Emily: The Age Gap. Twilight and Lolita

Responding and Reflecting

Text: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Lens: Feminist

From: Goodreads.com

What does Twilight and Lolita have in common?

The age gap between the main characters.

Humbert Humbert is about 36 when he meets Lolita (age 12) for the first time. This is a 24 year difference.

Edward Cullen is 104 when he meets Bella Swan, a junior in high school, at age 17. This is a 87 year difference.

If you think about it, which is more disturbing: a 24 year difference or a 87 year difference?

One can argue that Edward is really 104 trapped forever in a 17 year old body and that makes it all better. It doesn’t matter that he’s 104 because he is handsome and young.

But it does, possibly because the perspective is different. Bella falls in love with a hot 17 year old boy, who is not just a brooding person, but a 104 man with an ideological mindset from the early 1920s. Some of Edward’s ways are repeatedly said to be old-fashioned.

How much different is that from Lolita and Humbert’s dilemma. Humbert’s ideological differences make the age gap between the two clearer. “Not only had Lo no eye for scenery but she furiously resented my calling her attention to this or that enchanting detail of landscape” (152). The extreme difference of ages lead to a difference in interests. Lolita’s age group has no patience for landscapes, while older people, Humbert’s age have more of an appreciation for it.

This comparison came up when I was attempting to come up with books with couples with extreme age differences. My first book I thought of: Twilight. 

Also:

Book	Author	Female Character	Age	Male Character	Age	Difference
Lolita	Vladimir Nabokov	Lolita	12	Humbert	36	24
Twilight	Stephenie Meyer	Bella Swan	17	Edward Cullen	104	87
Iron King	Julie Kagawa	Meghan Chase	16	Ash or Puck	419	403
Sense and Sensibility	Jane Austen	Marianne	16	Willoughby	25	9
Sense and Sensibility	Jane Austen	Marianne	16	Colonel Brandon	35	19
Sense and Sensibility	Jane Austen	Eliza	15	Willoughby	25	10
Pride and Prejudice	Jane Austen	Elizabeth Bennet	20	Mr. Darcy	28	8
Emma	Jane Austen	Emma	20	George Knightley	37	17
Percy Jackson	Rick Riordan	Sally (Percy's Mother)	35	Poseidon	2715	2680
Shadow and Bone	Leigh Bardugo	Alina Starkov	17	The Darkling	120	103

All of my books are fantasy based, except Jane Austen’s books which take place in a time where age differences are acceptable and normal.

I thought about it, and I couldn't think of any books with females that are way older than the male. It's more socially correct for a couple to have an older male than female, but not too old.

From: Goodreads.com

Then later, I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I compared my understanding of Lolita and Elizabeth Patnoe’s article Lolita Misrepresented, Lolita Reclaimed: Disclosing the Doubles (Critical Lens Expert article) with Deborah Lack’s own childhood. Deborah is Henrietta’s daughter, but when Henrietta died from cancer, Deborah and her siblings were split up among family members. Deborah’s adopted father, Galen, sexually abused her, “Deborah would sit in the back, pressed against the car door to get as far from Galen as she could... After the first time he touched her, Deborah swore she’d never wear another pair of jeans with snaps instead of zippers again. But zippers didn’t stop him; neither did tight belts. So Deborah would just stare out the window, praying for Day to drive faster as she pushed Galen’s hands away again and again” (Skloot 113). Although Deborah was abused by her adoptive father, he also “showered her with attention and gifts. He bought her pretty clothes, and took her for ice cream” (Skloot 114). Deborah’s story is similar to Lolita’s, Lolita also was given gifts in return for some sexually abusive action. “I also had her dance for me with the promise of some treat or gift” (230). Through The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks I realized that Lolita’s story is one that could happen and that has happened.

But going back to Twilight, at some point Twilight was extremely popular, but there were no complaints about the age difference. It was listed as a frequently challenged book in 2009 and 2010, but not for the age difference (most challenges were for religious viewpoint and the sexual content in Breaking Dawn). (http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10)

Lolita however, was banned under the reason that it was obscene and not appropriate for younger students. (http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons).

Why is Twilight, where there is a 87 year age difference, more socially acceptable than Lolita?

My answer: perspective. Lolita is told by a male perspective, the older perspective. Twilight is not taken as seriously because it’s a Young Adult book and it has magical creatures in it.