"Why
do you think I have ceased caring for you, Lo?" "Well, you haven't
kissed me yet, have you?" Inly dying, inly moaning, I glimpsed a
reasonably wide shoulder of road ahead, and bumped and wobbled into the weeds.
Remember she is only a child, remember she is only —
This takes place shortly after Humbert picks up Dolores from
the camp.
I collected roughly a bakers dozen
of quotes while finishing Lolita. I say, “finishing”, but that refers to almost
two thirds of the novel. Some I picked simply because I found them humorous,
and while I would like to include them at the end of my response I could not
use them because they held far too little relevance to the message of the
story.
Reading
Lolita (granted that this is H.H.’s perspective and we are not to trust him) I
see Dolores Haze as the dominant individual in the relationship. That power,
she seized from Humbert through one of the three traditional means, sex.
Assuming we can trust Hum, she initiates many of the cases of sensual and
sexual interaction. As the story progresses and Hum becomes more and more
paranoid and anxious Lo gains more and more power. While that passage doesn’t
reflect it, Lo does also know the consequences of Humberts actions, and she
knows the reality of the monster he is. However, it seems she uses that to joke
and taunt Humbert; I think that would serve to back up my claims that she has a
fair amount of control in the relationship.
Humbert,
in this passage and in the story as a whole knows full well the reality of what
he is, Lo is, and the repercussions of his actions. Humbert is a weak man
controlled almost completely by his sexual urges. Dolores is his idol, and she
holds his leash is somewhat of an equal and opposite way to which he holds
hers. Humbert does know full well what he is, and having to live that lie to
its fullest with Lo strains him. This drives him further down a path of
madness, anxiety and paranoia. At least further down that path than where he
was when he met Lo.
Perhaps
reading Lolita’s topic was too easy for me, in that the subject matter was not
as bothersome as the constructed social expectations would have them. It could
be because I know this to be a work of fiction, and that I know the reality of
some of these types of situations can be much worse. It could just be that I
find it easy to look past things. If you ignore Humbert’s friendly reminders
that he is a monster, then it’s almost easy to forget that he is a monster. I
may be wrong to feel this way, but the thing that bothered me the most about
Humber was his willingness to drug Lo and her mother. Shame on you Humbert,
that’s just uncouth.
Unfortunately
it’s time to list off my collection of humorous quotes. There were many, but
the shortest ones will fit nicely. Let’s begin shall we:
“Slowly her head
turned away and dropped onto her unfair amount of pillow.”
I may have laughed out loud on this one.
“I was unbathed,
unshaven, and had had no bowel movement.”
Humbert was still human, afterall.
“Oh, look, all the
nines are changing into the next thousand.”
I remember the simple joy of when our family van hit the two
hundred thousandth mile. Memories.
