The “only convincing love story of our generation” (Vanity Fair, Vintage 1989 Cover). This misconception that Vanity Fair was fooled by in 1989 is what the novel is infamous for; however, how do the layers of reality manipulate us into believing the literary truth of the novel. What masterminding manipulative thought does it take to change someone’s ethics, let alone have the ramifications onto society that this novel has provoked? “When she was a child, her father woke her, carried her from the bed to the bathroom, made her bend over the tub, and raped her.” (Patnoe, 86). Worse yet, this is only one incident of sexual violence onset by the publication of this great love story. But--what is love in this context? Love is not typically crying yourself to sleep nightly, being isolated from your peers, and forced to run off with Quilty--a man who is no better than your rapist stepfather. The novel is artistically crafted in layer upon layer of doubling to create the illusion of stability in Humbert. “It is Humbert who crafts the story of Quilty’s abduction of Lolita.” (Meyer, 2). And this…show more content… The genre is classically used in gothic stories--think Jeckyl and Hyde--moreover, it can be adapted into any sort of reality. In this story, we pose Humbert and Quilty on opposite sides of a metaphorical chessboard, but in reality they stand as neighbors. “The figure of the double or doppelgänger is a… manifestation of anxiety over a transgression.” (Bowers, 1). Essentially, the double is defined, in this context, as someone who is solely there to be the evil half of the protagonist. It takes a long time for the novel to fully expose Quilty as a double. However, by the infamous farcical murder scene, Humbert even describes them as one: “He rolled over me. I rolled over him. We rolled over me. They rolled over him. We rolled over us.” (Nabokov,
