Humbert Humbert Through the Looking Glass

Author(s): Elizabeth Prioleau

Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Dec., 1975), pp. 428-437
Published by: Hofstra University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/441056
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 HumbertHumbert
theLooking
Through Glass

ELIZABETH PRIOLEAU

Alicein Wonderland, translatedinto Russian,was one of Nabokov'sfirst

publications and throughout his career,Lewis Carrollseemsto have been a
powerful influence."I have been alwaysveryfondofCarroll,"'Nabokovsaid
in an interview,and his books,TheReal LifeofSebastian Knightand Ada,are
studdedwith Carrollianechoes and allusions.2This is nowheremore true
than in Lolita.Not onlyis the"wonderland"(Lolita,p. 133)3motifrecurrent,
but Nabokov also conceived an "affinity"4 between Lewis Carroll and
HumbertHumbert:"I alwayscall himLewis CarrollCarrollbecausehe was
the firstHumbertHumbert."5In thiscontext,the similarities betweenLolita
and Through theLooking Glassacquire a real interest.
Seen together, Humbert'swholenarrationhas a "Looking-Glassworld"
(Alice,p. 341) perspective:timeand space move backward,doublesprolif-
erate,language fractures into new combinations.At the same time,within
Humbert'sstoryitself,there is a concurrentdramatizationof Humbert's
struggleto penetratethelookingglass.When he finallydoes breakthroughto
the"queer mirrorside" (Lolita,p. 308), thebookends,whichisjust thepoint
where Lolitabegins. Two levels of the novel, then, seem to be at work
simultaneously. Humbertthe protagonistof the "confession"(Lolita,p. 5)
piercesthemirroronlyto arriveat imprisonment; Humberttheauthorwrites
fromthe netherside of the mirroronly to come to self-bafflement and
entombment.The trap is double-locked.Fictional Humbert'ssearch for
escape no soonercircleson itself,than it seeks anotherrelease fromtime
behindthe lookingglass,whichalso boomerangs.To be sure,the art work
remains,but Humbert'sultimatefate,like that of so many of Nabokov's

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 HUMBERT HUMBERT THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

characters, is to be "condemn[ed]... to thesolitaryconfinement of[his]soul"

(Memory, p. 215). It is in the light of Through the Looking Glass that this
captivityin time and self-Humbert'sentiretragedyin fact-achieves a
heightenedperspectiveand clarification.
Nabokov's notionsof time and vision,however,are necessaryto an
understandingof Humbert'slooking-glassentrapment.Central to man's
condition,Nabokovbelieves,is an imprisonment in timewhichis "spherical
and withoutexits" (Memory, p. 10). Walled in on all sides,the selffacesa
bafflingand unreliablereality,an "infinitesuccessionof levels,levels of
perception,of falsebottoms."6Mirrorsare Nabokov's mostcommonmeta-
phor forthese phenomenawhich seal man in his solipsisticand temporal
cell.7Aftera poeticrevelry, Nabokov'sreflection in a mirrorshockshiminto
an awarenessofhiscorporeality, the"meredregs"(Memory, p. 166) ofhimself
in SpeakMemory. There is an escape routethough.Throughthe imaginative
windowsofmemory, timeand selfmaybe transcended. The crystalpeephole
of the meerschaumpenholderbringsNabokov's lost playmateto life,his
private"tremulousprism" (Memory, p. 125) restorespast relatives,trans-
parencies evoke his old tutors.It is thisvisionwhichaccountsforNabokov's
famous, "I confess I do not believe in time" (Memory, p. 96) as well as his
theory that the deadly circle of time may be transformed into a spiral: "In
thespiralform,thecircle,uncoiled,unwound,has ceased to be vicious;it has
been set free."He sees his whole lifeas a "coloredspiralin a small ball of
glass"(Memory, p. 203). Mirrorsand windows,then,operateas keysymbolsin
Nabokov'swork,one denotingsolipsistic entrapment;the other,releaseinto
timelessnessand spirality.Only the translucentlens of imaginationand
memorycan yielda deliverancefromselfand temporalbondageand to tryto
recapturetimein the realmof actualityis a "dreadfulmistake"(Memory, p.
200) as Nabokov learnedon revisiting Cambridge.
Through theLooking GlassjuxtaposedwithLolitagivestwo dimensionsto
Nabokov'simprisonment theme.On thefirstlevel,fictionalHumbert'sdesire
to restorethe past does battlewiththe mirrorsof realitywhichmock and
incarceratehim.On thesecond,authorialHumbert'spenetration behindthe
mirrorwhere laws of space and time actually reverseleads to the same
entrapment,magnifiedand combined with self loss. Despite Humbert's
inabilityto sustaintruevision,though,themirrored worldhas a paradoxical
delight and fascination.It is "a game of intricateenchantmentand
deception" (Memory,p. 88), which largely accounts for the aesthetic
enjoymentof bothLolitaand Through theLookingGlass.
Beginningwith the firstlevel, fictitiousHumbert'squest throughout
Lolitais to regainhis lost past, his "princedomby the sea" (Lolita,p. 11).
Imaginativewindowsagain and again open onto timelessness forhim; his

