As though it appears, after Charlotte's death, Mr. Humbert became careless of his dead wife and more comfortable as a widowed husband. Mr. Humbert quoted, "My first night of widowhood I was so drunk that I slept as soundly as the child who had slept in that bed(70)."Humbert speaks as if he's at peace now from the disturbing presence of his wife Charlotte. Not even long after Charlotte's death, Humbert begins to spend most and more of his time with Lolita.
Which became a bit too...personal for me as a reader because I started to feel as if I was intruding the lustful, distasteful thoughts of a perverted creep when Humbert made this statement. "Please, reader: no matter your exasperation with the tender hearted, morbidly sensitive, infinitely circumspect hero of my book, do not skip the essential pages! Imagine me; I shall not exist if you do not imagine me; try to discern the doe in me, trembling in the forest of my own iniquity; let's even smile a little(93)." Reading such a quote sent trembling chills down my spine because after describing his lust for Lolita, Humbert singles me out as the reader into a place of discomfort. Just the very thoughts of what I was thinking as a reader, Humbert brought them to my attention. For example, the thought of imaging such a character into the waivers of my thoughts would not have existed if he hadn't reminded me to think of him. Humbert also makes himself look innocent by trying to be open about his thoughts of Lolita to be harmful because it's only of a fantasy. It was the ending of the quote that made disatified me even more because no smile puckered upon my cheeks after diving into Humbert's thoughts. Only one frown after another lead to sickening intakes of perverted thoughts.
1.) At what point in Lolita was it hard for you to bare Humbert's thoughts of Lolita and why?
2.) How would you describe Humbert's behavior towards Lolita after Charlotte's death?
3.) As you intake Humbert's thought process, what do you think that it could be that makes Humbert so.....drawn Lolita?
To be honest I feel after being with Lolita for so long and giving into his lust and desires for her, then for her to turn around and return some hints of romance for him made him fall for her more. Then when she disappeared from the hospital and he hadn't seen her for about 2yrs or so, probably made his heart grow more of fond of her although he did have another woman at one point. I still believe that absence makes the heart go fonder, and even seeing her pregnant he still wanted her, even though she was big and past the "nymph" stage and he gave her money just because she asked for it. So I consider it love ok or either a Macedonian out version of obsessed fantasy of him thinking about the old Lolita he loved.
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