Beshimova, Adolat

Lolita
Lolita, a disturbing story yet at the same a masterpiece, was written by Vladimir Nabokov, he
tells a tragic tale of an immoral human being, Humbert Humbert, who was sentenced to jail for a long
period of time for his mischievous crime. Nabokov claims by writing this novel to show, his readers of
how evil and cruel some individuals can be, he also raises good questions about women’s position in
society. He writes his novel in a way that Humbert, a fictional protagonist, is telling his own story in his
point of view in an unreliable narrative style, he refers to his readers as Dear Jurymen and Dear Jury
Women where the reader has to evaluate his sins and crimes and give him the right form of punishment.
Humbert, a middle aged man who is mesmerized by nymphets around ages nine to twelve, one day meets
Lolita, right after his first interaction with her, he becomes captivated by her enchantment, his obsesion to
Lolita makes him kidnap her after her mother’s death. The trigger of his fascination to Lolita could be
traced back to his first pubescent lover,Annabel, who died of typhoid. Humbert, writes his novel to
immortalise Lolita and to justify his immoral actions at the same time. Nabokov’s purpose in writing this
novel is to bring an insight on morality in order to address the issue child predator in the 1950’s century.
Nabokov illustrates his idea by making a direct reference to a real life child molestation case of ​La Salle
that inspired him to write his novel. His intended audience are teenagers and adults who are interested in
immoral and forbidden love.
Humbert Humbert is a seductive, manipulative, intellectual, and an intelligent scholar who has
been suffering from mental illness since his young adult years. He grew up in Paris to a rich parents who
cared for him and loved him. He experiences his first sexual encounter with his dear lover Annabel when
he is fourteen. Four month later, she dies of a tragic illness, this triggers physiological problems which
makes him attract to young girls. He states,“I am convinced however that in certain magic and fateful
way Lolita began with Annabel”(Nabakov 4). The shock of her death left a remarkable footprint in his
mind, the ideal relationship he had with Annabel never erased from his imaginary subconscious, as an
adult to recreate the feeling he had with Annabelle, he would pursue ways to have physical connections
with young girls. After Annebele, he never had a real relationship, he bought the services of young
prostitutes so when Lolita came into his life, the cast of spell that Annabelle had on him had instantly
gone and was replaced by Lolita’s spell. Humbert states “It was the same child- the same
frail,honey-hued shoulders, the same silky supple bare back, the same chestnut head of hair...”(Nabakov
21). Humbert is writing his novel in the jail in the present time, the fact that he remembers every single
detail about her including her smell shows his obsession with her and foreshadows dangerous events to
take place. Charlote Haze, Lolita’s mom and the landlord of Humbert, falls in love with Humbert, he uses
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that as an advantage to get closer to Lolita. Charlotte suffers a tragic death when she is ran over by a car
when she was rushing to mail urgent letters to her daughter and others to warn them about Humbert’s
phedofilenes after discovering his sexualised writing of Lolita in his personal diary. Then the jolly
Humbert takes ownership of Lolita stating that she was his actual daughter due to the affair Charlotte and
he had fifteen years ago. Lolita and Humbert leave Ramsdale to travel all over the US, they make a stop at
a hotel called The Enchanted hunter, this name is very symbolically, because this is where Quilty makes a
presence, the place where Humbert rapes Lolita and the name of the school play Lolita would be in, in the
future, that would lead to her grand finale escape.
Humbert uses allusion to justify his immoral actions he had done to Lolita. He states “Marriage
and cohabitation before the age of puberty are still not uncommon in certain East India provinces. Lepcha
old men of eighty copulate with girls of eight and nobody minds. After all Dante fell madly in love
Beatrice when she was nine…( and how) Petrach fell madly in love with Lauren (who was twelve) as
described from the hills of Vaucluse”(Nabokov 56) . This is the true intention of Humbert, he wants to be
socially accepted by the society even though he has a strong attraction to nymphets, not only does he
promote this as a moral thing, but justifies the reasons why it was fine to be obsessed with Lolita.
Nabokov makes the characteristics of Quilty and Humbert like doubles, they both speak French, they both
are scholars and they both are obsessed with young girls, Humbert’s characteristics represent his soft
spoken, polite, and charming side of him while Quilty’s characteristics represents the dark, wicked, and
unforgivable side of Humbert, so when he punishes Quilty, he is punishing himself at the same time.
Nabokov also uses Irony in the novel, when he makes Humbert confront Quilty of his kidnap of Lolita,
Humbert states, “‘Concentrate,’ I said ‘on the thought Dolly Haze(Lolita) whom you Kidnaped”(297).