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TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERA TURE

formerworld is illumined, but he wants instead to accomplish this

transcendence in the actual present.Hence his nympholepsy. The mirrored
surfacesof reality,however,constantly road blockhis escape fromtime,and
his responseis to attemptto break throughthe reflections themselves. That
Humbertis to be identified withLewis Carrollin thisobsessionis hintedin
Humbert'srepeatedassociationof a fusionof ideal past and presentreality
with "wonderland" and his visualizationof the perfectnymphetwith
"Alice-in-Wonderland hair" (Lolita,p. 266).
When Humbertevokes the past throughthe imaginativeexerciseof
memory,it is always throughthe medium of transparentglass and is
accompaniedby an outburstof highlyricism.He sees Charlotte'schildhood
photographs as "wan littlewindows"(Lolita,p. 78), and hisprivateprismfirst
registersLolita in "layers of light" (Lolita,p. 44). Fantasized coitus with
Lolita on the davenportyieldsa poeticclimax of "milk,molasses,foaming
champagne"(Lolita,p. 64) and likethelensoftheMagic Lanternprojections
in SpeakMemory, she appearsas a "photographic imageripplingon a screen"
(Lolita,p. 64). It is the glass partitionof his mailbox,though,that inspires
Humbert'smost ecstaticcelebrationof imaginaryvision.The "harlequin
light"(Lolita,p. 265) oftheslit,whichmakeshimsee Lolita'shandwriting on
his mail, becomes associated with the "jewel-brightwindow[s]"through
whichhe gains imagesof pure "perfection"(Lolita,p. 266). The "forbidden
fairychild beauty"existsoutsidetimeand space thereforHumbert's"wild
delight"(Lolita,p. 266).
Humbert,however,is not satisfiedwith this visionarytranscendence
alone. He wantsto "incarnate"(Lolita,p. 17) Annabel,representative of the
spellofthepast,in an actual nymphet. The impossibility and tragicresultsof
such a wishare part of the storyof Lolita.The person,Lolita,vies withher
eidolon; the real "horror"(Lolita,p. 137) of Humbert'ssexual exploitation,
withthe imaginativebeautyof recoveredtime.ActualityassaultsHumbert
throughout by means of mirrors, and when it finallyoverwhelms him,they
multiplydiabolically. Appel pointsout,8mirrorsare a major symbolfor
As
solipsisticimprisonment in Nabokov,especiallyin rooms,and it is appro-
priate that Humbert's perverselust,which at last defeatshis restitution of
time, should be firstreflectedthrough the mirror of a Parisian hotelwith a
pubescentprostitute. He confronts a "dreadful grimace of clenched-teeth
tenderness thatdistortedmy mouth"(Lolita,p. 24). Likewise,the seduction
roomat theEnchantedHuntersis bankedwithmirrors: "Therewas a double
a
bed, mirror, a double bed in the mirror, a closet door with mirror,a
bathroomdoor ditto" (Lolita,p. 24). And it is throughthese hotel/motel
mirrors thatHumbertrealizesLolita's"helplessness"(Lolita,p. 285): "naked,
frailLo ... her sulkyface to a door mirror"(Lolita,p. 139). Duplicatesof

