Screening of Lolita.

last week we saw a wonderful production of a play called Gentle Creature. The acting was wonderful, the set was perfect for the show, it was all really well done. However, right from the beginning all I could think about was the story of Lolita. 

For those of you playing at home, and those who maybe haven't read the book, which I highly recommend, Lolita is the story of a middle aged man who falls in love with a nine year old, kidnaps her to make her his lover, and then grieves over her when she leaves him to have a life of her own. It's a terribly screwed up book, and for whatever reason people who haven't read it seem to think it's this great love story. Even some people who HAVE read it think it's some great love story and they end up sad that the main character didn't get to be with the love of his life, which is creepy. Anyway, I digress.

What's most important about this novel, for the sake of my argument, is the fact that it's a story about the use of power over another, particularly a lover, for selfish reasons.

This play begins with the male lead dolling up his dead wife. She doesn't appear dead to us, but this is happening after she has committed suicide. He is creating for the audience an image of his wife that isn't real, but what he wishes had been. This is similar to the beginning of Lolita. The man character creates an image in his head of "Lo" that is based on the girl he was in love with when he was young, not on what is real, as can often happens in relationships.

In the next scenes of the play, we watch the male lead "falling in love" with his female counterpart and going to lengths such as following her home(!!!) and getting her to marry him without really knowing her. This is a pretty well to do man coercing a young, impressionable female without much of a shot at a good life, and he is well aware of this. Similar to Lolita, where the protagonist convinces a young girl who clearly doesn't know what she's doing to run away with him after he kills her mother.

As the play progresses, the husband starts controlling his wife's behavior and holding the fact that he saved her from an awful life over her head. He even watches her when she isn't aware. Everything he does for her is to benefit him, even when he's telling her they'll run away and start a whole new life, it's so he doesn't have to deal with the negative aspects of the relationship anymore. Lolita is very similar. From the beginning, the protagonist watches Lo from afar to learn about her activities and figure out how to make her like him. As Lo gets older he begins controlling her activities to ensure that she doesn't meet other boys or get caught.

I'm not really surprised by any of this, as both pieces are pieces of Russian literature. Honestly it kept me more engaged. I love both of these stories, not necessarily for the plot, but for the writing and the way they're told. I think they're neat parallels.