lolita post: psychoanalysis

At the end of the novel, Humbert Humbert finally gets the chance to kill Quilty. And although he succeeds in this, he draws it out much longer than he needed to. The reason he does this is because he wants Quilty to know what he has done, he wants him to feel bad and ask for forgiveness. Humbert Humbert says, "It was high time I destroyed him, but he must understand why he was being destroyed" (297). In his killing of Quilty, H.H. is essentially killing off his guilt. Everything that he frames Quilty for doing is exactly what he has done to Lolita. He blames Quilty of taking advantage of Lolita and engaging in sexual activities with a minor but that is just what he has done. This made me think of the psychoanalysis of the character H.H. He is so deeply flawed that it is hard for him to even see himself in this light. This comes out in the end when he murders Quilty and how he goes about it. Nabokov does not agree with or understand the profession of psychiatry. Yet, he has created this character that at times seems so easy to analyze.