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 HUMBERT HUMBERT THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

people (thefoursetsoftwinsin Lolita'sclassand Humbert'sfivedoppelgiingers,

to name a few),cars,numbers,and housesgall conspirein Lolitato augment
Humbert'sentrapmentin timeand self.When Lolita lies to him about her
trystwithQuilty,Humbertreplies,"'So that'sthedead end' (themirroryou
breakyournose against)" (Lolita,p. 227).
But fromtheonset,thereis a paralleldrivein Humbertto breakthrough
the mirroredsurfaceof reality.If the lake in Ramsdale, Our Glass/Hour
Glass Lake, is a symbolofthelookingglassofactualitywhichbindsman into
selfand time,thenHumbert'sdreamillustrates his strategytowardit. After
fantasizingan orgywithLolita in a "Quest forGlasses" (dark glasseswhich
mightrepresent theopaque undersideofa mirror),Humbertdreamsthatthe
lake "was glazed overwitha sheetofemeraldice,and a pockmarkedEskimo
was tryingin vain to break it with a pickaxe" (Lolita,p. 56). His earlier
descriptionof Eskimos as "hideous ... [with] guinea pig faces" (Lolita, p. 35)
suggeststhat thisone is Humbertthe Terrible,especiallygiven a pun on
"pockmarked,"who, in a lecherousrole, wants to penetratethe mirrored
exterioroflife.His firstattemptto piercethelookingglassand therebyflythe
coop oftimeand selfis a schemeto drownCharlotte.Althoughhe envisions
the "twilight"interiorof the lake as a "silentballet" (Lolita,p. 88) and
Charlotte upside down at the bottom,his nerve fails and his watch,
significantly, stillworkswhen he comesout of the water.
Mirrorsand doubles,however,increasealarminglyon his second trip
with Lolita, and the pressureto get throughthe looking glass builds
accordingly. Thereare nowtwinbedsin themotelssurmounted by"identical
twin"(Lolita,p. 212) pictures;Lolita has learnedthe art of duplicityas an
actress,and her tennisforehandis the "mirrorimage" (Lolita,p. 234) of her
backhand. Numbers become reflectionsof each other, like the 1001
inhabitantsof Soda Pop and the licenseplate framedby a P and 6. But the
mostthreatening of all the mirrorsthat assail Humbertis his doppelgiinger,
Quilty, who shadows him across the countryin a car that finallymeta-
morphoses into one identical to his own. Like Humbert,he has a toothbrush
mustache, wears a purplerobe,has the same mental"affinities" (Lolita,p.
251), and is a sexual pervert.His "brother"as wellas a "red fiend"(Lolita,p.
249), Quilty becomes Humbert'sdark alter ego, the reflection(with the
obviousword play) of his guilt.When Lolita tells him, then,that it was
Quilty who abducted her,Humbert'sresponseis immediate:"Waterproof.
Why did a flashfromHourglassLake crossmy consciousness?"(Lolita,p.
274). Throughthemurderof his mirrorimage,Humbertperceivesa way to
breakthesurfaceof thelookingglass,to foilhis waterproof watch.What he
could notaccomplishby lust,he can effect by a of
destruction hisevilgenius.
Afterthe murder,which takes place in Quilty's "house of mirrors,"'0

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TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERA TURE

