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   mwestwood Teacher
   Community / Jr. College

   eNotes Editor

   "Lolita" is a novel so skillfully and artistically written that the reader almost accepts the memoir as a "love story." Told from the point of view of Humbert Humbert, the reader is unsure what actually transpires.  Nevertheless, one does know that Humbert marries Charlotte Haze in order to be close to the twelve-year-old daughter.

   In Part II Charlotte/Lolita is taken to a motel after her mother's death, Humbert climbs into bed with her after she falls asleep.  He narrates, "I am going to tell  you something very strange: It was she who seduced me." After waking, as Lolita kisses Humbert, he notices that she has knowledge of kissing, he whispers--she is a "nymphet."  He finds no "traces of modesty in this beautiful...girl."  Humbert claims no interest in the "elements of animality";his is a greater endeavor: "to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets."

   Despite her lack of naivete, Lolita does not seem to be truly experienced.  For, after a couple of weeks, the girl seems listless and unhappy, an indication that she probably was not truly interested in a relationship, instead, she may have felt the need to show her sophistication to the man whom her mother had seduced--a type of feminine jealousy/competiveness,perhaps.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/lolita

   http://www.enotes.com/lolita/characters

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   Posted by mwestwood on Friday November 7, 2008 at 7:13 PM