One of the aspects of Nabokov that makes him such a brilliant writer is his character development. Something that struck me in The Enchanter was his description and formation of the young girl. Even though she only speaks twice during the whole book, there are certain details about her that make her relationship with the narrator even more haunting. The fact that she comes from a broken home really struck me emotionally. She resides with a couple who are strict and give off this feeling that they do not want her. And then her mother is ill and is very clear that she does not care for the girl. Knowing these details of the girl's life makes you think that she is already emotionally troubled. And then when she finally is put in the care of a guardian who seems like a good person and wants her, it turns out to be the narrator whom is a molester. You would think that any child who comes from a home life like hers would want a stable person in her life. And when she does receive that stable person, he is perverted and awful. These small details made the text even more heart-wrenching than it already was.
Here are some of the quotes describing the girl's home life:
"The girl's presence only irritated the widow, who was exceptionally decent but had grown somewhat self-indulgent" (16).
"And hers was not a very happy childhood, that of a half-orphan: this stern woman's kindness was not like milk chocolate, but like the bitter-kind - a home without caresses, strict order, symptons of fatigue, a favor for a friends grown burdensome" (18).
"that what is paramount to me is my peace and quiet. If it is disrupted I shall die. . . .Listen: there she goes scraping her foot on the floor or banging something - it wasn't very loud, was it? - yet it's already enough to give me a nervous spasm and make me see spots before my eyes. And a child cannot live without banging around; even if there are twenty-fve rooms all twenty-five will be noisy. Therefore you'll have to choose between me and her" (35).
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