Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov about a thirty-year old man named Humbert Humbert who falls in love with a twelve year old girl named Lolita. Part I opens with Humbert as a young child whose mother dies and whose father is absent so he is cared for by a loving aunt. His romantic education was based on dreamy French novels and movies. During his adolescent years he meets a girl called Annabel, who is the love of his life. Unfortunately, Anabel dies and Humbert is scarred for life. Humbert becomes obsessed with "Nymphets," girls between the ages of nine and fourteen. Humbert marries Valeria for her childlike qualities but she remarries, goes to California and dies of childbirth. Humbert then moves to America where he meets Lolita in the Haze house that he decides to stay in. He sees the tension between Lolita and her mother, Charlotte Haze. Little by little Humbert tries to get some psychical contact with Lolita without anyone noticing. Charlotte does many things that Humbert despises such as sending Lolita to camp, planning to put Lolita into a boarding school, and threatening him to marry her or else leave. Humbert goes along with Charlotte's ideas and he sometimes contemplates on killing Charlotte but can't get himself to do it. Fortunately, for Humbert Charlotte Haze is run over by a car after they have a fight over the contents of his diary. Humbert decides to take Lolita all around the country and takes her from camp saying that her mother is ill. Lolita and Humbert begin to engage in sexual activities and this is noticed by a unknown figure who interrogates Humbert. Humbert tells Lolita that her mother has died and he realizes that Lolita doesn't have anyone else to turn to.
Then in Part II we see Humbert's relationship with Lolita begin to fall apart. Humbert reassures Lolita that if she tells anyone about their activities then she will be put in a state-run school. We begin to see Humbert loosing Lolita's interest and how he is oblivious to Lolita's pain when she is sobbing at night; he just pretends to sleep. They both settle in Beardsley where Lolita attends the Beardsley School for Girls and conflicts arise between Lolita and Humbert. Lolita wants more compensation for all the sexual favors she is doing for Humbert but Humbert is worried that she will run away so he starts stealing her money. After a huge fight about time not accounted for, the two continue their journey around the country. Humbert begins to become suspicious that Lolita is contacting some person at the gas station, post office, tennis court, and the swimming pool and this makes him paranoid. He also spots a car that has been following them for days now. Lolita has been acting duplicitous because she erases the license plate number, starts the car, and doesn't tell Humbert who is talking to her. Lolita come down with a fever and Humbert takes her to the hospital. When he comes to pick her up he is told that her uncle has taken her away. This is where we see Humbert totally insane because he has lost his Lolita. He goes crazy in the hospital ,then retraces their entire journey through the 342 hotels they both stayed in, and finds out that someone has been following them since the beginning. He gives up looking for Lolita and starts a relationship with Rita until he receives a letter from Lolita asking him for money. Humbert finds Lolita, finds out the whole story about Clare Quilty following them throughout their whole journeys and finally taking Lolita to his farm wherein Lolita escapes. He pleads with Lolita to come with him but she flatly disagrees and he leaves with a vengeance to kill Clare Quilty. He tracks down Clare Quilty and kills him then he drives away feeling lost and disillusioned. In these chapters we see Humbert referring to the "Gentleman of the jury" to state his emotions on all the events happening. In the last chapter Humbert agrees that he has deprived Lolita of her childhood but he doesn't take full responsibility. In the last paragraph we see Humbert giving Lolita advice and justifying the killing of Clare Quilty (below) even thought he wants the book published after both of them die. He ends the book with the same words that he started it: Lolita.
Lolita is a very interesting book and there were many lenses that I could have read it thought such as: the feminist lens, post-modernist lens, or reader response lens. I choose the psychoanalytical lens because I knew thought this lens I would get to know the characters motivations better. I learned that people will do anything for love and will go as far as controlling the person like a puppet to get what they want. I also learnt that what Humbert Humbert was doing was wrong but also we have to understand his side of the story and looking through the psychoanalytical lens helped me understand that Humbert Humbert is a hurt man who doesn't want to loose the love of his life like he has lost so many others.
While reading through this lens I focused more on why Humbert acted a certain way instead of how bad his actions were. If I hadn't been focusing on the psychoanalytical lens I would have focused more on how his actions are impacting others and I would be judging him more harshly. I wouldn't have understood the fact that he was scarred at a very young age and this nymphet obsession sparked because of a certain event. Also I would have been totally biased and said that he was a very evil man and not even look at the reason why he acted this way. In other words I wouldn't be sympathizing with Humbert.
On the other hand, since I am so focused on the psychoanalytical lens events that the feminist lens or post-modernist lens would see as important would be overlooked by me. Such as the fact that in Humbert's society a relationship between a older man and a younger girl is prohibited. Or looking through the feminist lens we can see that women don't have much say throughout the whole book. Concentrating on one lens can allow a reader to miss something that stands out to another lens. However, through these various lenses we can see the different points of view towards the novel as a whole. This can help us better understand the characters, their actions, and impact in the story.