Humbertdoes penetratethe netherside of the lookingglass. His broken

watchis no longerwaterproof,he loses"contactwithreality"(Lolita,p. 306);
and now, spirituallyreleased fromthe fettersof fate, he drives "gently,
dreamily ... on that queer mirrorside" (Lolita, p. 308) of the road. But no
soonerdoes he thinkthathe has achievedan escape,a "Hegelian synthesis"
(Lolita,p. 309), than he is ironicallyarrestedand entombedforlife.
At this point Humbert's"memoir,"Lolita,begins and its remarkable
similarities to ThroughtheLooking Glassin theme,language,and plotseem to
argue forHumbert'scontinuedbehind-the-mirror perspective.The Carrol-
lian parallels to Humbert also become more overtthrougha comparisonand
perhapshintfinallywhyNabokovinsistedon doublinghispatronym. If there
is a slightlyparodicnote,though, the intentis nonethelessserious.The charm
ofthe"Looking-Glassworld"is genuineand so is thedoubleentrapment and
loss of self(and possibleinsanity)thatit causes at the end.
As MartinGardnerexplainsin TheAnnotated Alice,everything"go[es]the
otherway" withinthemirror;theleft-right reversalimpliesa totalinversion
in whichspace and timemovebackwardand "the ordinaryworldis turned
upside down and backward."" Time in Through theLooking Glassconstantly
recedesratherthanproceeds;one notonlybecomesprogressively youngerbut
also knowswhat is goingto happen beforeit does.Justas theWhiteQueen
criesbeforeshe pricksher fingerand HumptyDumpty'sfallis preordained
when Alice firstmeetshim,so AubreyMcFate is a ubiquitous,controlling
powerthroughLolita.McFate is accountableforCharlotte'sdeath, Lolita's
escape,and an elaboratelyplotteddestinyforHumbert:"In myyouthI once
read a Frenchdetectivetale wheretheclueswereactuallyin italics;but that
was not McFate's way--evenifone does learn to recognizecertainobscure
indications"(Lolita,p. 213). When Quiltybecomesidentified withMcFate,
Humbertsees his lifeas "an ingeniousplay stagedforme by Quilty"(Lolita,
p. 213). Further,likethebattlebetweenTweedledumand Tweedledeewhich
is predictedat the startof theirchapter,Quilty's murderis previsioned
repeatedlyin the initialpages of Lolita.'2
Humbert'semotionaltime,too,constantly runsbackwardto the idyllic
"princedomby the sea" of his adolescence: "Ah, leave me alone in my
in
pubescentpark, my mossygarden. Let them play around me forever.
Nevergrowup" (Lolita,p. 23). He sees Lolita "throughthe wrongend of a
telescope"(Lolita,p. 56), and while Humbert'schildhoodvision remains
static,he ages, withthe effectof a steadilyregressing senseof time.At one
point,for example, Humbertimaginesin the "telescopyof his mind or
unmind" (Lolita, p. 176), a union with Lolita which produces three
generationsof nymphetsforhim to enjoyincestuously untildeath.
Space also movesin reverseorderbehindthe lookingglass.No matter

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 HUMBERT HUMBERT THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

what path she takesthroughthe garden,Alice "alwayscom[es]back to the

house" (Alice,p. 199), and thehardershe and the Red Queen run,the more
certainlytheyremainunderthesame tree.The trainin the "Looking-Glass
world"even travelsthe "wrongway" (Alice,p. 218). Similarly,Lolita's and
Humbert'stourof Americacircleson itself.Their house in Beardsleyis the
twinof the Haze home in Ramsdale, and as Humbertremarksafterward:
"We had been everywhere. We had really seen nothing"(Lolita,p. 177).
Humbertbeginsand endsin Ramsdale,and Lolita'scircuitfromCamp Q to
Cue's ranch,fromthe EnchantedHuntersHotel to Hunter Road suggests
that,despiteher illusionofmovement, she has got to whereshe startedeach
time.
Lifeon theotherside ofthemirroris a game in Through theLookingGlass.
Place is parceledintosquareson a chessboard and action,a seriesofmoves
acrossthe board; all of whichseemscorrelatedto the chessthemein Lolita.
Humbert,who is "especiallysusceptibleto the magic of games" (Lolita,p.
235), twicelikensthe Americanlandscapeto a "crazyquilt" (Lolita,pp. 154
and 309), dramatizesLolita's lossthroughGaston'scaptureofhisqueen,and
imagines Quilty's advantage in a chess metaphor:"One of the latticed
squares in a small ... window ... was glazed with ruby and that raw wound
among the unstainedrectanglesand its asymmetrical position--a knight's
move fromthe top-always strangelydisturbedme" (Lolita,p. 194).
Laws of logical cause and effectare also suspendedin the "Looking
Glass world." The White Queen metamorphosesinto a sheep and the
unexpectedis therule,withcakesemergingfrommailbagsand armies,from
nowhere.This same dreamlike,irrationalorderalso pervadesLolita.Quilty
mergesinto Trapp, Humbert'sfirstwife,Valechka, becomes a surrogate
monkey,and hisstaidneighborsurprisingly marriesa Chilean skichampion.
"We expect our friendsto followthis or that logical and conventional
pattern," Humbert laments, for"Y ... never [to] commit murder ... Z [never
to ] betrayus" (Lolita,p. 267), yet circumstancealways bafflesus. Freak
accidents,Humbert'smother'sand Charlotte'sdeaths; weirdappearances,
the amnesiacin Humbert'sbedroomand Dick Tracy maskat his door; and
coincidences,particularlythe recurrent342, all bespeak a reversal of
rational,sequentialexperiencein his "memoir."
AnothersimilaritybetweentheworldsofLolitaand theLooking-Glassis
thesharedthemeofthemirage,theinaccessibility ofbeauty.As soonas Alice
looksat a desiredobjectin thesheep'sshop,it vanishes,and therushes"fade
and ... lose all their scent and beauty" (Alice,p. 257) the moment she picks
them, with the prettiestones always on the horizon. The parallels to
Humbert'snymphet worshipare obvious.A "certaindistance,"he explainsin
the beginning,is necessaryto the "nymphet'sspell" (Lolita,p. 19) and after

