From 17th-century witch-hunt hysteria to the biblical belief that all objects touched by a menstruating woman became impure , female sexuality was viewed by men with fear. and hostility for thousands of years. Accused by Tertulian of being "the gateway to the devil", women have long been subject to strict regulation, their sexuality often suppressed by patriarchal societies for fear of what might happen if the "uncontrollable nature" of these “untamed creatures”[1] have carte blanche. As a result, women have been seen, historically, as occupying a place of contradiction in literature, often dismissed by male writers as weak and invaluable to their stories, but at the same time given power over men in due to a societal obsession with their sensuality. Despite the vast differences in the context of the two texts studied here, "Lolita" being a 1940s "road novel" and "Wide Sargasso Sea" being set in postcolonial Jamaica, women and girls are represented through the eyes of of their children. their male counterparts in each novel in strikingly similar ways. Contemporary writers Jean Rhys and Vladimir Nabokov captured the emotional conflict between desire and disgust felt by male protagonists towards the women they are attracted to, highlighting the ways in which female characters are vilified for appropriating their sexuality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay To some extent, both male protagonists are depicted as viewing the women they pursue as supernatural beings rather than human beings, thereby contributing to the vilification of women. We can see Humbert Humbert blurring the distinction between the character of Lolita, the “nymphet” created by Nabokov, and the “little North American girl” who, thanks to the overflowing imagination with which Humbert wrote, we often forget that her name is Dolores. The concept of "nymphet", a neologism specific to Nabokov, comes from the mythological term nymph, designating a woman similar to a spirit whose "the term nûmphe refers to her status as a sexual being". This is used in reference to a young girl whom Humbert is attracted to, whose "true nature is not human, but nymphic (i.e. demonic)." Nabokov uses the adjectives "nymphic" and "demonic" as if they were interchangeable synonyms, suggesting that he intended to present Humbert as viewing the sexual appeal of girls as demonic. This may demonstrate Nabokov's intentions to portray Humbert as viewing Delores as some sort of malignant creature, therefore dehumanizing her due to his desire for her, and contributing to the idea that Humbert vilifies her. During various accounts of Humbert's encounters with those described as "demon children", paradoxically referring to the "nymphets" with whom he is "atrociously in love", the multilingual Nabokov describes one girl as a "charming and deceitful child", that is, that is to say, an adorable child. and misleading. This may invite the reader to imagine such "nymphets" as temptresses, using their supernatural powers of deception to seduce Humbert. This demonic representation, which is given to the reader at the beginning of the story, could be the ancestor of Lolita, which is no exception to Nabokov's long metaphor. In Humbert's eyes, Lolita is portrayed as "hopelessly depraved", indicating that she is sexually immoral. , and he equates this to the fact that sheis a “demon child”. The emotive adverb "desperately" may suggest that Nabokov intended to portray Humbert perceiving Dolores as beyond help, which may evoke in the reader the idea that this is why Humbert was able to rationalize his sexual relations with her. As a first-person narrator, it is likely that Nabokov intended to portray Humbert as unreliable; the authenticity of Dolores' alleged depravity may be questionable to many, given that she is a child of twelve. It can be inferred that Humbert, incidentally, one of Nabokov's almost constant references to satanic imagery, is intended to be received as struggling with contradictory emotions, hence the "agonizing" love that he sees. presented, and may attempt to place the blame on Dolores and other "nymphets" for the lust they are. shown to inspire him. In doing so, Nabokov is perhaps showing Humbert that he is vilifying Dolores for the sexual power she holds over him, and that he is trying to justify behavior that would today be recognized as pedophilia. Like the presentation of Dolores through Humbert's narrative in "Lolita", it can be interpreted that Rhys attempted to establish relationships between the presentation of Antoinette as an attractive and sexually free woman, and the presentation of her as a supernatural villain. When describing his wife, Rochester is "uncomfortable" by commenting on her "alien eyes", which, while comparing her to a feared supernatural being, an extraterrestrial, may also symbolize an inability to relate to her seemingly alien culture . Continual supernatural imagery is used in reference to Antoinette, including the simile used by Rhys that Antoinette has "zombie eyes". This comparison was perhaps intended to refer to its eyes appearing dead or lifeless, like the zombies of Caribbean folklore. It can be interpreted that Rochester, who readily believes