A Close Analysis of Lolita
“Nowadays you have to be a scientist if you want to be a killer. No, no, I was neither. Ladies and gentleman of the jury, the majority of sex offenders that hanker for some throbbing, sweet-moaning, physical but not necessarily coital, relation with a girl-child, are innocuous, inadequate, passive, timid strangers who merely ask the community to allow them to pursue their practically harmless, so-called aberrant behavior, their little hot wet private acts of sexual deviation without the police and society cracking down upon them. We are not sex fiends! We do not rape as good soldiers do. We are unhappy, mild, dog-eyed gentlemen, sufficiently well integrated to control our urge in the presence of adults, but ready to give years and years of life for one chance to touch a nymphet. Emphatically, no killers are we. Poets never kill.”(pgs 87-88)
One might find the statement “poets never kill” rather ironic, especially when taking into account the latter half of the novel. Unable to deal with losing the love of his life, Humbert traces Lolita, courtesy a letter written by a very pregnant Lolita, asking for money. At this point, all loose ends have come together, and Humbert realizes that, despite his suspicions, Lolita’s husband Richard Schiller was not the same man he had seen visiting Lolita years before. Lolita reveals that this man was none other than Clare Quilty, whom she had cleverly portrayed as a woman to Humbert. After unsuccessfully soliciting Lolita’s love, Humbert returns to Ramsdale, where he first met Lolita, to kill Quilty. What follows is a very strange, awkward murder; Quilty, apparently on some form of drugs, listens to Humbert as he recites a poem depicting scen
Some topics in this essay:
Dolores Haze,
,
Clare Quilty,
Quilty Humbert,
Humbert Humbert,
Ultimately Humbert’s,
Nabokov’s Lolita,
Richard Schiller,
Lolita Lolita,
“poets kill”,
sex offenders,
murder quilty,
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Approximate Word count = 577
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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