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TWENTIETH CENTUR Y LITERA TURE

Lolita's despoliationat his hands,he realizesthatnymphets mustalwaysbe

"out of reach,withno possibility of attainment"(Lolita,p. 266) in orderto
remainperfectly lovely.
As a complementand an extensionof the mirrorthemeof the inner
story,the doublesin Lolitaare also characteristic of Through theLookingGlass
vision.Everychesspiece has itspair,Tweedledeeis tiedto hisenantiomorph
Tweedledum,twinmessengers, one to fetchand one to carry,all proliferate
withinthemirrorrealm.In keeping,Humbertthe narratorperpetuallysees
double. Twins emergeeverywhere, on Lolita's class list,at Pavor Manor, at
Miss Opposite's house, and even names are phoneticallypaired; Gaston
Godin, Harold Haze, Kenneth Knight,etc. Numbers,cars, beds, houses,
among the many inanimate objects,have already been mentioned,but
Humbert'sinsistenceon locatinga doppelgainger is his greatestdoublefixation.
Each of his identitieshas a parallel counterpartin a character,fromthe
cultivated nmigri, Mr. Taxovich, at the beginning,to the amnesiac,Jack
Humbertson,to the finalincarnationof his guilt,Clare Quilty.Even after
Quilty'smurder,Humbertstillbelievesin psychicalduality,a demonicalter
ego: "One had to choosebetweenhim [Quilty]and H. H.," he writes,"and
one wantedH. H. to exist"(Lolita,p. 311).
In an interview, Nabokovsaid thathe didn'tthinkCarroll's"invented
language share[d] any roots"'3with his, and it is true that his linguistic
sophisticationand artistry are farmorehighlydeveloped.However,whether
intentionally or not,Humbert'sstylehas distinctCarrollianechoesin Lolita.
The rationalebehindCarroll'sverballegerdemain,Gardnerexplainsin The
Annotated Alice,is that language, too, reversesbehind the looking glass:
"nonsenseitselfis ... an inversion."'4 Wordplay,as Proffer pointsout in Keys
toLolita,is fundamental to Humbert/Nabokov's technique and it is chieflyin
his puns,spoonerisms, and
neologisms, phonologicalpairings that he bearsa
resemblanceto Carrollin Through theLooking Glass.Humbert'sHourglasspun
comparesto Carroll'smessenger in an "Anglo-Saxonattitude"(Alice,p. 279);
Humbert'sspoonerism,"'What's Katter with misses,'" (Lolita,p. 122), to
Carroll'sapproximation, " 'Twas brillig,and theslithytoves"(Alice,p. 191).
Bothbooksare pepperedwith"portmanteau[s]"(Alice,p. 271) and invented
words, with Carroll's "galumph" and "burble" (Alice,p. 191) actually
exceededby Humbert'slong listof neologismsfrom"quip-quote" (Lolita,p.
167) to "truckster," "blackground,"and "lakescape."'5Humbert'sproclivity
forphonologicalpairings,too, like "royalrobes" (Lolita,p. 63), "joyjuice,"
and "romanticrock"(Lolita,p. 246) is matchedby Carroll's"Tumtumtree"
and "Jubjubbird" (Alice,p. 191).
Parodic poems,like Carroll's"The Aged Aged Man," based on "Upon
the LonelyMoor," and Humbert's"Saint,forsooth," based on "Soliloquyof

