This story is structured as an autobiography written by Humbert Humbert during his time at the sanatorium and then in prison. It featured a vivid but unreliable narration of events that sees Humbert Humbert get infatuated with Lolita, a 12-year-old girl.
The intro to the novel, “Lolita“, begins with a foreword from a fictional psychologist, John Ray, who introduces the strange story that will follow. John Ray had received Humbert Humbert’s manuscript from his lawyer after Humbert had succumbed to coronary thrombosis while awaiting trial for an unidentified crime. We also learn that a certain Mrs. Schiller later revealed to be the titular character, Lolita, had died from childbirth on Christmas day. Both of them died in 1952.
The rising action in this book comes into play when Humbert Humbert, in 1947, moved to the small town of Ramsdale New England, where he was supposed to take up residence with a family called the McCoos. The prospect of living near their young daughter excited him considerably, but was disappointed with the news that the McCoo’s house had burned down. Mr. McCoo referred him to Charlotte Haze, who was letting a room. At first, he was reluctant to remain in town but allowed Charlotte to give him a tour of her house out of courtesy. Humbert was about to refuse her offer of lodging when he saw Charlotte’s young daughter, Dolores, sunbathing in the garden. He is immediately infatuated, believing that he is seeing a reincarnation of Annabel. He immediately accepts Charlotte’s offer and moves in.
Humbert documented his fantasies and schemes on Dolores in a diary. He obtains sexual pleasure from both deliberately fashioned and accidental contact with Dolores- although he keeps his actions as discreet as possible. On one occasion, he gropes her thighs and drives himself to erection out of contact with her legs.
Humbert’s fixation on Lolita seems to be fueled by his childhood traumas and insecurities with Annabel. It makes me question how much fixation is enough to lead to trauma, and when do the seemingly innocent wants turn to forbidden desires without notice?
Charlotte marriage and death is the climax. Humbert is physically repulsed by the prospect of marrying Charlotte but decides to accept because he wanted to be near Lolita. Desperate to obtain sexual release from Lolita, he settled for drugging both her and Charlotte’s drink, so he can molest Lolita undetected. However, on his return from the drugstore where he had gone to secure a powerful sleeping drug, he discovers that Charlotte had discovered his diary and read its contents, and had learnt that Humbert true intent. In light of this, Charlotte was writing letters to warn her friends when Humbert came back. She launched into an angry tirade at him, and as she went out to post the letters, got knocked down by a car.
This tragic incident births the falling action, as Humbert scheme to become Lolita’s guardian, managing to convince close family friends of Charlotte that he was Lolita’s real father from a long-ago affair with Charlotte. Afterward, he picks Lolita up from summer Camp, telling her that her mother was only ill.
He took her to a motel in Briceland called The Enchanted Hunters where he drugs her with sleeping pills and tries to molest her in the bed as she sleeps. She wakes up, however, forcing him to abandon the enterprise. Humbert claims that the next morning Lolita initiated sex with him. He believes she had been “corrupted” during her stay at summer camp.
As they both resumed their journeys, Lolita’s behavior becomes more erratic and she threatens to call her mother or the police and tell them everything he had done to her. In response, Humbert finally reveals Charlotte’s death, letting her know she had nowhere else to go.
At this point, Humbert masterfully merges reality and fantasy to create a distorted one where he rewrites their relationship to justify his actions. This just shows us how obsession can warp one’s perception of reality. It doesn’t end there, he blurs the lines between his rights and wrongs, forcing me to question my judgments.
In an attempt to prevent her from escaping, Humbert decided to create an adventurous, fun-filled schedule; spending several months on the road, staying in motels and visiting tourist attractions.
But just like every fun thrill, it cost money to maintain such extravagant lifestyle. Constrained by financial and legal concerns, Humbert decided to settle in Beardsley where his French friend, Gaston Godin, was able to secure a lecturing job for him. And he enrolls Lolita at the local girls’ school. Although, she makes new friends and tries to adapt to this new school, the headmistress, Pratt, suspects that something was wrong with Lolita’s home environment. As part of socialization attempts prescribed to help Lolita, Pratt urged Humbert to let Lolita participate in the school play: The Enchanted Hunters by Clare Quilty.
As Lolita was engaged in rehearsals for the play, Humbert Humbert starts to grow suspicious of her, leading to a deterioration in their relationship. When he learns that Lolita has been missing piano lessons, he gets into a violent fight with her, leading to her running out of the house. When he catches up with her at a telephone booth, her attitude has changed. She suggested they get on the road again, this time with her choosing the routes. Humbert agrees and by the summer of May 1949, the two were on another cross-country trip.
However, as they travel, Humbert notices that a man in a red car is following them. He is concerned when he observes that Lolita has been in constant communication with this individual. Humbert fears that Lolita might be trying to escape, although he finally convinced himself that he was just being paranoid.
This story takes a turning point when Lolita fell ill as they were in the town called Elphinstone. She stays for several days at a local hospital, and when Humbert comes to take her home, he learns that the man trailing him all the while had already left with her. A horrified Humbert then spends the rest of the summer looking for Lolita and her lover with little success.
In despair, he abandons the search and settles for a relationship with an alcoholic named Rita. Their relationship lasts for two years and is interrupted when Humbert receives a letter from now 17-year-old Lolita asking for money. She is now married to an engineer named Dick and needs the money so she and her husband can move to Alaska where a new job is awaiting Dick.
Although she did not disclose her exact address in the letter, Humbert manages to track her down, with the intent of murdering her husband, who he believed took her away from him. When Humbert sees Lolita at her new home, he is struck by how much she had changed; She was no longer a nymphet and was heavily pregnant. However, Humbert still loves her. He learns that her husband was not the man who took Lolita away from him and so presses Lolita to reveal the name of the “abductor”.
Lolita reluctantly reveals that he is Clare Quilty, a renowned playwright her mother had known. She had met him during rehearsals for her school’s production of Quilty’s play. Lolita ran off with Quilty because she was in love with him, but was thrown away when she refuses his request for her to act in a pornographic film. Although Humbert gives Lolita the money she asks for, he begs her to run away with him. Lolita, although surprised and even moved by the gesture, firmly refuses.
Lolita firmly turning him down makes him consider that the love might have been unrequited all along. The consuming passion invested so far elicits sympathy, even if a little. But yet again, it questions my judgment on what lies in the gray area between love and obsession, and does it rationalize his actions?
A heartbroken Humbert then drives away, driven by his obsession to exact vengeance on Quilty. But first, he returns to Ramsdale to facilitate the transfer of Charlotte’s properties in his possession to Lolita. While on the search for Quilty, Humbert experiences a moment of self-reflection where he acknowledges the damage his terrible and selfish behavior has done to Lolita.
However, his desire for revenge on Quilty is still strong and when he tracks the playwright to his huge, rickety house he shoots and kills him in a gruesome manner after twice rebuffing Quilty’s dramatic trickery and attempts at negotiation. Humbert announces his murder to Quilty’s drunk friends on the bottom floor but they did not take him seriously. Humbert leaves Pavor Manor, and in an act bordering on insanity, decides to drive on the wrong side of the highway. He is then stopped by the police and arrested
