It's one thing to wish for something, it's quite another affair to be happy with what you get, especially since it's not really what you had hoped for in the first place. A desperate pedophile, Humbert, somehow makes his wildest sexual fantasy actually come true, or at least that is what he longs to believe, but at the tragic cost of the lives he destroys, including his own.
Humbert explains why he is attracted to 14 year old Lolita. By his own account, he became fixated on girls the same age as his childhood sweetheart, Annabel, who he lost forever during his own youth. It is still a mystery, however, why a man of Humbert's maturity indulged an adolescent sexual fantasy for as long as he did. A man his age could no more have a love affair with a 14 year old girl than could he resurrect his long lost lover from the dead. Nor could he go back to being a 14 year old boy himself.
In a transparent attempt to approach the object of his desire, Humbert marries Lolita's mother, Charlotte, even though he does not truly love her. Charlotte's accidental death gives Humbert what he had been secretly hoping for, complete custody of Lolita. But, how could he be happy knowing that it was his rejection of Charlotte that practically drove her to suicide, especially since his flagrant negligence also hurt Lolita? This shocking realization should have interrupted Humbert's erotic dream and marked the point in the story where a responsible man assumes his natural role as a father. However, when Lolita approached him, inexplicably, he could not control his pedophile nature.
Humbert refused to abandon his love fantasy, until the day when Lolita was practically torn away from him, and he finally realized that he couldn't have her. But by that time the damage he had caused her was already irreparable. He destroyed Lolita's happy childhood in much the same way his own had been destroyed by the death of Annabel, and he could never forgive himself for his 'sin'. Murdering Quilty, an even more perverse pedophile than himself, was as close as he could come to suicide. In the end, he died in prison of a broken heart, leaving us to ponder whether there was ever any need for such a tragedy, or is it simply true that none of us can ever find bliss except for a fleeting moment.
Humbert explains why he is attracted to 14 year old Lolita. By his own account, he became fixated on girls the same age as his childhood sweetheart, Annabel, who he lost forever during his own youth. It is still a mystery, however, why a man of Humbert's maturity indulged an adolescent sexual fantasy for as long as he did. A man his age could no more have a love affair with a 14 year old girl than could he resurrect his long lost lover from the dead. Nor could he go back to being a 14 year old boy himself.
In a transparent attempt to approach the object of his desire, Humbert marries Lolita's mother, Charlotte, even though he does not truly love her. Charlotte's accidental death gives Humbert what he had been secretly hoping for, complete custody of Lolita. But, how could he be happy knowing that it was his rejection of Charlotte that practically drove her to suicide, especially since his flagrant negligence also hurt Lolita? This shocking realization should have interrupted Humbert's erotic dream and marked the point in the story where a responsible man assumes his natural role as a father. However, when Lolita approached him, inexplicably, he could not control his pedophile nature.
Humbert refused to abandon his love fantasy, until the day when Lolita was practically torn away from him, and he finally realized that he couldn't have her. But by that time the damage he had caused her was already irreparable. He destroyed Lolita's happy childhood in much the same way his own had been destroyed by the death of Annabel, and he could never forgive himself for his 'sin'. Murdering Quilty, an even more perverse pedophile than himself, was as close as he could come to suicide. In the end, he died in prison of a broken heart, leaving us to ponder whether there was ever any need for such a tragedy, or is it simply true that none of us can ever find bliss except for a fleeting moment.