Lolita: A Modern Pursuit Of The "Great Grail"

Lolita is the representative work by Nabokov which deserves our careful chewing and appreciation. Many readers are fond of the story, while others feel sick of it. Most scholars and readers would like to evaluate the novel from the perspective of morality. Apart from morality and pure love, the novel has charms in other aspects as well. With the development of criticism and theory in literature, we're offered with more perspectives to appreciate literary works. The approach of archetype criticism seems mysterious which dates back to the ancient tales and connects with the modern reality. Carl G. Jung put forward his theory of collective unconsciousness which is the core concept for his archetype criticism and his theory broadens our horizon to analyze the literary works.In my thesis, the approach of C.Jung's archetype criticism is adopted. In fact, the incest between Humbert and Lolita conceals a persistent pursuit of the Great Grail out of my understanding and research. The protagonist Humbert is a knight who pursues and fights for his Great Grail. But as a modern human, his pursuit combines too much modern elements. His"holy"grail, his nymphet--Lolita is nothing but his excessive desire. His quest is persistent but cruel. The thesis aims to analyze the process of Humbert's quest: the affection to nymphets—the pursuit of the grail—the fight for the grail. Then it is necessary and meaningful to analyze the significance of the Humbert's modern pursuit. Humbert pursues his grail for his own desire, whose motivation is no longer noble. And the grail he pursues is neither pure nor holy. The story is mysterious but not holy, the end is also miserable. All this happens to accord with some of the modern features. Thus Humbert's pursuit of his grail gives us an alarm of the modern pursuing.In the first chapter, the introduction to both the author and the novel are displayed, and the latest reviews help to form my points. Chapter two comes to the theoretical foundation including C.Jung's archetype criticism and the legend of the"Great Grail". Then in Chapter three and Chapter four come to the main body of the thesis: the life before Humbert becomes a knight and pursues for his Great Grail and the road of his pursuit and fight for his Great Grail. At last, there will be a conclusion of the thesis in the last Chapter.