Does The Demon Have True Love

The narrative technique of triple-narrative voices utilized by Nabokov in Lolita exhibits extraordinary aesthetic charm and stylistic significance. In this thesis, three main narrative voices are to be analyzed by employing theoretical tools such as point of view, view shifting, narrative communication model and discourse level from the perspective of narratology to identify Humbert’s unreliability in narration.As a renowned literary stylist, Nabokov exhibited complicated writing skills in his most disputed yet the most successful fiction Lolita. In this novel, different focalizations in the deep structure make a very complex narrative situation where three narrative voices parallel in the surface linguistic structure:that of the narrator-Humbert, the character-Humbert and also the partially participated-Dr. Ray in Foreword. This special phenomenon has blurred careless readers’visions and puzzled a lot of them because it has increased the difficulty to find the true values and attitudes set by the implied author, which makes Lolita a book full of obscurity. Based on the obstacle above, this thesis analyzes Humbert’s first-person retrospective and omniscient third-person point of view as well as view shifting among multi focalization so as to prioritize the implied author’s narrative voice among others.This thesis then explores the unreliability of the homodiegetic narrator Humbert through a progressive analysis of triple-narrative voices. In the first place, the narrative voice of the protagonist Humbert is analyzed through an examination of his position as an emotional confessioner in jail. During this process, it is evident that the focalization alternates between the experiencing Humbert and the narrating Humbert from time to time, and the latter bears more close relationship with the implied author’s values. Next comes the second narrative voice type of the implied author Nabokov, whose revelation of values is the target of this thesis. An analysis of his narration, rendered by omniscient third-person point of view, is realized by clarifying the shifting perspective from the character-Humbert to the narrator-Humbert. At last, attention is attached to the third narrative voice from Dr. Ray. In the whole framework of reasoning, illustrations are given to detach and divine the implied author’s values and judgments, on which the analysis and proof of the homodiegetic narrator Humbert’s unreliability is based and established.The thematic value of Lolita is unwapped finally by the establishment of Humbert’s unreliable narration. The virtual character Humbert is deliberately estranged by Nabokov from his flesh and blood self. Consequently, readers are reminded that Humbert’s narration may not necessarily be in total accordance with that of Nabokov. Thereafter the implied author’s covert and hidden values and attitudes in this complicated book are clarified and along this mentality the theme of sexual child abuse,"Humbert’s violation of Lolita" is highlighted among the interwoven narrative strategies by Nabokov.