This part of the novel is very ironic because it was Humbert that have kidnapped Lolita not Quilty,
Humbert even before Charlotte died fantasized about how he would kill her in order to be with Lolita, he
lies to her about the death of her own mother and takes her to the hotel,where he would take advantage of
her, it was he, who have made Lolita’s innocence and childhood to be destroyed, so by killing Quilty he
feels like he has reached redemption. At the end of the story, Humbert reflects on his actions, he realizes
all the immoral things he have done, by killing Quilty he is killing himself. While waiting for the
authorities to take him away, he remembers how happy Lolita used to be. Nabokov in the form of
Humbert uses pathos to convey reader’s emotion to justify what he did was right, like when after three
years of Lolita’s escape, she writes him a letter in need with money, he manages to locate her and gives
her more than 4,000 dollars and he begs and pleads for her over and over again to come with him to live
with him till they die even though she is not a nymph anymore and who happens to be pregnant, but she
refuses him, the overflowing love and passion he has for Lolita can be seen within his writing. At the last
 Beshimova, Adolat

chapter he is waiting for his trial for murder, he asks his story to be published after the death of him and
Lolita, at the end of the novel, he writes into his novel in the form of a letter, he asks Lolita for her well
being and tells her to love and cherish her child, and tells her that if her husband ever bothers her, he will
seriously hurt him and that by telling this story, he plans to immortalise her in the minds of later
generation as well as his mind.
There were several subjects that were discussed in the book like child pornography and child
molestation, but the biggest adress Nabokov stresses on is how women are perceived in society during
1950s. Humbert, the protagonist, comes across many women during his life, he usually uses women to
achieve his wicked goal, for example Valeria was his first wife, he used her to be socially accepted in the
society in an attempt to get rid of his desires of young girls. He used Valeria to be seen as a normal typical
European married couple, so nobody would suspect him of his immoral behaviors toward young girls.
When she leaves him for another man, He is not upset at her for leaving him but the fact that he deceived
him, he even thought about killing her at some point. Charlotte, mother of Lolita, developed feeling
towards Humbert when he moved in to her house. Later on she demanded of him to leave her house
because of her feelings towards him, but then he decided to marry her in an attempt to be close to Lolita,
when Charlotte states she would send Lolita to boarding school, he becomes outraged and even becomes
so close to drowning her in a lake, but the presence of other people around him scared him to not follow
his act. Another example of Humbert using women for his immoral acts is Lolita herself, he uses her to
relieve his sexual desires and slowly turns her into his own prostitute, everytime he wants sexual favors,
he would pay her and when she sometimes refuses he punishes her and leaves her in terror if she tries to
reveal their relationship to any outsiders. Humbert states, “I might fondly demand an additional kiss or
even whole assorted carasess...only very listless did she earn her three penies- or three nickles- per day”
(Nabakov 184). This shows how much Humbert was paying Lolita for her service. Lolita saved twenty -
six dollars before she was found out, out of his fear of her escape, he took all her money, they fought and
in the middle she states to him how she fairly earned this money and accuses him of being a thief,
Humbert disregards it. This matters because, this shows how Lolita is being taken advantage of, he uses
her weakness into getting what he wants, a man of power taking advantage of a young weak woman can
still be observed even in the 21st century. The Me Too movement was a direct result of all the sexul
misconduct and assaults against women, this came into effect when Harvey Weinstein was accused of
abusing his power in regards of sexual harassing and assualting thirty and more women, not only can this
be seen in mainstream media but can also be found in the government, multiple accusations of scandals
came out regarding Donald Trump.
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This book was written in the 1940s-1950s, where America was in its one of the prosperous and
mass media time period, although the subject of sex was a taboo, many people accepted this book and
praised it as one of the best literary novel. ​Lolita, the novel, can be viewed as an allegory of America’s
culture, the author points out the differences between America’s and Europe’s culture. Humbert in the
course of the novel criticise the american way of living life by closely analysing Lolita’s desires and
interest, when he learns what Lolita did during summer at the Camp Q, he is shocked and horrified at the
same time. Humbert as he is travelling with Lolita points out how mass media advertising, comics,
records have taken over America in which where Europe was more sophisticated and conserved. When
Humbert puts Lolita to Birdsley College, he is terrified by the lack of education they teach, he urges
Lolita to read sophisticated novels instead of reading comics or listening to records in her leisure time.
Although this book polarised the country at the time of publication, it is well accepted by the society
today.