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humbert humberts obsession
examples of obsession in literature
first description of lolita
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Obsession in Lolita
The relationship between Humbert Humbert and Lolita is no doubt a unique one. Many people who read the novel argue that it is based on "lust", but others say that Humbert really is in "love" with Lolita. However, there is some astounding evidence that Humbert has an obsessional-compulsive disorder with Lolita. The obsession is clearly illustrated when Humbert's actions and behavior are compared to the experts' definitions and descriptions of obsession. In many passages, Humbert displays obsessional tendencies through his descriptive word choice and his controlling personality. Many people are obsessive, so this is not an alien subject. We see it everyday in the entertainment industry as well as in everyday life. Comparing Humbert Humbert to clinical and other definitions, it seems as if Humbert is one person who is an obsessed person.
Obsession is a tricky topic because it is hard to come up with a concrete definition. Who decides what obsession is? Where does one draw the line between obsession and deep admiration? According to S. Jack Rachman, "an obsession is an intrusive, repetitive thought, image, or impulse that is unacceptable or unwanted and gives rise to subjective resistance" (2). In addition, Andrew Brink states that "...the popular meaning of the term obsession, including the new verb 'to May 2 obsess', which means to be persistently preoccupied about something, usually an unsatisfactory relationship" (195). Both of these definitions are fairly similar, so now it is important to look at Humbert's actions and analyze how he fits into these defined categories.
First, Brink argues that most people, especially men, have an obsessiona...
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...aracter, but he is not abnormal. We have many Humberts running around our world, regardless of if we realize it or not. Nabokov, a man not too distant from Humbert, found a way to rationalize his obsession through Lolita - indeed an artistic and creative move on his part.
WORKS CITED
Beech, H. R. Obsessional States. London: Methuen & Co. LTD, 1974.
Brink, Andrew. Obsession and Culture: A Study of Sexual Obsession in Modern Fiction. London: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1996.
Nabokov, Vladamir. The Annotated Lolita. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
Ostling, Richard N. A Fatal Obsession with the Stars.ä Time. 31 July 1989: 43-44.
Rachman, S. Jack. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Psychological and Pharmacological Treatment. New York: Plenum Press, 1985.
Salzman, Leon. The Obsessive Personality. New York: Science House, 1968.
In the case of “Diversity Programs at the New England Aquarium”, all four frames – structural, human resources, political, and symbolic— show a different perspective of the underlying management issues surrounding the New England Aquarium. The issues that surround the structural frame are based around the aquarium’s goals and mission, as well as the actual organizational structure and coordination. The human resource frame will be used to view the relationships and balance between the needs of the organization and the needs of the people involved at the aquarium. Next, we will look at the political frame in order to better understand “the battle” for the tight resources, and the political arena that exists in the aquarium. Lastly, we will discuss the symbolic frame to view the symbols at the aquarium and show their affect the organization.
In society, most people have an obsession to some extent, these may include such things as a hobby – collecting antiques; or even as simple as having to have things a certain way. For others though, obsession has a different meaning, they might become obsessed with one special object, or possibly attaining a certain goal. They might go about achieving this goal no matter what the consequences to others might be. Mordecai Richler’s book the Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, illustrates one such case of obsession, the title character, Duddy Kravitz becomes obsessed with his grandfather’s saying, “ ‘ A man without land, is nothing.’”, thus starting Duddy on his quest to attain a piece of land. Throughout his quest, Duddy has no regard for the feelings or the relationships he destroys in the process, weather it in his family relations, business relations, or even his personal relations to those that are closest to him.
Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita, a tale of a man and his superficial love for an adolescent girl. Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1899 but died on July 2, 1977 in Switzerland after writing a surplus of various novels, one of them being Lolita. He studied at Trinity College in Cambridge then moved to the United States where he received great recognition for his work as a novelist. Nabokov wrote Lolita because he thought it was an interesting thing to do and he liked to create riddles with “elegant solutions.” Nabokov’s tale was originally written in Russian as a prototype with few changes to the course of Lolita.
LOPES, Mônica de Souza. A estética da decadência: uma leitura de elementos simbólicos em Um bonde chamado desejo. In: MALUF, Sheila Diab e AQUINO, Ricardo Bigi de (orgs.) Reflexões sobre a cena. Maceió: Edufal e Salvador: Edufba, 2005.
