5 years, the time it took author Vladimir Nabokov to put the words on paper and create the dark world of Lolita, after completing the novel in 1953, the publication had to wait another 2 years before seeing the light of day. It was only after Graham Greene reviewed the book, even calling it "one of the three best novels of the year", that the book began to take off, although not without controversy. Over the years, the story has continued to attract attention, both positive and negative, although no definitive conclusions have been reached as to why this shocking story continues to be a favorite. Instead, the book challenges readers to make a final verdict and decide whether fiction novels have a duty to be moral or whether it is more important that the book has aesthetic value instead. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay To fully understand the literary work, one must first interpret the author's intentions and background as well as how he came to write such a novel. Born Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov on April 22, 1899 into an aristocratic family, talent for writing ran in the family as his father VD Nabokov was the author of numerous books and reports on politics such as "The Provisional Government". After leaving Russia in 1919, Nabokov and his family moved to England where Vladimir attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he initially studied zoology before turning to French and Russian literature. In 1922, the family had moved to Berlin; however, soon after, Nabokov's father was assassinated, which later affected his writing, as accidental assassinations are visible in his books. Writing poetry was an important part of Nabokov, he published 2 collections in 1916 and 1918 before leaving Russia and continued to write poetry while in England, as well as between 1922 and 1940 when he lived in Germany and France. He explored other branches of art such as theater and cinema before finding his personal favorite; prose. At first, his novels earned him only a few hundred dollars, which he used to finance his butterfly hunts. While writing these first 8 novels, he earned money teaching tennis as well as languages ​​like English and Russian. Nabokov finally came to prominence when Lolita was completed. The novel is described as "examining love in light of its apparent opposite", which is a subtle allegory of Nabokov. On his inspiration to write the novel, Vladimir wrote in “On a Book Called Lolita” “As far as I remember, the first thrill of inspiration was somehow sparked by a newspaper article about a monkey from the Garden of Plants which, after months of persuasion by a scientist, predicted the first charcoal drawing ever made by an animal: the sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage. .” Although it may not seem at first that the two stories share similarities, someone is driven to do something without realizing the factors that limit them. Nabokov is also said to have drawn inspiration from classical Russian ballet and European fairy tales. At the time of its release in 1955, the morals and ethics of society were similar to those we have today in terms of topics such as those appearing in the novel. . Groucho Marx said, "I will delay reading Lolita for six years, until she is 18." The author encourages us, the readers, to consider whether a story is required to adhere to ethical standards or whether it hasfreedom to represent the thoughts chosen by the writer. However, to arrive at this conclusion, it is necessary to become familiar with the novel and understand the writing style used. The story begins with a foreword describing how the story came to be known, the individual lets readers know that our anti-hero Humbert died in 1952 in prison before being tried for his crimes and having written his memoirs before his death. The memoir begins by telling us about Humbert's childhood years when he grew up in Rivera in a luxury hotel owned by his father. During his youth, Humbert fell in love with Annabel, a young girl on vacation at a hotel. Frustrating and blocked sexual urges continued to create serious problems for Humbert later in life. The story continues, as Humbert grows up he is educated in England and France and marries a woman named Valeria who later leaves him for someone else. After gathering some money from an inheritance, our main character moves to the United States where he is hospitalized for mental problems. After his release, Humbert met Charlotte Haze and her daughter Lolita and quickly moved in with them. Humbert tolerates Charlotte and instead focuses his attention on Lolita, although shortly after the move, Charlotte decides to send Lolita to camp due to her wild behavior. Humbert then finds himself faced with a dilemma; should he stay with Charlotte to be with Lolita or will he leave? He ultimately decides to marry Charlotte, although soon after Charlotte finds Humbert's diary detailing his hatred for her and his immoral love for his daughter. In her frenzy, she is hit by a car and Humbert, panicked, flees. He decides to go to the camp to pick up Lolita and take her to a hotel where the two spend the night together. In his reflection on the events, Humbert writes that it was Lolita who started their activities. The couple then spent a year road tripping across the United States. As they get to know each other Lolita begins to act out, they eventually move to Beardsley where Humbert starts as a teacher and Lolita goes to school. As they settle in, Lolita begins to take an interest in others and joins a school play. Humbert, hurt by the diminished attention he receives, lets Lolita plan a trip but during the excursion she becomes ill and is taken to the hospital. Lolita leaves with someone else and Humbert tries for years to look for her without success, years later Lolita sends him a letter and he finally finds her. When the two finally reunite, Humbert begs Lolita to return, but she is now pregnant, once she receives money she can move in with her husband. Humbert decides to find the man Lolita left with years ago and murders him, as he flees the scene he is stopped and arrested. An interesting thought to consider is why Nabokov decided to write a foreword with a character that has no relation to the actual story. Why was John Ray Jr. chosen to tell us what happened to Humbert? Ray mentions that it was Humbert's lawyer who contacted him and asked him to read the memoirs written by our anti-hero, there was also talk of a possible publication of these memoirs. Ray's job was to edit the autobiography so that the characters remained anonymous and on top of that he mentions that few changes are made and that the work is entirely in Humbert's original words, this is clearly stated in the The foreword: “My task turned out to be simpler than either. of us