Blogpost 2- Critical Reading 1

Passage- Lolita

“She came hardly up to my chest hair and had the kind of dimpled round little face French girls so often have, and I liked her long lashes and tight-fitting tailored dress sheathing in pearl-gray her young body which still retained - and that was the nymphic echo, the chill of delight, the leap in my loins- a childish something mingling with the professional fretillement of her small agile rump...Perhaps only three years earlier I might have seen her coming from school!” (21).

While reading this passage through the psychoanalytical lense, I can see why Humbert Humbert has certain feelings and the the way he acts. I think the main reason to why he acts this way is due to his childhood relationship with Annabel. She died young, and Humbert pictures other young girls as Annabeth. Although, the prostitute later says she is 18, Humbert thinks of her as a young girl and as a “nymphet”.

I know that Humbert sees her as a young girl when the author writes “...hardly came up to my chest hair...little face French Girls so often have...small agile rump.” These are characteristics that would describe a young girl or teenager. It are these qualities that are attractive to Humbert Humbert.  He also notes that her voice sounded young, and it made him feel happy. The author writes how it makes Humbert feel “childish”. I think that he likes young girls so he can feel young again.  

This is Humbert Humbert with a young girl. I believe that this is the girl from this scene, the one Humbert likes.

Passage- Scarlet Letter

“Hester shook her head... ‘Never!’ replied Hester Prynne, looking not at Mr. Wilson, but into the deep and troubled eyes of the younger clergyman. ‘It is too deeply branded . Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony as well as mine!’...’I will not speak...And my child must seek a heavenly father; she shall never know an earthly one!’” (61).

Hester fight back against Mr. Wilson by not announcing who the father is. This may be because she notices her long-lost husband in the audience and does not want to tell him who she cheated on, or it could be that she is a strong woman. She also does not want the child to suffer and that whatever happens to the child, will aso happen to her. I know this because she says “ would that I might endure his agony as well as mine...”

She also believes that the father of the child is not fit. She says that the child must seek God as a father when she says “my child must seek a heavenly father...” The reason for saying this is that she believes that the father is useless as he is not standing up for her or saying who he is.

Another reason she acts strong could be that she doesn’t want people to know that she is scared. After being in the jail for some time, she might be scared of saying who the father is. The father of the baby might be some powerful person in the community and saying that he is the father could hurt him, and make him hurt her.


This is a picture of Hester Prynne holding the baby in her arms wile facing the people in the community. She is not admitting who the father is.