Meet the Main Characters

Hello blog universe!

I have just finished reading a quarter of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. At this point, I feel confident that I can provide an analysis of the novel’s main characters, so here it is!

But first, here’s a brief summary of the novel’s plot thus far:

The narrator, Humbert Humbert, is awaiting trial for an unspecified crime, and the entirety of the novel is his confession to said crime. Humbert prefaces his confession with a brief history of his childhood, leading up to the story of his first love, a girl named Annabel Leigh. Humbert describes the intensity of his brief affair with Annabel in the quote, “the spiritual and the physical had been blended in us with a perfection that must remain incomprehensible to the matter-of-fact, crude, standard-brained youngsters of today” (page 14). The affair was “brief” because she died from typhus four months after the peak of their romance.

Humbert claims that this romance with a woman who experienced a premature death caused him to develop a pedophilic obsession. He goes on to define a term he invented, “nymphet,” that he uses to refer to the girls aged 9 to 14 to whom he feels sexually attracted. He describes his difficulty throughout adult life trying to disguise his obsession and his brief marriage to a woman named Valeria that served as a cover-up. Valeria was a conventionally pretty and simple woman who Humbert describes as a “puffy, short-legged, big-breasted, and practically brainless baba” (page 26). Ultimately, Valeria grows bored of Humbert’s indifference and leaves him for another man.

Valeria’s departure causes Humbert to reevaluate his life, and he decides to move to the United States. A young widow named Charlotte Haze agrees to host him, and upon moving in, Humbert meets Lolita. Humbert immediately falls in love with Dolores Haze, Mrs. Haze’s daughter whom he names Lolita seemingly to invent a secret part of Dolores that he can possess. While Humbert's infatuation with Lolita intensifies, Mrs. Haze falls in love with Humbert. Eventually, Mrs. Haze gives Humbert the ultimatum of marrying her or leaving, and in fear of losing the object of his affection, Humbert reluctantly agrees to marry her. A quarter of the way through his confession, we leave Humbert awaiting Lolita's return from summer camp as her step-father.

Now for the analysis of the novel’s three main characters:

Humbert Humbert: Aside from his psychotic tendencies, the most striking of Humbert’s characteristics is his intelligence. In fact, Humbert is so intelligent that during his time in a sanatorium, he entertained himself by manipulating the psychiatrists. Humbert created a sport of “inventing for them elaborate dreams” and “teasing them with fake primal scenes” so that “by bribing a nurse, [he could win] access to some files and discover, with glee, cards calling [him] ‘potentially homosexual’ and ‘totally impotent’” (page 34). He additionally wrote scholarly articles like “The Proustian theme in a letter from Keats to Benjamin Bailey” and earned a living by translating French literature into English for a prominent publishing firm.

Humbert’s ability to outsmart everyone around him contributes to his undeterrable confidence. In one quote, Humbert describes himself as, “an exceptionally handsome male; slow moving, tall, with soft dark hair and a gloomy but all the more seductive cast of demeanor...I could obtain at the snap of my fingers any adult female I chose” (page 25). This confidence is an important component of his character because it is likely what drives him to act on his pedophilic instincts that he is aware are condemned by society.

Humbert’s sense of superiority also leads him to be insensitive; upon his arrival in the U.S., Humbert learned that the family who was originally supposed to host him could no longer do so because their house had burned down. In lieu of the expected sympathetic response to such news, Humbert was irritated by the family’s incompetence. He remarked, “All right, his house would have to be completely rebuilt, so what? Had he not insured it properly?” From similar reactions, it grows clear to readers that Humbert lacks compassion for anyone in his life besides those to whom he is sexually attracted (his “nymphets”).

Overall, despite Humbert Humbert’s role as the protagonist in his own story, he fails to convey himself as a hero. His cockiness, lack of compassion for others, and selfish applications of his intelligence all serve to make him unlikable, especially in combination with the fact that he’s a pedophile.

Dolores Haze (Lolita): Lolita possesses many of the traits characteristic of twelve-year old children; she is entitled, impatient, and stubborn when dealing with her mother, and she is often giddy and distracted. In summary, she is overwhelmingly childish. Like any other twelve year old, Lolita likes to read comic books and dreams of becoming a movie starlet in her free time. It is clear to readers from such details that she is no more mature than should be expected of a girl her age.

Lolita’s immaturity is most often portrayed through her relationship with her mother. When Mrs. Haze told Lolita she must go to summer camp for a few weeks, she threw a fit and hit Humbert calling him a “doublecrosser” for going along with her mother’s plan. On a separate occasion, Mrs. Haze offered to take Lolita to the beach she had begged to visit under the condition that she apologize for being rude, and Lolita refused to apologize. In general, Lolita’s reactions to inconveniences were melodramatic because, as is typical of a twelve-year old, she was unable to contain her emotional impulses.

Lolita’s giddiness and distractedness additionally serve to characterize her as childish. Her giddiness is exhibited in several small moments throughout the novel including when she jumps up to answer the telephone and when she runs outside, uninvited, to join Humbert and her mother on their trip to town. Her distractedness is exemplified in the following letter she wrote home from summer camp, in which she lost a sweater and admits to enjoying the camp that she had vehemently protested attending (page 81):

“Dear Mummy and Hummy,

Hope you are fine. Thank you very much for the candy. I [crossed out and re-written again] I lost my new sweater in the woods. It has been cold here for the last few days. I’m having a time.

  Love, Dolly”

Overall, Lolita’s consistent immaturity serves as a constant reminder that she is far too young to be involved in a romantic relationship of any sort with Humbert Humbert. It paints her as a defenseless victim throughout the novel.

(Still from the 1962 film adaptation)

Mrs. Charlotte Haze: The final of the three main characters is Lolita’s mother and Humbert Humbert’s second wife. Mrs. Haze (as Humbert refers to her even after their marriage to suggest a distance between them) is a very frivolous, dramatic, and unstable woman. To provide a better idea of Mrs. Haze’s silly character and her lost touch with reality, she has a habit that Humbert often critiques of inauthentically attempting to use the French language to appear sophisticated.

Tellingly, Mrs. Haze’s initial introduction to the readers is accompanied by a description of her cluttered, unkempt household. Such an introduction immediately provides readers with a sense of her irresponsibility and instability. Mrs. Haze’s irresponsibility is portrayed particularly well in the following snapshot of her house tour: “I noticed a white sock on the floor. With a deprecatory grunt, Mrs. Haze stooped without stopping and threw it into a closet next to the pantry” (page 39).

Readers continue to glean an impression of Mrs. Haze as emotionally unstable as she desperately tries to win Humbert’s affection during his stay. She becomes so desperate to win his affection that she ships Lolita off to summer camp so she can spend more time alone with Humbert. However, it is not until Humbert finds the letter in which she offers him an ultimatum of marrying her or leaving immediately that readers experience the epitome of her dramatics. In the letter, Mrs. Haze makes the wild (and incredibly ironic) claim, “if you decide that I am attractive enough for you to... make a pass at me, then you would be a criminal - worse than a kidnapper who rapes a child” even though that is exactly what she is begging him to do (page 68). She also states repeatedly in the letter that she expects Humbert has already destroyed it and left her forever without reading it to the end. The letter clarifies to readers that Mrs. Haze can not maintain her composure in the manner that is generally expected of adults her age.

That concludes my initial impression of the main characters in Lolita! I’ll be interested to see how or if my perception of them changes as I continue the novel.