What two quotations from Lolita portray significant events and contribute to the overall meaning?

There are many significant events in Lolita that provide quotations you might use here. One could be Humbert's initial reaction to seeing Dolores for the first time.

It was the same child—the same frail, honey-hued shoulders, the same silky supple bare back, the same chestnut head of hair. A polka-dotted black kerchief tied around her chest hid from my aging ape eyes, but not from the gaze of young memory, the juvenile breasts I had fondled one immortal day. And, as if I were the fairy-tale nurse of some little princess (lost, kidnapped, discovered in gypsy rags through which her nakedness smiled at the king and his hounds), I recognized the tiny dark-brown mole on her side. With awe and delight (the king crying for joy, the trumpets blaring, the nurse drunk) I saw again her lovely indrawn abdomen where my southbound mouth had briefly paused; and those puerile hips on which I had kissed the crenulated imprint left by the band of her shorts—that last triad immortal day behind the “Roches Roses.” The twenty-five years I had lived since then tapered to a palpitating point, and vanished.

In chapter 10, Humbert is being led around the house by Charlotte. In his conceited way, Humbert finds both Charlotte and the home to be rather unimpressive, even distasteful. However, upon laying eyes on Dolores, Humbert is overwhelmed with a desire that pulls at his memories of Annabel Leigh. You could argue that this quotation is meaningful to the whole work because this is the moment from which much of the later action of the story has its inception. In it, the reader can see how quickly and dangerously Humbert is affected by young girls. Furthermore, this sets the stage for many of the events which follow.

Another major event of the novel occurs in chapter 29. Humbert's plan to drug and sexually assault Dolores has failed. Yet, he says that in the morning, it is the girl who makes the first sexual advances on him.

Frigid gentlewomen of the jury! I had thought that months, perhaps years, would elapse before I dared to reveal myself to Dolores Haze; but by six she was wide awake, and by six fifteen we were technically lovers. I am going to tell you something very strange: it was she who seduced me.

Here, Humbert’s sexual misconduct escalates. However, the language that Humbert uses here is telling. He continues with his parody of legal speech, indicating that he feels like he is on trial here and has to defend himself. In the manner of many sexual predators, he attempts to shift responsibility to his victim, saying it was she who initiated the sex. Although the reader may not believe this claim, it is a window into Humbert's ability to rationalize his choices. It also marks a point in the story where the relationship and dynamic between Humbert and Dolores are forever changed.

What are two examples of imagery from Lolita that contribute to its overall meaning?

After all, Dante fell madly in love with Beatrice when she was nine, a sparkling girleen, painted and lovely, and bejeweled, in a crimson frock, and this was in 1274, in Florence, at a private feast in the merry month of May. And when Petrarch fell madly in love with his Laureen, she was a fair-haired nymphet of twelve running in the wind, in the pollen and dust, a flower in flight, in the beautiful plain as descried from the hills of Vaucluse.

I am like one of those inflated pale spiders you see in old gardens. Sitting in the middle of a luminous web and giving little jerks to this or that strand. My web is spread all over the house as I listen from my chair where I sit like a wily wizard. Is Lo in her room? Gently I tug on the silk. She is not.

How do diction, a recurring symbol, and imagery contribute to the larger meaning of Lolita?

In Lolita, Humbert's diction creates a unique tone, mixing erudition with frivolity and giving the reader the uneasy sense that he is self-centered to the point of solipsism, since every other person in the narrative is presented as either an object of or an obstacle to his desires. This peculiar diction is clearly in evidence from the very beginning of the novel:

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

Humbert employs hyperbole, metaphor, alliteration, parallelism, and imagery in an opening which is both an expression of desire and a display of literary style. The end of the same section contains an example of the way in which he is constantly shifting his tone:

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.

Humbert begins with a parody of legal language, which seems to suggest that he knows he is on trial and that the reader is likely to condemn both his desires and his actions. However, he cannot maintain this tone even until the end of the sentence, swiftly altering his tone to a mock-poetic image of "noble-winged seraphs."

These quotations contribute to the larger meaning of the work because they reveal Humbert's dangerously vain, egotistical and inconsistent character. His playful use of language is motivated by his refusal to take anything or anyone else seriously.