Midterm Paper

The End or the Beginning?

“I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality that you or I may share, my Lolita” (309). The last line in the Vladimir Nabokov’s work of genius Lolita and one of the most poetic lines in the entirety of the book, but what does it mean. After having to memorize this passage for a certain exam in a certain English class, I could not get the words out of my head. I’d play them over and over in my head like a broken record, but this repetitive record was music to my ears rather than an annoyance, the only annoyance was my inability to fully grasp the meaning that I knew had to lie behind these words. So here it goes I guess, without hesitation I’ll dive head first into this labyrinth, with hopes of coming out with some understanding, and maybe sanity.

An auroch is an extinct primeval animal and angels are the messengers of God to mortals, which I can see as representing the end of any mortal connection with not only Humbert Humbert’s audience, but more importantly with his Lolita. Upon further exploration of the Auroch I uncovered various facts about the absent beast. The auroch is historically associated with the Mithras who has been visually depicted sacrificing the auroch in an act of taurobolium, which is the representation of confessing truth or upholding an oath. This I interpret as being a confession of Humbert, and apology to the reader as well as Lolita, he is finalizing not only the book but all that happened to him and Lolita.

The next part of the passage, “the secret of durable pigments” seems to be a Humbert’s way of thinking about what it would be like if one could exist longer, if any living being has durable long lasting pigment their color stays away from fading, therefore their life is longer. If Humbert knew the secret to living longer than he would not have to end this book or the time spent with Lolita.

“…prophetic sonnets and the refuge of art”. This line is another way that he knows that his story has been written before he even knew it existed, throughout the sonnet that was his life. There was no way of changing what fate had already planned for him, but he exposes that through this piece of writing, this work of art he will be able to shelter the moments and memories he experienced with his little Nymphet.

So this is the only way that we can live on forever in this world, even past our point of extinction, the written word is a life form all its own. In this way we do share immortality, we share it through the one the only Lolita.