In Chapter 5 of Part One, which deals with the conception of the nymphet, Humbert refers to Dante’s Beatrice to justify his obsession with prepubescent girls. This suggests that Lolita, the gray-eyed nymphet (the reincarnation of Annabel Leigh), is symbolized by the number 9, with which Dante establishes Beatrice’s identity. The two motifs of “the transition from 999 to 1000” and “a lake” appear in the three successively published novels: Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), Pale Fire (1962). About the lake motif in Lolita, Priscilla Meyer points out that unlike Pale Fire’s three conjoined lakes (Omega, Ozero, and Zero=the three Os or zeros), which emblematize Hazel’s suicide and the possibility of another world, Lolita’s three lakes (Onyx, Eryx, and Climax), whose names end in x, “are associated with crass sexuality.” From the numerical points of view, x represents the number 10 in Roman numerals and is the 24th letter in the English alphabet. Humbert says of his fateful encounter with Lolita in Chapter 4 of Part One, “But that mimosa grove ... remained with me, and that little girl ... haunted me ever since--until at last, twenty-four years later, I broke her spell by incarnating her in another.” However, in Chapter 10, he restates, “The twenty-five years I had lived since then ... vanished.” And although Humbert mentions that he began working on his manuscript in captivity 56 days ago, he was not in prison at that time. Analyzing the two motifs of “the transition from 999 to 1000” and “a lake,” the numerical chiasmus (25-52, 24-42, 56-65), and the symbolic meanings of 24 and 25 will allow us to understand the multilayered meanings of the restatement of 24 and 25 and the intricate symbolism implied by the time discrepancy between the 56 days Humbert took to write his manuscript and the number of days until his death.
抄録全体を表示