Vladimir Nabokov's work Lolita is a reflection of his aesthetic literature. Nabokov is able to construct a character capable of stimulating and attracting his audience through his fluid and articulate use of language. A language capable of masking the taboo relationship between a man and a little girl. For more than half a century Nabokov's Lolita has been seen as the quintessential perverse romance, romanticized into something beautiful through the careful use of poetic, deceptive and contrasting language, illustrating the power words have to influence the others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayHumbert Humbert begins his narrative with his vivid description of Lolita, "light of my life, fire of my loins." My sin, my soul, Lo-lee-ta. (Nabokov 1) By doing so the tone is already set. Humbert Humbert's passion is already identified through the poetic description of his love. The initial introduction places the reader in the mindset and understanding of HH's feelings towards his love. In this way it is already able to establish a connection with the reader. The feeling of love and immense passion or even lust is something that almost everyone is familiar with. As Mulready points out, “in just the first paragraph of the novel, the reader gets a sense of how fascinated Humbert really is by Lolita, regardless of their age difference.” (Mulready 1) Humbert's idealistic and romantic imagination of Lolita furthers his use of poetic language. Humbert uses his immense passion for nymphets to turn a normally bawdy obsession into an art with his prose. The excruciating detail HH goes into to describe a normal prepubescent female character serves as a distraction from the nature of his passion. He is able to effectively distract his audience by creating such an aesthetic description of how he sees his love, that the reader can relate to his passion. Humbert's poetic description allows the reader to delve into Humbert's passionate desires without doubt. The use of the French language also adds a captivating feel to the novel. Humbert is able to articulate his English descriptions with parts of the French language. This in turn reinforces the overall atmosphere of romance surrounding the novel. The way Nabokov implements the use of French, however, is more intended to portray a kind of eloquent and delicate beauty for the female characters. For example, in his encounter and description of an underage prostitute, he incorporates French adjectives. “I liked her long eyelashes and the tight tailored dress that clad in pearl gray her young body which still retained… something childish mixed with the professional fretillement of her small and agile rump (Nabokov 22).” He then continues into the chapter, constantly alternating between French and English, creating a romantic and delicate plot with just this individual character. Aside from the use of poetic language, aspects of deceptive language are easily identifiable. As the novel progresses two types of language can be identified with Humbert. The most immediate is Humbert's idealistic voice. He uses this voice to captivate his audience with his language. As Mulready points out, “This…voice, designed by the narrator to distract his audience from the morally unacceptable aspects of his writing, is simply a diversionary tactic that sweetens his story” (2). Moore also refers to Humbert saying, "Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with!" (Nabokov 32), and identifies his apparent admission of a languageideal and “played” a “truism seasoned with melancholic lyricism” (Moore 74). Intertwined with his idealistic language come the glimmers of HH's true voice. With this, aspects of perhaps unintentional comedy creep into this language. This so-called true voice of Humbert serves to remind readers of Humbert's true self; a middle-aged man with a passion for nymphets. The indication of his true voice also serves to show readers Humbert's artistry with language. It comes with a clear identification of Humbert's intentions to deceive his audience with his aesthetic language. This deceptive veil of language used by Humbert leaves the reader wondering what style Humbert is presenting. Moore admits: "It takes time to adjust to his stylistic double bluffs, and even readers who know the book well are forced to guess, as with the Cretan Liar, whether he is telling the truth when he tells lies, or lying when he tells the truth." (Moore 75). The reasoning behind his constantly changing speaking styles becomes evident early on, when HH begins his speech with “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury” (Nabokov 9). Humbert's underlying goal is to persuade his audience. His intentions are facilitated by his artistic prose as he is able to effectively communicate his anecdotes by providing such fantastic details that want to captivate. His aim is to connect to his audience through the use of rich and elaborate language that will ultimately sharpen and stimulate his audience's senses. He captivates his audience with his initial description of a simple name that is almost meaningless to his audience, but means the world to him. Its charm and the breakdown of the name, Lolita, saying “Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue that takes a trip of three steps along the palate to click, in threes, on the teeth. The. Lee. Ta. (Nabokov 9).” Humbert captivates his audience as he walks them through his thought process and breakdown of the name Lolita. After her initial hookup and stimulation, she further describes the meaning behind the name: “She was Lo, simply Lo, in the morning, standing four foot ten in a sock. It was Lola in pants. It was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita” (Nabokov 9). This guide through his mind, in fantastic detail, captures his audience under his spell with words and places them right where Humbert Humbert wants them to be; trapped in his web of deception, bound by his majestic aesthetic language to deceive his audience, the jury, into falling in love with his ideal Lolita. The last component used by Nabokov in Lolita is that of contrasting language. The cleverly instilled contrasts are made with the aim of breaking the illusion of Humbert's spell. The way these key contrasts are presented also adds comedy to this taboo love story. Humbert's eloquence and frankness are directly identified when he shifts from a descriptive tone to a rather harsh and truthful tone when describing a woman, “...Monique elegant, slender, as she was for a minute or two; a delinquent nymphet shining through the no-nonsense young whore” (24). This bluntness completely changes the tone and brings the reader back to reality. In another instance Humbert begins to describe several idealistic and fantastical accounts of his encounter with the nymphets. He begins to remember one particular story of his lustful excitement when: “It happened, for example, that from my balcony I noticed a lighted window across the street and what looked like a nymphet in the act of undressing in front of a cooperative mirror. So isolated, so distant, the vision acquired a particularly acute fascination that struck me.