The book Lolita can be interpreted in so many different ways by so many different people. Was the relationship between Lolita and Humbert Humbert passionate or destructive? Is the well-respected and academic protagonist really in love with the young nymphet, or is he a perverted man who is simply trying to cover up his awful actions with his beautiful language?
Throughout reading this text and even for months afterwards I found myself asking the same questions over and over again. Was I being tricked just like Lolita, into thinking that Humbert was to be trusted?
I slowly started to realise that Humbert was not a reliable narrator at all and although I had a lot of confusion about whether or not he truly was in love with Lolita, I came to the conclusion that the book is not a tragic love story about a forbidden relationship, it is about how a middle-aged man repeatedly took advantage of a young girl. One could say that she also wanted a relationship from the way she acted. However, it should have been Humbert’s responsibility to realise that it was not right to take advantage of Lolita.
Many have described this book as ‘a tender love story’, however I strongly disagree, as at one point in the story, Humbert plans strategically to murder Lolita’s mother so he can have his way with the young girl. This act definitely should not be viewed as one of love.
I read this book last year and I was amazed at how such a disturbing story of child abuse can somehow seem almost normal and sometimes even humorous through the author’s witty writing style. What the protagonist was doing was completely wrong and that should have been clear; however, as the plot develops, he does not seem like the villain at all, but an under-appreciated genius and, as a reader, I even started to feel slightly sorry for him.
Vladimir Nabokov’s writing style is breathtakingly beautiful and the intricate subtext completely blew me away. It is scary to think that such disturbing events can be normalised by the perspective of the story and even can go so far as making the reader think that what Humbert was doing was acceptable. I believe that the fact that readers take such a shine to Humbert shows how brilliant a writer Vladimir Nabokov is and also how, as a society, we still love to blame the victim.
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