Geovanni Gomez

AP Lang Block 1
Mr. Hamm
Nabokov’s Fictive Truth

Lolita is a love story between two disparate lovers whose affections are considered taboo.
Humbert Humbert is trapped in his affinity for what he describes as “nymphets”: young girls
who exude an irresistible sexual air for Humbert. The object of his affection is Lolita, his
nymphet step-daughter. She was an energetic and, at times, crass girl who returned Humbert’s
affections while her mother was still alive. After Charlotte’s death, however, Lolita has no where
else to turn and must fall into the clutches of Humbert. His treatment of her ranges from harsh
castigation to idolization to obsession. Usually, his actions would be considered inexcusable.
With his profound use of language however, the reader is drawn into not only Humbert’s
recantation, but his mind. Nabokov’s narrator Humbert Humbert solipsizes Lolita and thus
transforms her into an example of love and devotion for both him and the reader.

On pg 53, Humbert imagines Lolita’s classroom populated with her various classmates.
“I can imagine so well the rest of the colorful classroom…Duncan, the foul-smelling clown; nail-
biting Agnes; Viola, of the blackheads and the bouncing bust” Humbert has never met these
children, and yet offers a very concrete image of them. His descriptions are so precise that they
are presumed accurate; a sort fictive truth is being created by Humbert himself. If Humbert can
cite such minute details, then the reader assumes he must have authority on the matter.

Later, Humbert describes an intense encounter with Lolita: a precursor to their

relationship. Waves of sexual pleasure overcome Humbert as Lolita shifts and wriggles on his
lap. Pg 60 reads “I entered a plane of being where nothing matted, save the infusion of joy
brewed with my body…[I felt a] state of absolute security, confidence and reliance not found
elsewhere in conscious life.” The thought of feeling such joy from a lover is a grand one, and
Humbert does an exquisite job of describing it. However, if the reader disentangles themselves
from the tendrils of Humbert’s prose, they will see that he is still talking about a twelve year old
girl. Nabokov’s deception crafts his fictive truth: where a man can love a nymphet because in her
he relives all the excitement and joy of his childhood love. Humbert’s obsession with the
nymphet began after he had a truncated love affair with a childhood friend who died. In essence,
he is keeping her alive with his love for nymphets. Later in the same paragraph, Humbert states
“Lolita had been safely solipsized.” Humbert transforms Lolita into an extension of himself: a
reincarnation of his earlier memories and experiences. Nabokov transforms Humbert’s
pedophilia into a resurrection of lost love and childhood. This change coincides with Reading
Lolita, which stated that Nabokov was dedicated to reconstructing experience into a living and
breathing entity in his literature.

This fictive truth is further expanded when Nabokov writes about Lolita’s involvement in
the play. The Enchanted Hunters bears a name strikingly similar to the hotel that Humbert stayed
with Lolita with. In the play, Lolita plays a hypnotist who has convinced several others that their
entire lives have been merely a spell she had them under. Her role is mirroring Humbert’s
solipsism. This also relates to the Reading Lolita article, in which the author cited Nabokov’s
tendency to include sorts of “inside jokes” in his works, instances where the characters are aware
that they are portraying a certain theme. Except in this case, Lolita is the one engaging in the
solipsism, not the other way around.

Humbert’s prose is both enchanting and dangerous. It relegates the act of pedophilia into
a love that entrances many readers. Although throughout the entire novel, Humbert is being put
on trial and, as such, the reader is meant to be objective, Humbert successfully draws the reader
into his world and his intentions.