Lolita Pt. 2

In Lolita, Nabokov establishes a line that is constantly toed throughout the novel, as well as crossed. Ultimately, the use of the first-person narrator is necessary to successfully presenting the subject matter that would normally be entirely and uncompromisingly offensive. However, in the first pages, long before we are presented with Humbert Humbert as a middle-aged man, we see him as a young boy, encountering love with a young girl in an obviously acceptable situation. The narrator draws in his audience by realistically presenting the vulnerability and excitability that is young love. He discusses his love for Annabel honestly, to the point of excess even, saying they were “madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other” (12). This same language continues on and on, perfectly setting up the reader for a sort of romantic suspension of disbelief. The author draws in the reader with the language, placing them in the situation whether they approve of it or not. On the beach, it is as if the reader is with Annabel, seeing “her hand, half-hidden in the sand…its slender brown fingers sleepwalking nearer and nearer” (12). It is because of these early passages, seeing Humbert Humbert as a young, vulnerable, sick-with-love man that there is a level of forgiveness when he becomes an older man, a predator, and ultimately, a child-molester.
Although the language used in the previous scene to describe young love is enthralling and stirs up those emotions in the reader that they are sure to have felt in their younger, formative years, it is still pretty straight-forward and honest. That is what one feels as a young person experiencing love for the first time. It becomes much trickier when Nabokov must navigate around the physical fruition of Humbert’s love for Lolita as an older man. As I mentioned in my previous essay, the author literally must find a way to describe a sexual act between a man and a child while maintaining his reader’s vested interest instead of stirring up feelings of hatred and disgust. It would be possible to use similar language as in the first scene, making Humbert out to be ignorant of his actions as a child is, but that would be dishonest, both to the character and to the point of the entire novel. Humbert is aware of what he is doing and that it is wrong. He uses the childish obsession with the O Carmen song to whimsy, Lolita’s carefree fancy as she explores something sexual, but still innocent as far as she is concerned. Humbert even shows his awareness in this after their brief romance on the couch by admitting he had “delicately constructed [his]ignoble, ardent, sinful dream; and still Lolita was safe” (62). This is not only a reassurance for himself, but a reassurance for the reader as well. But it is the act itself, not its omission, but its direct representation that is written so masterfully.
Something I touched upon in my previous essay that I should expand upon now is the importance of creating Humbert as an intelligent, extremely educated individual. He is able to draw upon this as he romanticizes his act of taking advantage of Lolita’s playfulness and flirtations towards him. Rather than describe his physical reaction to her touching, he alludes to it as “the nerves of pleasure had been laid bare, the corpuscles of Krause were entering the phase of frenzy, the least pressure would suffice to set all paradise loose” (60). He even describes his approach towards climax nearly scientifically, as “suspended on the brink of that voluptuous abyss,” which he says is “a nicety of physiological equipoise comparable to certain techniques in the arts” (60). It is literary language meant to stir up literary appreciation, a manipulation of language to take the place of his manipulation of a young, innocent girl. This, coupled with the witty self-degradation that exists throughout the novel, presents a fiendish character that is not entirely unworthy of the reader’s sympathy. He enjoys what he does, despite his awareness of its immorality, but is also powerless against it, and ultimately, entirely powerless against Lolita. By delicately evoking the youthful whimsy of young love, Nabokov is able to allow Humbert to both avoid and assume responsibility for actions that he sees as divinely romantic, while the rest of the world sees them as sick and depraved. It is the undertaking of a literary heavyweight, and Nabokov executes it with the same deftness of a practiced hand that Humbert boasts, and this is where the beauty and success of Lolita truly lies.