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 HUMBERT HUMBERT THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

the Spanish Cloister," also occur in each. In addition, Humbert recites a

number of verses,which, either throughnonsensical content,"The Squirl and
his Squirrel, the Rabs and their Rabbits" or rockabye rhythms,"Wanted,
wanted: Dolores Haze," reflectthose in ThroughtheLookingGlass.
Plot parallels between Lolita and Throughthe LookingGlass are partic-
ularly salient, however. Alice, like Lolita, is thrust into a world where
normalcy and rational law are in abeyance. She journeys alone through a
dreamscape realitythat presentsstrangethreatsand terrors.The Red Queen,
forinstance, who bullies Alice so unremittingly,"'look up, speak nicely, and
don't twiddle your fingersall the time,' " (Alice,p. 206) sounds like Charlotte
Haze nagging Lolita, "'It is intolerable ... that a child should be so
ill-mannered. And so very persevering'" (Lolita, p. 52). The Red Queen's
biscuits to quench Alice's thirst,too, mightbe analogous to Charlotte's denial
of motherlylove.
Once she leaves the Red Queen, Alice, like Lolita, is vied forby a White
and a Red Knight. At the start of her travels, Alice sees the Red King (an
avatar of the Red Knight) snoringin the background, and his dream of her
seems to be a kind of equivalent to Quilty's play. Even the theme of "The
Enchanted Hunters," that the charactersdon't exist except in the mind of the
author, is repeated in thisepisode: "'If he leftoffdreaming about you, where
do you suppose you'd be? ... You'd be nowhere. Why you're only a sort of
thing in his dream' " (Alice,p. 238). Not to push the correspondence too far,
Tenniel's drawing of the Red King in his conical hat summons up Quilty's
car in the garage, "a red hood [which] protruded in [a] somewhat cod-piece
fashion" (Lolita,p. 215). In theireventual battle over her, which is portrayed
farcically in both works,16the White Knight subdues the Red, but Alice's
response is the same as Lolita's: "'It was a glorious victorywasn't it?' ... 'I
don't know ... I don't want to be anybody's prisoner.I want to be a Queen' "
(Alice, p. 296).
Another plot similarityis the possible identificationof Humbert with
Humpty Dumpty and the White Knight, the formerrepresentingHumbert
the Terrible; the latter,Humbert the Humble. Not only is Humpty Dumpty's
name an echo of Humbert's, but he is a literarycritic, an isolato,cultivated,
and doomed to fall. Furthermore,he is Humbert Le Bel and just as Humbert
announces, "I was and am an exceptionally handsome man" (Lolita,p. 27), so
Humpty Dumpty assures Alice, "'my name means the shape I am-and a
good handsome shape it is' " (Alice, p. 263). Significantly, too, Humpty
Dumpty asserts a subjective view of semantics. Words mean what he wants
them to and when Humbert tells Lolita that he is "her father" (Lolita,p. 152)
he likewisereshapes language to his private ends. He insistsperverselythat he
is a "dream dad protecting his dream daughter" (Lolita, p. 151). Neither

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TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERATURE

