragedy of the hero stems from his obsessive drive for sex and violent nature; both fail to foresee the consequences of their actions until they are completely ruined. The strong passion of Love is the basic instinct of sex that is displayed on various forms on this novel. â€Å"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins, my sin, and my soul† (Nabokov part 1: 1) utters Humbert in the opening of the novel which shows his deep passion and strong desire on Lolita. It also displays mixture of feelings such as deep pain, love, anger and regret that he experiences. In the book of Frankenstein the author indicates the strong desire of Frankestein to produce another human â€Å"Beautiful! -- Great God!† (Shelly.98). Here the author mixes up the emotions of excitement as well as enthusiasm of Frankenstein very effectively. One can notice parallels between the themes in both the novels and there are many who argue that in Lolita Nabokov reworked fundamental