Analysis
In these chapters, Humbert grows intensely suspicious
of both Lolita’s increasing ability to deceive him, as well as the
various men they meet on their travels. However, despite his mounting
paranoia, Humbert remains unable to grasp the truth of his situation.
For example, though he reads The Enchanted Hunters carefully
and recognizes the strange coincidence between the play’s title
and the name of the hotel where he and Lolita first consummated
their relationship, he doesn’t take the production as a warning
sign. Unable to see this coincidence as foreshadowing anything,
Humbert can only offer a passive, ineffectual response: a intellectual,
critical analysis of the play’s literary value. Meanwhile, The
Enchanted Hunters brings Clare Quilty directly into Lolita’s
life and, presumably, causes her to reevaluate her relationship
with Humbert. The production of The Enchanted Hunters is
the turning point at which Humbert first begins to lose Lolita,
and he fails to recognize its significance.
Humbert’s inability to see the reality of his predicament
also extends to his relationship with Lolita. Humbert loves what
Lolita represents: a perfect specimen of his ideal type of female,
the nymphet. Humbert loves an image of a girl, but not the girl
herself. This refusal to acknowledge the real Lolita allows him
to observe all the human elements of his iconic woman—her vulgarity,
her duplicity, her rebelliousness—and remain steadfastly assured
that, somehow, he can possess Lolita forever. Only after losing
Lolita will Humbert realize how mistaken he was. At this point in
the novel, however, Humbert is still the enchanted hunter, too spellbound
by his obsession to comprehend the reality of his lover or the imminent threat
Quilty represents.
In these chapters, Lolita seems less whimsical and more
calculating. Up to this point, we might have assumed that Lolita’s
temperamental moods could be attributed to the typically mercurial
nature of all teenagers or to the extreme pressure of leading a
secret, deviant lifestyle. However, Lolita’s moods seem more planned
now. For example, she explains away her missed piano lessons with
preternatural calm, even arranging for Mona to lie for her. For
once, Humbert’s suspicions seem justified. Humbert blames her dramatic training
for teaching Lolita to dissemble, and he’s not entirely wrong: the
theater is responsible for her duplicity, but not
quite in the way Humbert imagines. Once again, Humbert offers an
ineffectual, intellectual response, making a symbolic connection
between the necessary pretense involved in acting and the apparent
pretense Lolita is employing.
Humbert misses the more simple, straightforward explanation for
Lolita’s lies: the theater is responsible for Lolita’s betrayal because
the school play introduces her to Quilty. Humbert’s attempts to
keep their relationship from changing, as well as his attempt to
arrest Lolita’s growth and keep her in a perpetual state of nymphethood,
end up having the opposite effect: pushing Lolita away and resisting
his fantasy role for her. Lolita and Humbert act out a version of
a more traditional parent-child relationship, with Lolita lying
and evading her father figure in order to challenge his strict,
oppressive regulations. Humbert doesn’t grasp this element of their
relationship, which leads him to unquestioningly accept her decision
to leave Beardsley.
Even at this early stage, we can see how this journey
represents a reversal of the earlier road trip. Whereas Humbert
himself planned the first trip, in order to assert his control over
and possession of Lolita, he now follows Lolita’s whims and desires,
unknowingly facilitating her escape. Previously, Humbert was the
enchanted hunter, charmed and fascinated by his prey, Lolita. Now
Humbert has become a different kind of enchanted hunter: he’s bewitched and
spellbound by Lolita’s duplicity, and, blinded by his own obsession,
he is never able to clearly spot his prey, Clare Quilty. If Humbert
has become an ineffectual hunter in these chapters, he soon realizes
that he’s also become the hunted, as his shadowy double, Clare Quilty,
tracks him down in order to steal Lolita.
