Section 3

A lot happens in the third section that I read of Lolita. This section starts out describing Humbert and Lolita's continued travelling and eventual settling down on 14 Thayer Street. Humbert enrolls Lolita at an all girls school that acts more as a finishing program than a true education. Despite Humbert's opposition to this initially, he enrolls Lolita and they buy a house where they live together. 

Throughout this section, Humbert becomes increasingly paranoid that Lolita will escape him due to her newfound friends, teachers, and relationships she builds with the people at her school. She starts wanting to do typical adolescent activities such as going to parties, hanging out with boys her age, and participating in the school play. Clearly, Humbert opposes this not only because it shows signs of her inevitable maturation, but also because he fears that she may escape his grasp.

Additionally, he begins to pay Lolita an allowance and eventually she manipulates his lust by requesting that he pay her for each sexual favor she does. He does so, saying ironically that he does not wish her to do these things "by force" (pg 184). He states, "What I feared most was...that she might accumulate sufficient cash to run away" (pg 185). 

He even calls his controlling nature over Lolita's life his "regime" and vows to never let her talk to boys or go to parties (pg 186). This struggle with her maturation is also shown by his addressing Lolita as "Dolores" instead of her childhood nickname, Lo, as he used to call her (pg 205). He fears her escape but also her graduation from "nymphancy" as she ages. This is clear when he sees her on the phone and is reminded of a prostitute he once visited and when he says that she should diet so that her thighs don't become too large.

This control and paranoia over Lolita and her subsequent rebellion ironically mirror a somewhat typical father-daughter relationship or parent-child relationship in general in which the child wants to be independent but the parent hopes to have them stay young and innocent forever. Nabokov ironically comments on this disturbing relationship between Lolita and Humbert by tying in the normal behaviors of parents and children.

Humbert's paranoia only grows throughout the section as Lolita matures further, and after they leave the school and decide to travel again, he sees her talking to another man multiple times and thinks that he is following them as they travel. He believes that she has a "diabolical glow" and states, "wildly, I pursued...her infidelity" but never finds concrete evidence (pg 214-215). 

In these chapters, he almost paints himself as someone driven insane by loving someone who is cheating on them, stating things like "Oh, I am quite sure it was not a delusion" to make it seem as though he's questioning his sanity. He even states, "It occurred to me that if I were really losing my mind, I might end by murdering somebody. In fact...it might be quite clever to prepare things--to transfer the weapon from box to pocket--so as to be ready to take advantage of the spell of insanity when it does come" (pg 229). 

Nabokov also uses the school play that Lolita longs to be a part of, "The Enchanted Hunters" as a metaphor for Humbert and Lolita. The play describes a young farmer's daughter who hypnotizes and entrances hunters into falling in love with her. The hunters often think that they imagine her because of her supposed magic. To make this metaphor even more clear, disturbing, and ironic, the play involves dancing nymphs.

Humbert describes his understanding of the play as "mirage and reality merg[ing] into love" (pg 201). While also accounting for the fact that Humbert often describes himself with words involving monsters and Lolita as his prey, it is clear that Lolita represents the farmer's daughter who manipulates and entrances the hunters (Humbert) until they no longer know what reality is. This shows Humbert's twisted view of his relationship with Lolita and how he sees her manipulating him, not the other way around.

Through Humbert's narration, he clearly is trying to portray himself as a victim to Lolita's manipulation and deceit as she supposedly corroborates with another man. He aims to acquire empathy from his audience and show how she drove him to insanity, similar to the farmer's daughter in the play.  

However, as we consider how persuasive and manipulative Humbert can be, and account for the fact that he's supposedly defending himself against a crime, we can see that he is intentionally leading us to this conclusion leading up to his crime. His supposed insanity because of Lolita may act as a good defense to a judge.

This persistent description of himself as paranoid and driven mad with desire and love presents itself throughout the entire section, and arguably, the entire novel. It's almost as though the piece of writing was written in the hopes to portray Humbert as a victim of his own perverse nature, the law and societal norms, and Lolita herself. 

Additionally, by shifting the view of the events in this section to Lolita's perspective, we may see her desperately trying to escape an extremely toxic and abusive relationship rather than being manipulative or unfaithful. Her supposed infidelity may be the actions of a girl seeking help to escape abuse, and the man following them could be someone trying to help her.

Humbert's continuous manipulation of the events that transpire is both interesting and disturbing at the same time. I look forward to seeing how this novel ends and what Humbert's actual crime was in addition to his long-winded justification for it.