Dom Casmurro, by Machado de Assis, was published in Brazil in 1899 and later translated from Portuguese to English. In observing the characteristics of the novel, Dom Casmurro does not easily fit into the literary movements popular in Latin America: like romanticism, realism, and naturalism. Many commentators have criticized Assis for not incorporating the principle, nineteenth century Brazilian literary characteristics. In addition, many characterized Assis as a “romanticized realist” (Schwarz). The novel consists of the literary technique of metafiction, where the author and narrator are directly polar, which makes the reader question the narrator’s reliability. In understanding the style and tone of Dom Casmurro, the analysis of how Assis uses the characteristics from the prevalent literary movements of Latin America help the reader develop
Psychoanalysis is the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts (“Psychoanalysis”). This transfers to analyzing writing in order to obtain a meaning behind the text. There are two types of people who read stories and articles. The first type attempts to understand the plot or topic while the second type reads to understand the meaning behind the text. Baldick is the second type who analyzes everything. Since his article, “Allure, Authority and Psychoanalysis” discusses the meaning behind everything that happens in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” we can also examine “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” in the same manner.
Because the mother is living in a world of depression a dark wall has wrapped itself around her. Worrying solemnly about the life of her daughter, the mother is neglecting to appreciate the positive attributes her daughter is presenting. Emily is a gifted comedian, "Where does it come from, that comedy?" (p.159) being a comedian during the Great Depression is almost as rare as finding water during an extensive drought. If the mother wasn't as depressed she would be able to appreciate the comedy that Emily is passionate for. The mother's character is left in a state of helplessness reaching out beyond depression to view the comedian inside her daughter.
It was hard for her mother to have a baby at a young age herself and try to make ends meet was not easy. She needed to lean on others for help, which she thought at the time was right thing to do, but got caught up on her new family. This is why Emily had so much resentment towards her mother. This story is a great example of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. The story does great job showing the mother’s anguish over her daughter, and a depressed teen that needed her mother and is struggling to overcome a very unhappy childhood.
Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. "Un-Utterable Longing: The Discourse of Feminine Sexuality in The Awakening." Studies in American Fiction 24.1 (Spring 1996): 3-23. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 127. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 May 2014.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, one of the main themes surrounds the idea of defining obsession and classic obsessive behaviors. Obsession itself is a force of devastation for one’s social, personal, mental, and physical life. At one point, obsession must be a passion, of which has amazing side effects. The synonym, passion, may resemble obsession in the beginning, though the main difference between the two is that obsession consumes the life that it holds. In the end, obsession ruins us.
Without a doubt, Humbert is a villain, but by empathizing with him, we have subconsciously forgiven him in his wrongdoings. All along, Humbert had deeply loved and long for Lolita and all throughout his time with her, he acknowledges the depth of his immorality. What had triggered our sympathy was his persistency to obtain what he loved most and the disclosure of his guilt, which he claims could never be forgiven. However, we as readers, seeing the he sincerely feels guilty and castigates himself, makes us accept him
The desire behind the characters in Narcissus and Goldmund is not always blatantly obvious as we might like to think. Sometimes to understand the desire and how it functions in this novel, you need to look through a different lens to examine the inner workings of the main characters. To do this it is required to employ some type of psychological theory in order to understand the actions and what they mean. I will be using Lacanian psychoanalysis and will examine the desire of the main character of Goldmund, from the Herman Hesse novel Narcissus and Goldmund, in terms of Lacan and his theories.
There was an incident following Lolita’s success that had taken place during the 1960s that seemed to appropriately illustrate people's reception to the newly deemed classic. In his biography Vladimir Nabokov : The American Years, Brian Boyd recounts Nabokov remembering a disturbing event one halloween when a young girl came to his door with her parents dressed up as Lolita (Boyd).Whether her outfit replicated the popularized Lolita in Kubrick's 1962 movie adaptation, winged eyeliner and all, or her outfit encompassed the text Lolita’s “boy shirts” (Nabokov 46) and generally “rough tomboy clothes” (Nabokov 48), the child was parading an outfit of a young girl who had been raped and manipulated, exploiting a character with no knowledge or empathy
...primary battery (especially alkaline) as they generally suffer less self-discharge when not in use than secondary batteries.
Love, what is it? Love is a powerful feeling that is expressed in many ways throughout our society between men and women. Sometimes powerful feelings can have a negative ending, such as the ending in the novel Lolita.