My beliefs about Humbert and Lolita's relationship still stands. This relationship was not only inappropriate it ruined many peoples lives. I do sympathize with Humbert towards the end and in the beginning because I realize that he has gone thought so much and it has definitely scared him. His paranoia when Lolita went missing, when Lolita puts his offer down in the end, and when he is aimlessly driving on the highway after killing Quilty. These all show that Humbert has been repeatedly hurt and we can feel his pain through the carefully chosen words of Vladimir Nabokov. This is the reason why he acts in a certain way that is outlawed in society. He wasn't taught properly and this is what is said in the forward by John Ray, Jr., Ph.D.: ""Lolita" should make all of us--parents, social workers, educators--apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world." (Nabokov 3) This book should be used to teach parents to bring up their children the right way to make the world a safer place.
In the forward we are given the fates of different characters: "His [Mr. Windmuller] daughter, "Louise," is by now a college sophomore, "Mona Dahl" is a student in Paris. "Rita" has recently married the proprietor of a hotel in Florida. Mrs. "Richard F. Schiller" died in childbed, giving birth to a stillborn girl, on Christmas Day 1952, in Gray Star, a settlemen in the remotest Northwest. "Vivian Darkbloom" has written a biography, "My Cue," to be publshed shortly, and critics who have perused the manuscript call it her best book."(Nabokov 2) In the end we know Lolita becomes Mrs. "Richard F. Schiller" and so she dies giving birth to a stillborn. Everyone else settles into their own lives and this gives the reader and me a weird feeling.
I learned that overall this project was fun. I not only got to understand Lolita though a psychoanalytical lens I got to write about it. I learned that we have to sympathize with others because they might have had a horrible childhood or something else might be affecting them. We should never judge people by the way they act we have to get to know them before making assumptions. Humbert Humbert was a deeply disturbed man and no one took the time to understated him as a person. He also didn't spend time to get to know Lolita as a person. Maybe If people understood him he wouldn't have ended up in jail or he would't have ruined so many people lives. There were many things that I learnt from reading this novel. Vladimir Nabokov writes this novel so well that the reader feels that they are on an emotional roller-coaster. Also watching the two movies made were really interesting!! :)
So far we have learned that Humbert Humbert has taken Lolita from camp and has told her that her mother has died. They have also started engaging in sexual activities and some people begin to notice this weird relationship. From the end of Part I, I believe that even thought Humbert was scared by his unstable childhood, he is still responsible for his atrocious actions. I still believe that he is a sick man who has "re-incarnated" his precious adolescent lover, Annabel, in Lolita. Humbert is free to do whatever he wants with Lolita but Lolita is trapped like a mouse.
In the beginning chapters of part two we are beginning to see the tension arise between Lolita and Humbert. As Humbert wants more and more of Lolita we see Lolita slowly drifting away. Humbert even goes as far as threatening Lolita that if she tells anyone about their "arrangement" she will be taken away and put into a state-run school. To me this threat is just another way Humbert can make sure Lolita will not run away from him and this is really unsettling. It's like Lolita is a dog on a leash and her every movement is being controlled by Humbert. We also see that Humbert hears Lolita weep at night but he just pretends to sleep. This shows Humbert's lack of parenting skills because he didn't have parents to care for him when he was young. He doesn't know how to deal with Lolita's emotions and he really isn't caring about them either.
Humbert decides to put Lolita into the Beardsley School for Girls and this is where Lolita and Humbert start to fight. We see Lolita starting to loose interest in Humbert and this doesn't agree with Humbert. He starts buying her more things and raising her allowance for any crumb of affection from Lolita. Every aspect of Lolita's life is controlled by Humbert. He always wants to know where she is at any time of the day and when Lolita lies about her whereabouts Humbert gets angry and violent. He even goes as far as stealing the money that Lolita is "earning" from their activities so that she doesn't have enough to run away from him. Even after they leave Beardsley, Humbert starts having suspicions about Lolita contacting others. For example he finds her dressed after he comes back from running an errand. Looking through the psychoanalytical lens we understand that Humbert doesn't want to loose another important person in his life but he is oblivious to Lolita's feelings. I feel that this is not fair to Lolita that she is being treated this way and that Humbert is using her to make him happy. He even begs Lolita on his knees for affection when she is doing homework but she rejects him every time. Humbert is becoming very desperate and this is really counteracts his past personality of being in control. I feel that Lolita is taking matters into her own hands and she is really trying to get away from Humbert even thought he tries dragging her back in.
