Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My paper: Lolita and Nefertiti



~During my time reading Lolita, there were many discoveries and many unveilings found amidst Nabokov’s words, but the one that I found most interesting was his mention of Queen Nefertiti. It is actually more in reference to her 6 children, but as I was reading I couldn’t stop thinking about her and her connection to Lolita. Not only is Nefertiti mentioned in the same paragraph as the references to Dante’s love for Beatrice and Petrarch’s for Laureen, but as I discovered, there were many more ‘coincidences’ scattered throughout the book (Nabokov 19).
~In my research I discovered that Nefertiti, whose name means “the beautiful one is come”, her origins are unclear, but there are many rumors as to who her parents were, some believe that the vizier Ay and his sister Tiy were her parents, but cannot be proven. She married to Pharaoh Amenhotep IV and had 6 children with him, one of which died in childbirth. Both Amenhotep and Nefertiti ardently worshiped the sun god Aten; so much so, they both changed their names in honor of him. Nefertiti changed her name to 'Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti' or 'The Aten is radiant because the-beautiful one has come', and Amenhotep changed his to ‘Akhenaten’ in honor of their god. Nefertiti was revered and loved by all of her people until her mysterious disappearance in 1335 BC (http://www.crystalinks.com/).
~When I read her biography I couldn’t believe how many similarities there were between her and Lolita. Both of these women had fathers that were unknown and confusing. Although the Nabokov says at the beginning of the novel that Harold Haze is Lolita’s father, Humbert Humbert confuses both the characters and the reader by saying that he is Lolita’s father, muddling her past. Lolita and her husband also lost a child during birth, and although Nabokov says that Lolita died while giving birth, the unreliability of most of what he says creates gaps that leave the reader wondering what really happened to her, not unlike Nefertiti herself.
~If these similarities aren’t crazy enough, let’s take a closer look at the sun god Aten. He was known as the disk of the sun, and worshipped as the creator of the world. During the rein of Akhenaten, he became the basis for their monotheistic religion. Similarly, Humbert Humbert had a monotheistic religion of Lolitaism, worshiping her as his creator and god. To follow this chain of thinking more specifically, there are 8 references throughout Lolita where Humbert Humbert refers to Lolita directly as a ‘sun’ or ‘sun-like.’ He refers to her as his “red sun of desire and decision” on page 71, as his “sun-colored little orphan” on page 111, refers to her “rosy sunshine” on page 119 and how “she radiated, despite her very childish appearance, some special languorous glow…” on page 159. Is it a coincidence that Nabokov referenced Nefertiti who worshiped the sun, and then showed numerous examples of how Humbert Humbert worshipped Lolita like the sun? Perhaps, but I believe that he did is purposely, as another layer of his onion-like novel for the observant reader to unpeel and delight in.


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