wantshis Alice to growolder,and whatHumptyDumptyjocoselythreatens

(to keep Alice youngthroughmurder),Humbertcarriesout symbolically in
his destruction of Lolita's childhood.HumptyDumpty'spoem also makes
several "Humbertish"(Lolita,p. 37) allusions.He wants to commandthe
underwaterworldof fishes(the reverseside of the mirror),his heart goes
"hop" and "thump"(Alice,p. 276) in themannerof Humbert'stachycardia,
and he ends trappedbehinda lockeddoor as Humbertdoes in his poem: "I
talkin a daze, I walkin a maze/ I cannotgetout,said thestarling"(Lolita,p.
257). TheirmutualdespotismcausesLolita to agreeas wellwithAlice'sfinal
estimation:"of all the unsatisfactory people I evermet" (Alice,p. 276).
The White Knight,on the otherhand, with his "mild blue eyes and
kindlysmile"(Alice,p. 307) represents Humbertthe Humble,who comesat
last to suchdeep remorse.The upside-downbox on the Knight'sback might
be takenas Humbert'sgenerousfinancialatonementto Lolita,and hispoem,
"The Aged,Aged Man," as a correlativeto Humbert'sanguish.In it theold
man "seemed distractedwithhis woe/ [and] rockedhis body to and fro"
(Alice,p. 313), muchtheway Humbertweepsmiserablyat the realizationof
hisguilt.NeitherAlice norLolita,however,respondto thisexpression ofgrief
as the Knightand Humbertwould like. Alice refusesto cryand Lolita, to
marry Humbert. And that the White Knight rides off on his horse,
continuallyfallingon his head, is perhaps emblematicof Humbert the
narrator'send in Lolita.
Insteadof escape fromtimeand selfThrough theLookingGlass,Humbert
feelsratherhis "slipperyselfeluding[him],glidingintodeeper and darker
watersthan [he] care[s] to probe,"(Lolita,p. 310). Insanitythreatensin the
topsy-turvy world of the mirror.In the course of the book, also, his
imprisonment has becomemoreconfined.Froma psychopathic ward,he has
been moved to "tombal seclusion"(Lolita,p. 310); yet despite his ever-
shrinkingcell, he still retainslookingglass spectacles.He believeshe and
Lolita could "live happilyeverafter"(Lolita,p. 280). He sees doublejust as
fervently (Quilty as doppelgiingerand his own name,duplicated),and thinks
his Through theLooking Glass"memoir"willaccomplishthevictoryovertime.
In a sense,he is right.The aestheticachievementof Lolitadoes giveit a
kind of immortality. The "game of infiniteenchantmentand deception"is
played out with masterful artistryand delight.In keepingwithNabokov's
method,though, the brilliant of
spell thenovelis hand in glovewithdistorted
vision.And because Humbertmakesthedual mistakeof bothattackingthe
mirroredsurfaceof realityand tryingto get behindit-rather than seeking
windows-hissolipsistic cell is doublebarricaded.This maybe whyNabokov
calls Lewis Carroll,"CarrollCarroll."A Through theLookingGlassattemptto
reverseratherthan transcendactualityreaches the ultimatecul-de-sac:a

436

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 HUMBERT HUMBERT THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

bent trickmirrorthat merelyturnsthe image upside down. To stay locked in

this magical, invertedworld is to take a mental risk as well. To see Lolita,on
two levels, then, as a struggleto break throughthe mirrorand a guided tour
of the other side, with a sprung trap at the end of each, is to watch Nabokov's
"vicious circle" (Memory,p. 278) twice circumscribed and shadowed over in
the process by the specter of madness.

1Alfred
Appel,Jr.,"An InterviewwithVladimirNabokov,"in Nabokov:TheMan andHis
Work, ed. L. S. Dembo (Madison: Univ. of WisconsinPress,1967), p. 34.
2For a discussionof thissee AlfredAppel,Jr.,footnote133/1,in VladimirNabokov,The
Annotated Lolita,ed. AlfredAppel,Jr. (New York: McGraw-Hill,1970), p. 377.
3For convenience,I will referthroughout thispaper to: TheAnnotated Lolitaas Lolita;Lewis
Carroll,TheAnnotated Alice,ed. Martin Gardner(Norwich,England: PenguinBooks,1972) as
Alice;and VladimirNabokov,SpeakMemory (London: VictorGollancz Ltd., 1951) as Memory.
4Appel, "An InterviewwithVladimirNabokov,"p. 35.
5Appel, quotingNabokov in footnote133/1in TheAnnotated Lolita,p. 377.
6Page Stegner,EscapeintoAesthetics:
TheArtofVladimirNabokov (New York:WilliamMorrow,
1968), p. 20.
7For a discussion,see CharlesNicol, "The Mirrorsof SebastianKnight,"in L. S. Dembo,
ed., Nabokov:The Man and His Work(Madison: Univ. of WisconsinPress, 1967), pp. 85-95.
8Appel, footnote121/2,Lolita,p. 374.
9Appel, footnotes 53/2 and 121/2,Ibid.,pp. 360 and 374.
1oAppel, footnote296/2,Ibid.,p. 437.
1 Martin Gardner,footnote4, in TheAnnotated Alice,pp. 180-84.
12Lolita,pp. 19, 34, 89.
13Appel, "An InterviewwithVladimirNabokov," p. 34.
14Gardner,footnote4, Alice,pp. 181-82.
15Carl R. Proffer, KeystoLolita(Bloomington:Indiana Univ. Press,1968), p. 100.
16Carrollpicturesthemas "Punch and
Judy,"p. 295, and Humbertcalls his contestwith
Quiltya "pistol-packing farce,"p. 303.

437

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