Analysis On Eros In Nabokov's Novels

In his first novel Mary, Nabokov quotes a poem from Pushkin, "Having recalled intrigues of former years,having recalled a former love", which proclaims the main theme of love in his works. It can be said that in his whole life, Nabokov has been struggling to solve the mystery about love. This thesis mainly discusses the mystery love from the perspective of Nabokov's writing from four chapters. In his early book Mary, Nabokov discussed modern people's view of love by a large segment of the hero, Cleveland's recalling. In many cases, people love someone and it may not because of true love, but because that people has already had an expectation of love, while in most cases it is an illusion. This may explain the reason why in today's society, with the highly developed visual arts and science, people's concepts of Eros are determined by reading and understanding others'performance about love. Lacan once said:"language was born before the unconscious", which also explains this point.In the first chapter, it presents the condition about Eros when Nabokov started to write his novels, plus his choice about loving. After that, in the second chapter, Nabokov explores postmodern vulgar Eros in his book King, Queen and Jack. By parodying Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Nabokov also analyzes human vulgar Eros. The post-modern Eros is equal to sex. People need to pure the word "Eros" before they want to analysis it. This situation is made by the impatience. To be more specific, the reason why people are so impatient is that they are living in a consumer society. John Benson once said "consumer societies are ones in which choice and credit are readily available, in which social value is defined in terms of purchasing power and material possessions, and in which there is a desire, above all, for that which is new, modern, exciting and fashionable."After this, Nabokov wrote his most famous book Lolita in which in addition to the exciting performance about vulgar Eros, Nabokov also analyzes the "Egocentric Eros". Through parody romantic love, the criticism directed pointed to this modern Eros's cruelty and loneliness nature.In order to change this situation, in his Ada or Ardor, Nabokov tries to analyze the most important concept about love which is "romantic love". It is in this book, the impoverishment of love becomes a profusion kind of love. In which, Eros from a negative pattern finally embarked on a positive erotic model. All of this are the contents of the third chapter. This paper continues with analysis on something like Christian "charity" concept in the book Pnin. Pnin appears to be a gracious and affectionate lover and suffers from vulgar mass. He finally presents a kind of "divine love". After this, it is the rare work of Nabokov's successful and positive love mode which appears in the Talents and Pale Fire. The former is a kind of young successful love which was something like friendship; the latter is a kind of old age love which suffers a lot but still is stable. So, in the forth chapter, it presents a profusion kind of love, which broadens the concept of love, and makes the narrow concept of modern love open to the whole world and the society.Thus, by continuously backtracking, Nabokov establishes an ideal model of love in the end. By unccasing writing about love, Nabokov informs people that actions should be taken in the real love world. Just as ancient Chinese sages and ancient Greek philosophers manifested that only by personal experiences, can people get the power of love. Finally, love can be instinct and talented.