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Magic Toyshop Vs Lolita Essay

1633 Words7 Pages

How does narrative style facilitate a consideration of sexuality in two texts studied on the module?

This essay aims to discuss the narrative styles engaged within Lolita and The Magic Toyshop in order to consider the unique types of sexualities both novels discuss. Firstly, The Magic Toyshop and then Lolita will be discussed with a focus on sexuality as. Narrative techniques employed will be briefly analyzed appreciate the authors intent and the effect produced for each novel. The mutual notion of the stereotype of the female will be engaged in order to understand how Humbert attempts to consume and Melanie attempts to obtain this stereotype.

The Magic Toyshop enables the reader to perceive how society creates images of …show more content…

When Melanie utters “Oh get it over with, get it over with,” it evident she does not actually wish to kiss Finn yet she feels like she needs to as society and convention requires her to (Carter, 1981:105). It is the idea of recreating the romantic picture that she has seen across the film screen that appeals to her, not kissing Finn himself. The reader is told that, “She wondered why he was doing this, putting his mouth on her own undesiring one…What was the need? She felt a long way away from him…” (Carter, 1981:105-106). Carter emphasizes that Melanie does not understand this “need” and thus she does not feel it. This further demonstrates how Melanie only kisses Finn as convention or ‘normality’ tells her to do …show more content…

For example, “…locked in an embrace beside the broken statue in this dead fun place, with the November dusk swirling around them and Finn’s hair so ginger, hers so black, spun together by the soft little hands of a tiny wind, yellow and black hairs tangled together” (Carter, 1981:106). This fantastical gothic-esqe scene is the interrupted by reality and Finn literally. The invasion of her intimate space awakens her to reality from this dreamlike space in which she is momentarily dislocated. It is however the image of the moment she is entranced by rather than the moment

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