Obsession decays personality and often leads a person down one road, one of isolation and fallout. Two main forms of isolation are shown in both novels, firstly the more obvious physical isolation, the prison in which Humbert is confined and for Ahab the concept of an empty universe represented by the whiteness of Moby Dick. However both characters face alienation and societal isolation as a result of their obsession. “To Ishmael, the whale’s indefinite whiteness shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation. [it’s] a colour-less all-colour of atheism from which we shrink.” White being both the lack of all colour and the combination of all colours, Moby Dick serves as a symbol …show more content…
Humbert’s name itself is an indication to the nature of his character, the repetition of his first name to become his last is a clear reference to his obsessive nature. Ashleigh Butler explains that Humbert’s obsession consumes him, dominates him, and dictates his every thought and action, ‘His life, his very existence revolves around Lolita’ once Lolita is lost he is affected greatly “The twenty-five years I had lived since then, tapered to a palpitating point, and vanished. I find it most difficult to express with adequate force that flash, that shiver, that impact of passionate recognition” once this happens and Lolita is seemingly lost his obsession takes hold and transforms Humbert into a brutal