''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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149 -
But Humbert's view of Lolita also adds another
tragic dimension to their story, for from the start
it is clear that he does not love her as she is, but
as he sees her, as that fanciful, semi-divine being,
a creation of his own mind (based on one of her qual-
ities, namely her youthful beauty and loveliness), who
comes between him and the real child.
I knew I had fallen in love with Lolita
for ever; but I also knew she would not
be for ever Lolita... The words 'for ever'
referred only to my own passion, to the
eternal Lolita as reflected in my blood
(65-66).
Even on that memorable Sunday
What I had madly possessed was not she,
but my own creation, another, fanciful
Lolita - perhaps, more real than Lolita;
overlapping, encasing her; floating between
me and her, and having no will, no
consciousness -
indeed, no life of her
own.
The child knew nothing. I had done
nothing to her (62).
He has possessed his own creation, more real to
him than the child before him, and the child -a
being apart -
knows nothing. Later, of course, the
child does not remain ignorant, but Humbert's attitude
does not change. In his preoccupation with the
fanciful nymphet in whom he senses and worships and
wants to grasp some mysterious and otherwise unattainable
beauty, Lolita and her soul and wonder
elude
him.
He says he can !' "visualize , Lolita with hallucinational
lucidity"; he says that he is "always 'with
Lolita' as a woman is 'with child'" (107). Craving
to attain the unattainable, he wishes he could "turn