Humbert Humbert

Humbert Humbert is the novel’s middle-aged, Central European narrator who "writes" the book as a confession while incarcerated, awaiting trial for murder. Tragically, he succumbs to coronary thrombosis just days before his trial, leaving his manuscript to be edited by John Ray, Jr., who is presumably a psychology professor. Humbert's name is fictitious and often distorted, appearing as Humbug, Humbird, Humburger, Hamburg, or Homberg throughout the narrative. Born in 1910 in Paris, Humbert is the son of a Continental European father with Swiss, French, and Austrian heritage, who owned a luxury hotel on the Riviera, and a beautiful English mother who was struck by lightning when he was only three years old.

Humbert traces his sexual obsession with young girls aged nine to fourteen—whom he refers to as “nymphets”—to an interrupted romantic encounter at age thirteen with Annabel Leigh, which was tragically cut short by her untimely death. As an expatriate European, Humbert self-identifies as a "nympholept," a man consumed by his fixation on prepubescent girls. His obsession leads him to rent a room in the home of Charlotte Haze, a conventional and ultimately pathetic widow. He marries Charlotte primarily to remain close to her daughter, Dolores, whom he affectionately calls Lolita. Following a fortuitous car accident that claims Charlotte’s life, Humbert is left alone with his cherished nymphet.

Lolita Haze

Lolita Haze, also known as Dolores, Dolly, Lo, and Lolly, is a twelve-year-old girl whose mother, Charlotte, marries Humbert. After her mother's death, Lolita becomes Humbert's capricious child-mistress. She is a typical schoolgirl, indulging in gum-chewing, Coke-swilling, and comic book reading, while manipulating Humbert's obsession and remaining largely indifferent to his feelings. Displeased with Humbert's possessiveness, Lolita escapes with Clare Quilty, a playwright who is even more perverse and impotent than Humbert. At sixteen, she marries a plain, impoverished mechanic named Richard "Dick" Schiller, who soon impregnates her. Humbert is enamored by Lolita's physical features—her chestnut hair, supple limbs, honey-hued shoulders, and slim hips. However, as she matures beyond the age of a "nymphet," he laments her "washed-out gray eyes" and "rope-veined, narrow hands." According to the editor's preface, Lolita ultimately dies in childbirth, delivering a stillborn daughter.

Clare Quilty

Clare Quilty is an American dramatist, renowned for his popular play The Little Nymph. A year younger than Humbert, Quilty plays a shadowy role throughout the novel, pursuing Humbert and Lolita during their cross-country travels and persuading Lolita to leave Humbert. Quilty is enigmatic, his presence only gradually revealed through subtle clues until the climactic confrontation where Humbert exacts revenge, murdering Quilty in a violent frenzy. Quilty is depicted as a darker mirror to Humbert himself, embodying an exaggerated version of his own perversions. Prior to the final confrontation, Quilty had been a figure of intrigue to Lolita, who saw him as a "genius" and "full of fun." However, his manipulation led her into compromising situations, including encouraging her participation in group sex and pornographic films, actions she ultimately refused, leading to her expulsion from Quilty's life.

Charlotte Haze

Charlotte Haze, Lolita’s mother and Humbert’s second wife, is a conventionally middle-class, religious widow. Her attraction to Humbert is strong, yet her lust for him repulses him. Humbert is disdainful of her plump thighs, coral lips, and ample bosom. After their marriage, she dotes on him, but this dynamic changes when she discovers Humbert's secret diary which reveals his true passion for Lolita, whom she detests. In a rush of anger and distress, she storms out of the house, only to be killed by a passing car in a twist of fate that leaves Humbert free to...