Humbert's Description Of Charlotte

As Humbert Humbert is the narrator of the novel, he characterizes the individuals in the story. No second opinions are presented; therefore the reader is given a one-dimensional interpretation of each character. There are clues in the novel that suggest Humbert's descriptions are biased in his favour, including the rapid changes in the characters' personalities and the tone in which they are described.

Humbert's descriptions of Charlotte Haze, in particular, change significantly as the story progresses. Charlotte, Lolita's mother and Humbert's eventual wife in the novel, is a middle-class American housewife who aspires to be sophisticated and cultured. Her relationship with her daughter is strained as she focuses all her attention on accommodating

However, after she is accidently killed, Humbert is free to "parent" Lolita. After he collects Lolita from the summer camp she was forced to attend, one notices the change in the tone he uses to address Charlotte. Lolita, since returning from camp, has remained troublesome and moody. After Humbert has consummated his "relationship" with the young girl, they engage on a long road trip including many pit stops and shopping trips. The teenage girl is not particularly enjoying their voyage and is understandably vulgar and upset. Humbert is quoted many times as saying: "Charlotte, I begin to understand you!" (Nabokov 149). Humbert narrates and characterizes other individuals in a way that will arouse sympathy for himself. Previously, when Humbert would engage in inappropriate contact with Lolita, he would deliberately point out her mother's unaffectionate nature to justify his touching her child. Now that Charlotte, the obstacle, has been overcome and Humbert regularly molests and abuses her daughter, he points out Lolita's insufferable qualities. He now understands Charlotte and points out that she was not as negative a person as she seemed. Humbert does this in order to paint himself as a tired father putting up with his difficult daughter's every

She is characterized as a manipulative, able girl. If she is not bought certain things, if she is not allowed to go to certain places, Lolita withholds sex from Humbert. This is an unfavourable depiction of the young girl as her body is the only power she possesses. She has no money, and without Humbert, she cannot survive. In order to put herself in a position of power and achieve some sort of reward for her suffering, Lolita uses her sexuality-something Humbert describes as cruel, manipulative promiscuity. Killing Clare Quilty, the man with whom Lolita runs away, Humbert describes as an act of love for having forced Lolita into poverty. His possessiveness in this part of the novel indicates that he is defending his honour rather than hers. Humbert writes his confession in order to convince the reader that though he is guilty, he was controlled by a force greater than himself. Through his dynamic characterization of the other characters, Humbert inadvertently reveals he is only interested in telling the story from a viewpoint that will allow the reader to sympathize with