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Style
Definition of Tone
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical, and so on. For instance... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical... read full definition
Part 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis:
The tone of Lolita is defined by the dark sense of humor that characterizes many of Nabokov’s novels. Though Humbert Humbert’s crimes are very serious, and though he writes from a prison cell, he remains arrogant and unrepentant, and his narration is saturated with irony, sarcasm, and wit. He describes the death of his mother when he was three years old with a characteristic sense of macabre comedy:
My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three, and, save for a pocket of warmth in the darkest past, nothing of her subsists within the hollows and dells of memory, over which, if you can still stand my style (I am writing under observation), the sun of my infancy had set.
Here, Humbert conveys shocking and dramatic information in an intentionally and ironically matter-of-fact manner. He describes his mother as merely “photogenic,” as he only knows her from photos and has few if any direct memories. Further, he notes that she died in a “freak accident,” quickly reporting the details of this shocking incident in parentheses without providing further explanation or context. This brief, ironic, and starkly understated description of the death of his mother underscores his disinterest in her and his apathy towards adult women in general. His curt, sarcastic language in this passage reflects the darkly humorous tone that he adopts throughout the novel, as he narrates the events of his life in a manner that is often heartless and cruel.
Related Themes:
