Critical Lens Close Reading

Text: Lolita Vladimir Nabokov

Critical Lens: Psychoanalytical

Was she joking? An ominous hysterical note rang through her silly words. Presently, making a sizzling sound with her lips, she started complaining of pains, said she could not sit, said I had torn something inside her. The sweat rolled down my neck, and we almost ran over some little animal or other that was crossing the road with tail erect, and my vile-tempered companion called me an ugly name. When we stopped at the filling station, she scrambled out without a word and was a long time away. Slowly, loving, an elderly friend with a broken nose wiped my windshield-they do it differently at every place, from chamois cloth to soapy brush, this fellow used a pink songe. ((Nabokov 141).

In this chapter of the novel Lolita loses interest in being with Humbert. While he starts being concerned in what Lolita will say to the authorities since she states later before the passage that she was going to call the police and tell them that he raped her. At this point she Lolita seems to start feeling annoyed with Humbert and starts to use him to get money. This not only shows how much Humbert Humbert is in love with her but it also starts to show a different side of Lolita. Since the reader was always shown the thought process of Humbert, the understanding of the type of person Lolita is starting to be shown. But looking back at the beginning of the novel, Humbert did describe how you would have to be an artist and a madman in order to be with a nymphet. We are shown how he is able to accept Lolita even though she acts this way towards him. This brings up one of the many topics that arise from this book, which is if Humbert and Lolita actually love each other or is Humbert unconsciously thinking of Annabel when he is with Lolita. Looking at it using this passage it is safe to say that Humbert could love Lolita because in the beginning of the book we are not told about the interactions of Annabel and Humbert. We only know that they use to be in love but because of her death, Humbert lived his life trying to hold on to her.