Ashley+Casperite+-+Lolita

=Manipulation in //Lolita//=

by Ashley Casperite
There are several sides to the manipulative coin--or, perhaps, die--in Vladimir Nabokov's //Lolita//. On one hand, Humbert Humbert is a master manipulator of both the readers he is writing for and of Lolita herself. At the same time, it is clear at times that Lolita is also playing her own hand in manipulating Humbert, by taking advantage of his obvious obsession with her. Above all, Nabokov is guilty of penning the entire novel, so it is he who plays with the emotions and morals of the reader as they navigate the maze of questionable relationships that are formed within the novel.

First, take a look at the character of Humbert Humbert. He begins the novel knowing that he has already died, since he has made his wishes clear that the publication of the novel will not happen until both he and Lolita have passed on, and while he is not planning on living long himself, he assumes (or dreams) that Lolita will have a long, prosperous life: "In its published form, this book is being read, I assume, in the first years of 2000 A.D. (1935 plus eighty or ninety, live long, my love)" (299). Of course he is correct, but only because the novel has remained a staple in American literature the years since its original publication. But the fact remains that he writes the novel as a dead man--so what does he truly have to lie about? He and the girl who is the focus of his admirations will each be long gone by the time any editor, publisher, or reader is meant to set eyes on the pages of his story.

Because of this, it would be easy to fall into the idea of trusting Humbert Humbert wholly. It would be easy to believe that he is just a man in love who is telling his love story--and his confessions of his sins, as a sort of //post mortem// repentance--so that the reader will understand what truly went on inside his mind. His story is nothing comparable to Earl Summerfield, the narrator of Diary of a Rapist, and compared to the latter, Humbert Humbert is nothing more than a romantic who is trapped in a body much older than that of the woman he loves. The story Humbert Humbert strings together is, at the surface, a May-December romance that is presented as doomed from the beginning, since Humbert is writing to the "ladies and gentlemen of the jury" and referring to himself as a murderer with a "fancy prose style" (9).

That very "fancy prose style" is what can get the reader into trouble.

With his words and the story he weaves, the reader is inclined to feel badly for Humbert--which is exactly what he wants. When any criminal takes the stand, they are automatically going to put on a façade that will induce sympathy from the jury, and since Humbert blatantly refers to his readers as that very jury, one must tread carefully as all the usual questions of a court trial are answered in the following pages. And, like the master manipulator he is, Humbert Humbert brings out the very sympathy he craves as he explains his traumatic childhood loss--the loss of his first love, Annabel, who is so drastically similar to Poe's poem that one may ask whether Annabel was real or a creation of Humbert Humbert's for the sympathy of his audience. He goes on to describe the woes of being immediately smitten with Lolita--and the lengths he goes to in order to be with her, like marrying her mother and taking on the roll of her father. At first, one would almost think his intentions are pure. In fact, he actually says so himself: "[...] I intended, with the most fervent force and foresight, to protect the purity of that twelve-year-old child."

The reader almost believes him, but it isn't long before the story moves on and his fantasies of her take priority over his belief that she must remain pure.

And then there is Lolita herself, who has not had the simplest life. Her lack of a true father figure prior to Humbert can easily explain a lot of the problems that cause her to be quite so manipulative of him. By no means is she as innocent as Humbert sees her to be--she is almost as equally manipulative as he. Lolita is twelve years old--she is aware of herself and of the world and people around her. At twelve years old, most girls have hit puberty and are very aware of the male gender. Without a father figure in her life, Lolita has lived her life without realizing the boundaries that are up between young girls and older men--she has never understood what the proper role of a father is. Similarly, a girl can generally tell when a boy is interested in her. Therefore, when Lolita realizes--even without Humbert's coaxing--that he has feelings for her, she takes advantage of this knowledge. Lolita realizes that he will do anything for her that she asks because he is so consumed by thoughts of her.

It is because of this that the lines become blurred and the reader must wonder who is manipulating who. Once Lolita initiates that first kiss, the reader must wonder: Is Humbert lying to me? Is Lolita understanding the destructiveness of her actions? Is Nabokov toying with me?

// I slowed down from a blind seventy to a purblind fifty. // //"Why do you think I have ceased caring for you, Lo?"//

//"Well, you haven't kissed me yet, have you?"//

//Inly dying, inly moaning, I glimpsed a reasonably wide shoulder of road ahead, and bumped and wobbled into the weeds. Remember she is only a child, remember she is only--// //Hardly had the car come to a standstill than Lolita positively flowed into my arms. Not daring, not daring to let myself go--not even daring to let myself realize that this (sweet wetness and trembling blind fire) was the beginning of the ineffable life which, ably assisted by fate, I had finally willed into being [...] (112-113)//

This very scene is a turning point in the novel. It is here that Lolita's beliefs that he cares for her in such a way are confirmed; it is when Humbert gets his first "taste" of Lolita, so to speak; and it is when the reader is truly going to wonder whether or not sweet little Lolita has truly taken such measures in advancing her relationship with Humbert.

//Lolita//, as a novel, has a tendency to make the reader ask questions. But the curious thing about it is that the reader isn't just asking questions into thin air--the reader is asking questions to the author and main characters at the same time. And most of the time, these questions are answered in one way or another. However, the questions that do get answered by Humbert are often the types of stories that make the reader curious as to whether or not he is telling the truth.

The biggest manipulation of the entire novel is geared entirely toward the reader. Through Humbert, Nabokov makes the reader want to believe Humbert's narration as truth. This not only manipulates the emotions of the reader, but it also toys with their moral beliefs, since every fiber of one's being can be against the "love" Humbert feels for Lolita--but in the end, most people would agree that they feel sympathetic toward him. It is safe to say that most people would not choose with a child molester or a rapist--since it is generally the victim who gets all of the sympathy--but Humbert has made himself into a victim, and that is a sign of his talent as a manipulator. Or is he truly a victim?

Nabokov, Vladimir. //Lolita//. New York: Random, 1997. Print. **
 * Works Cited