Lolita Through a Marxist-Feminist LensHaving looked beyond its controversial sexual nature, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov can be read as a critique of the system capitalist. Nabokov uses the relationship between the novel's narrator, Humbert Humbert, and the novel's namesake, Lolita, as an extended metaphor to highlight the inherent exploitative nature of the system in a way that shocks the reader and brings them out of their wits. false consciousness, by making the former a man in a position of power - a disgusting and manipulative pedophile - and the latter a young female victim - as well as a spoiled, vapid and unruly child. Each is nothing more than a commodity to the other – Lolita being the perfect consumer and Humbert Humbert being a privileged man who views others only as objects to be used or consumed. Humbert Humbert is the ultimate representation of a privileged capitalist individual. Primarily, as the narrator of the novel, he has complete power over the audience's view of the story. He grew up upper class: his father owned a resort hotel on the Riviera and was constantly surrounded by his wealthy clients. He was educated at an English day school as a child, then at a French lycée in Lyon, before attending university in London and Paris. He studied English literature and is fluent in languages. Language is an important tool in his manipulation of both those around him and the reader by using clever wordplay and randomly inserting French, German, and sometimes Latin into his speech. After the death of Lolita's mother, Charlotte, Kinsey 2, Humbert Humbert tells the story of an affair with her to his two closest friends, John and Jean Farlow. In the end, Jean is convinced that Humbert Humbert is Lolita's real father (101...... middle of paper ......ution or revolution. Lolita ends up working in various restaurants for two years, before marry and move into a “clapboard cabin” (269 Kinsey 5 Humbert Humbert, with a guilty conscience and aware that he is going to prison for murder, gives her, her husband, and her unborn child). , four thousand dollars, although she dies giving birth and never benefits from it. This could be read as a symbol of the uselessness of the capitalist system However, the reader's eyes have been opened to the corrupting and exploitative nature. of capitalism, on their own consumption habits and on how they solve the problem while promoting their own repression. What we do with these new lights depends on them, but the more this knowledge can. be transmitted through literature, the more likely we are to move towards an egalitarian society..