However, we also begin to see Lolita start acting out against Humbert. She walks away from him when he is at the post office, she erases the license plate number of the car following them, she starts to lie to Humbert about the people she is talking to such as the person at the tennis court, the pool, and the gas station. In this spot I can see that Humbert is paranoid. He feels the whole world is out to get him and he has to look over his shoulder every second. The reader has to sympathize with Humbert because he is not only loosing Lolita but also his mind.
Lolita is taken away from Humbert by a mysterious uncle and this makes Humbert go crazy. So crazy he turns on the hospital staff and "vows" to kill her kidnapper. We can see Humbert panicking as he is going from hotel to hotel tracing their mysterious follower. He sees her everywhere and he starts getting rid of anything that reminds him of her. He takes up drinking and dwells on memories of the good old days in hotels that he and Lolita spent time in. This frantic search and total loss takes a huge toll on Humbert and we have to feel sorry for him. He is completely lost without Lolita and he doesn't even know where to find her again. I initially thought that Humbert didn't care about Lolita but I slowly see him longing for her. I start seeing that he is actually in pain and this dispels my previous thoughts of Humbert.
Towards the ending Lolita does get in touch with Humbert for money, Humbert visits them and learns how Lolita was taken from him. and then he goes on a vengeance mission to kill Clare Quilty. When Humbert is in Lolita's house he begs her to come with him stating that there are only "25 paces" from her house to his car but Lolita laughs and flatly refuses. Even thought Lolita is soo close to Humbert, he cannot have her and this makes me feel bad. He has lost yet another thing he loves. Humbert kills Clare Quilty and he drives off bewildered and lost in his thought. He has lost Lolita and by losing her he loses himself.
The last few paragraphs of the book are about Humbert tying up the story. He is captured by the police and put into jail and this is where he writes this novel to not only serve him during his trial but also to keep Lolita fresh in his memory. The big aspect about the ending that bothers me is the way Humbert Humbert doesn't own up to his wrongdoings. He does hint that he has ruined Lolita's childhood and he wasn't such a great father figure like other normal children had. However, he never really owns up to his actions and for this reason I still think Humbert is a sick and vile man even thought he feels sorry for what happened to Lolita.
In the end of the book, Humbert has not only lost Lolita but also his will to live. He is seen in the last chapter swinging from one side of the highway to the other in a dream-like state. Humbert is then detours to side of the road and is caught by the police who put him into prison. He describes how he finishes writing this book in fifty-six days and how he is going to use this in his trial. He then proceeds to write this last paragraph:
"Thus, neither of us is alive when the reader opens this book. But while the blood still throbs through my writing hand, you are still as much part of blessed matter as I am, and I can still talk to you from here to Alaska. Be true to your Dick. Do not let other fellows touch you. Do not talk to strangers. I hope you will love your baby. I hope it will be a boy. That husband of yours, I hope, will always treat you well, because otherwise my specter shall come at him, like black smoke, like a demented giant, and pull him apart nerve by nerve. And do not pity C. Q. One had to choose between him and H.H., and one wanted H.H. to exist at least a couple of months longer, so as to have him make you live in the minds of later generations. I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita."
This excerpt from the last passage proves many things. First, we see Humbert Humbert giving advice to Lolita when he says: "Be true to your Dick," and "Do not talk to strangers." This shows us that Humbert cares about Lolita and is giving her advice like a parent. Except this advice is being given when "neither of them are alive." In other words, Humbert is giving advice to a dead Lolita and thus this information is pointless. He even states that he will come after her husband and "pull him apart nerve by nerve" if he is not treating her well.
Not only do we see that this information will not be received by Lolita, we also see how Humbert is not owning up to his actions. The second last line shows us again that Humbert is taking "refuge" in his art. Meaning that instead of facing these miserable events he will escape with art. This was his whole tone throughout the book, Humbert never clearly stated that what happened to Lolita was his fault. This paragraph just proves how Humbert is a unsympathetic individual because he is totally undeterred by what has happened.
Humbert also gives us insight to why he had to kill Clare Quilty. He states that between Quilty and him, he "wanted H.H. to exist at least a couple months longer." This shows that Humbert still wants to have an unobstructed path to his Lolita. This paragraph is to Lolita, who will be dead, and Humbert is giving her the reason for murdering her favorite actor. Humbert has to justify his actions instead of apologizing and these actions reflect his detached personality.
The whole passage has such a melancholy tone to it. Nabokov is definitely using the rhetorical device of pathos to make the reader sympathize with him. Pathos is always used to evoke some emotion from the reader such as compassion or sorrow. Humbert Humbert has written this last passage to get some sympathy from the reader. At this point the reader feels sorry for Humbert and eliminates any other angry feeling they previously held. Looking through the psychoanalytical lens we see that Humbert has lost everything in his life and now he has lost Lolita. This is probably why the first and last word of this book is her name. Humbert not only remembers Lolita thorough this novel but also keeps her alive. Even when he dies and she dies, she will still be remembered for generations to come.
