In many countries, having a relationship with a child is illegal. Talking about it is also some kind of a taboo subject. In Vladimir Nabokov’s book, “Lolita”, the main character, Humbert Humbert falls deeply in love with a twelve years old nymphet (a nymphet is a girl between the age of nine and fourteen), Dolores Haze, which he calls Lolita. You may think that the main theme of the book is an adult abusing an innocent child but I think that it is also about "a minor having impaired the moral of an adult"(p150). In many parts of the story you can see that Dolores Haze takes advantage of the situation to get what she wants. At the beginning, Dolores is enjoying their affair, after a while, she is dealing with Humbert Humbert to get more money and to get other special permissions.
First, when she starts to have a relationship with Humbert Humbert, she doesn’t know what she’s getting involved in. She uses to like it. How could a grown man who is, by the way, deeply in love with this girl, resist her? The main character is already mentally deranged, even if he knows that in the society he is living now, it’s unacceptable to have an affair with a child.Dolores is not helping her case and it is clearly said in the book when she said : "Fact I’ve been revoltingly unfaithful to you(… )Well, you haven’t kissed me yet, have you?"(p.112). Dolores is provocative. She thinks it is a game and she is enjoying it. I am not saying that Humbert Humbert’s behaviour is right, but Dolores opened the door for that kind of situation.
Plus, in the second part of the story, Dolores is dealing with Humbert Humbert to get more money. She is using her stepfather’s feelings for her to make him comply with all her wishes, for example, when Humbert Humbert writes: “she proved to be a cruel negotiator whenever it was in her power to deny me certain life wrecking, strange, slow paradisal philtres without which I could not live more than a few days in a row, and which, because of the very nature of love’s languor, I could not obtain by force.”(p184) She knows how to take advantage of her “old man” and she knows how passionate his feelings for her are. Also, at the end of the story, after she has escaped from her stepfather’s claws, she only writes him a letter to ask him money. She doesn’t really care about him; all she cares about is getting enough funds to pay her debts and to move away to Alaska.
Furthermore, Dolores finds a way to get special permissions in exchange of some favours. Humbert Humbert is talking about it in his journal when he says: “I had just retracted some silly promise she had forced me to make in a moment of blind impatient passion”.( p169)I think this proves how Dolores Haze is manipulating her stepfather to subject to all her desires. She is already getting a lot of presents and various stuffs like clothes or accessories from Humbert Humbert and she is still taking advantage of the situation.
When all’s said and done, I think that the novel “Lolita” is not only tackling the subject of an adult abusing a minor, but it also talks about a young girl taking advantage of an adult who’s deeply in love with her. I don’t want you reader to believe that I think Humbert Humbert’s behaviour is correct and that child molesting is normal. Neither have I wanted you to think that I don’t see Humbert Humbert as a pedophile, but, you may understand that I just wanted to show you that, in this particular case, the so-called “innocent child” is not as innocent as many people will think.
639 words
NABOKOV, Vladimir, Lolita, New York, Vintage International Edition, 1995, 317p.
