Humbert is afraid he is actually not loveable. That he isn’t good enough. That he isn’t smart enough. He wants to be an honest intellectual. He has to buy her affection, manipulate her. He confuses all nymphets. Humbert confusing his own self of self. Trying to become complicated because he is actually more sensible.
If he sees in himself this clumsiness, he also sees a way to control others around him. He can manipulate everyone because he sees them all as having less intelligence. |
If he is a god- then perhaps it is within his right to murder- be manipulative. Certainly a god would have the right to take away innocence? no?
So about my process
One of the things I do when I write a story is to create a story is to create a character sheet in which I answer questions about the character in hopes of creating a firmer picture in my mind of who my characters are- I thought maybe I could use these same methods to identify (from the text the idea of who Humbert really |
Who is Humbert?
Humbert is a sophisticated man. He wears smoking jackets.
European educated with bouts in American Mental Institutions.
But what REALLY makes him laugh. Confusing, misleading and manipulating others. He likes the trick.
Humbert wants to deceive and confuse so that the reader, who he charms with phrases like "my educated reader" will see him as a victim of circumstance. He does not want the reader to see that he is a master manipulator. He wants us to see him as a great lover and that his particular love is an infliction so that we will not see he is inadequate to love a woman. He is always going to chose to relive this juvenile love because real love takes something he doesn't have, he is bankrupt of sustaining a relationship. He is unloveable because he chooses himself over the ethical responsibility of loving someone and living in their best interests.