Cosway's sensationalist stories, is presented as associating sexual promiscuity with supernatural evil, particularly when in many cases of "zombification" recorded in history, "those who have been transformed into "Zombies were probably already alienated from their communities"[2]. As Antoinette, who has arguably been portrayed as a disbeliever due to the sexual adventures of which she is accused by Cosway, is compared to a zombie, we can therefore say that she is vilified for this, to the point of being feared and demonized , as the alleged zombies were. It can also be argued that Antoinette's demonization stems from the image that Rochester hates Caribbean culture. Jamaica is presented within the framework of Rochester's narrative as a hostile place whose beauty and magic, Rochester remarks, "I hated." “Magic” perhaps refers to Jamaica's predominance of superstition and black magic, a religion considered by many colonizers to be sexually depraved, and “beauty,” to the sensual landscape of which Antoinette is a personification. By using the parallel between the strangeness of Jamaican Obeah for the Western reader and the strangeness of Antoinette's Creole culture for the Victorian British Rochester, Rhys can invite the reader to view Antoinette as a sexual villain through the framing of the Rochester's story. Represented to associate Antoinette with the “wild place” of which she is the personification, Rochester resents Antoinette, “because she belonged to magic.” Ultimately, Antoinette is "purchased for profit, seen as exotic, hysterical, and incomprehensible to her buyer"[3], and Rochester can therefore be seen vilifying her for her perceived sensuality as a Caribbean woman.Nabokov also uses the setting to show the vilification of the female protagonists, using Dolores to personify various stereotypical aspects of 1950s American culture. Through the first-person narrative of Humbert, an outsider like his creator Nabokov, the reader discovers “a vision of America that could only come from an outsider”[4], including aspects concerning, as critic Mary Elizabeth Williams puts it, “maximum lust, hypocrisy and obsession”[5]. Dolores may be intended to symbolize these aspects. Humbert is depicted with a dislike for them and can be seen vilifying Dolores because of them. Nabokov describes Dolores as "the ideal consumer, the subject and object of every filthy poster." The adjective "filthy" serves to make the reader aware of Humbert's hatred of the posters, which often contain sexual connotations, perhaps because of the way in which they claim to control his naive love, "the object » of their advertising. Nabokov describes her control through the metaphor of advertising which "fascinates" her, insinuating that she was under some sort of spell. Humbert is described as hating this fact, perhaps because of the overly sexualized way in which Hollywood advertising bombarded consumers, especially impressionable young people, at the time. It can be interpreted that this is because Nabokov intended to show Humbert the desire to maintain full control over Dolores' sexual desires. Noting that Dolores is presented with a love for Hollywood magazines, one of which Nabokov refers to as a "sinister movie magazine", we can see that she is perhaps exploring her sexuality through Hollywood, which Humbert can sense in due to Nabokov's use of the adjective "sinister", a word that can be interpreted as overly sexualized and vulgar. In fact, in one paragraph Nabokov talks about his greedy consumerism, and Dolores uses the slang word "swank", made popular by Hollywood films, and Humbert refers to Dolores as his "vulgar sweetheart". The juxtaposition of these two opposing words suggests an internal struggle on Humbert's part, indicating that Nabokov may have intended to present to her a hatred for the vulgar, sexualized language she uses, and the way she is presented as feeling sexually attracted to Hollywood actors. due to the negative and sex-negative language he uses. This may show Nabokov's intentions in presenting Humbert to vilify all aspects of Dolores' developing sexuality that do not concern him. On a deeper level, Nabokov can also use Humbert's feelings to show his defamation of sexualized America, because "if Lolita represents America, she is physically attractive, superficial, and deeply corrupt."[6] It is safe to say that sinister Hollywood held, and still holds, a form of sexual power over many, comparable to the way Dolores holds sexual power over Humbert. Humbert's conjured image of Dolores as a "nymphet" may lead him to be presented as viewing her with more sexual awareness than he actually does. After revealing to her the details of his sexual relations at the summer camp, Humbert shows himself disappointed at having "not been the first" to "debauch" her. From this we can infer that for Humbert, by being "the first", would come a sense of belonging, a feeling of assurance that she was, as Nabokov calls it, "pure" during her first relationship. sexual with her. Nabokov's use of the verb "debauchery" indicates that he intended to show Humbert that she considered her corrupt and defiled because someone had already had sex with her. This contrast”, 1987