The Annotated Lolita Post 6

My initial research question relates to the psychoanalysis of the character Humbert Humbert. Throughout the novel, Humbert Humbert is constantly defying any explanations for his actions towards Lolita. He is almost mocking the readers desire to give reason to his behavior. We think that his mother's death at a young age may have affected his respect for women. Or that the desertion of women in his own life (his mother, aunt, Valeria) led him to do the things he did. But Nabokov does not want the reader to analyze Humbert Humbert in this way. He wants us to view the character as this deeply troubled person but not as a case study. Humbert Humbert is unique and not like every pedophile. In fact, he even goes as far to say he is not a pedophile. This is because he does not go after every little girl and has respect for the average child. His lust for Lolita is justified because she is a nymphet and also she did not resist him. It is known that Nabokov was opposed to psychiatry, particularly the ways of Freud, and it is with this novel that he criticizes it. To Humbert, his attraction to Lolita is not some sick disorder but rather this uncontrollable, pure love. And love, justified all his behavior because in the end that's all that mattered. He had loved Lolita with all his heart. When thinking back to his times with Lolita, H. H. wrote, "I loved you. I was a pentapod monster, but I loved you. I was despicable and brutal, and turpid, and everything, maid je t'aimais, je t'aimais! And there were times when I knew how you felt, and it was hell to know it, my little one. My Lolita girl, brave Dolly Schiller" (285). At this part of the novel, it is hard not to feel bad for Humbert Humbert. He has lost the love of his life even though we know that love was morally wrong.