expected this remarkable memoir to be presentedintact. Ray's personal opinion and insight, all of which are written in the foreword, serve as a sort of summary or preparation for readers so that they can, later, form their own opinions about the work . The foreword also provides information that helps readers understand the ending of the story; however, readers only realize this after reading the novel to the end. Although the little introduction Ray provides is essential to the story and, without it, readers would feel like the book ends too abruptly. When reading the novel, readers are confronted with distressing scenes and unthinkable thoughts that make us wonder how the author could possibly have written off such motives. Nevertheless, the story describes these events in such a way that for a second, readers are almost hypnotized before a wave of disgust hits them. This is because Nabokov has mastered his art of writing prose, John Updike has stated in the past that "Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, which is ecstatically." By focusing on the style of his writing, he can make anything beautiful and Lolita captures this phenomenon perfectly. Readers are instantly charmed by his gift for shaping words, and it's only once they reflect on what they've just read that they realize how heartbreaking the plot is. This subtle manipulation tricks readers into believing that what they just read isn't that terrible, shaping their perspective and opinion of the book. Perhaps Nabokov wanted to prove that even the most immoral characters can arouse sympathy if depicted in such an unusual way. So does the author's writing style make readers sympathize with Humbert's unethical ways? The language used to describe the events of the novel leads readers to believe that what happened between Humbert and Lolita was not something criminal or evil, but that their actions were in fact just that. Humbert wrote that what happened was "a greater effort" although he continued to try to defend his actions several times by mentioning that he was not a "brutal scoundrel" and that he “has crept into the heritage of poets and not into the roaming ground of crime”. As we read again and again of Humbert's attempt to redeem and verify his actions, we are made to feel almost sorry and pitiful for him. This is then judged, how are readers supposed to feel after reading the novel? The author wants us to believe that Humbert was not a monster, however, our personal ethical standards clearly dictate the opposite. According to society and the moral code of many, if not most, individuals initiating a romantic or romantic relationship, being sexual with a child is not acceptable. This is because children are easily impressionable and are not fully developed and therefore cannot make decisions regarding such matters. This is a basis on which we as readers can agree that the ideas the author introduces into the story are perceived as false, because they are false. The frustration begins when these two views blur together and we are left with a sense of confusion about how we should feel. Nabokov managed to sow such confusion simply with his writing style, that is, how powerful his control of words is. We must ask ourselves: does a fiction novel have a duty to be ethical? What are the limits imposed on novels? If an author decides to delete such events, is he free todo it? According to the right to freedom that every human being possesses, everyone has the right to hold opinions and expressions, including the freedom to communicate information and ideas through any media. The limits of this right are that it is impossible to produce media that provokes crime, violence or panic. If the reader understands these rights, he will clearly understand that Nabokov simply decided to use his freedom of speech since people are not forced to read the novel. The author wanted to create something allegorical, something beautiful and hideous at the same time and that's how Lolita was born. Fictional stories are said to be for entertainment, pleasure, education and bring aesthetic pleasure when read. They do not tell true stories, however they sometimes contain real elements implemented. The novel was meant to have aesthetic value, it was written as is because the author aimed to challenge boundaries and open our minds to how few rules literature actually has. Nabokov wanted to prove that fiction novels owe readers nothing, no morals, no ethics, no take-home messages, and he did so in 336 pages of poetic prose. Morality, destiny and free will; Every theme can be found in Lolita when reading the story. Morality is the value system a person possesses that helps them differentiate right from wrong and right from wrong. The morals of Lolita's characters differ quite significantly from societal norms, Humbert and Lolita seem to have difficulty deciding whether their actions are wrong or not. Even though Humbert has moments of reflection where his subconscious begins to nudge him in the right direction, he quickly shakes off these thoughts and continues to justify his actions. Fate is believed to be the progression of events that happen beyond our control, in this case, destiny had caused our anti-hero Humbert to lust after young girls. Considered a pedophilic disorder, a psychiatric illness in which patients experience desires toward prepubescent children. Free will is the ability to make decisions without being limited by anyone. If we were to take the plot of our story and change just one detail, Lolita's age would be the story. is he still what he is now? If we changed Lolita's age to 18, 17, or even 16, what would happen to our novel? While this is still a significant age gap, the change would make Humbert appear not as a criminal simply as an evil man preying on young adults. Free will also applies to Lolita, she is still free to decide what she consents to, but if we go back to her original age, that freedom is taken away from her. The 3 themes; morality, fate, and free will push and pull each other throughout the story. When the characters want to decide on an issue to be resolved, free will dictates to them that they are free to do what they want, at the same time morality intervenes and says that indeed they are not free because they must act according to rules and laws and finally destiny. saves the day by making everyone believe that the events that happened were simply due to fate. This circle continues throughout the book and none of the three ever ends up winning as the themes continue to connect to each other. After reading the novel, the reader expects to receive a take-home message, when the message is not entirely clear. As is evident, with careful interpretation we can conclude that Lolita teaches readers several different things. First, the most obvious is that parents,.”.