Citation :

Sadia Afroz, 2026. "Voices of the Marginalised: Analysing the Perspectives of Characters Surrounding Humbert and Lolita" ESP-International Journal of English Literature and Linguistics Research (ESP- IJELLR)  Volume 4, Issue 1: 10-22.

Abstract :

Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) is often discussed through Humbert Humbert’s unreliable narration and the controversial representation of Dolores Haze. A closer examination reveals that the novel’s silenced and marginalised characters provide alternative perspectives that destabilise Humbert’s dominant voice. Charlotte Haze, Clare Quilty, Gaston Godin, and other peripheral characters function as narrative counterpoints, exposing the limitations of Humbert’s self-serving account. Charlotte, dismissed by Humbert as an obstacle, embodies the voice of middle-class femininity struggling for recognition, while Quilty operates as both Humbert’s mirror and nemesis, embodying the darker undercurrents of obsession and exploitation. Similarly, Gaston Godin illuminates the broader social structures that Humbert attempts to erase. By analysing these characters through the framework of marginalised voices, this essay explores how Nabokov both conceals and subtly recovers alternative subjectivities within the text. The marginalisation is twofold: characters are silenced by Humbert’s narration and overshadowed in critical discourse focused on Humbert and Lolita. Their silenced voices complicate the moral landscape of Lolita, demanding attention to the broader human cost of Humbert’s narrative manipulation. This perspective not only repositions Nabokov’s work within debates on narrative authority and ethics but also underscores the necessity of reading against the grain to recover suppressed perspectives in literature.

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Keywords :

Nabokov, Lolita, Marginalised Voices, Charlotte Haze, Dolores Haze, Clare Quilty, and Gaston Godin.