Title
The adventures of Humbert the pedophile and Lolita the hobbledehoy continue on the road with souvenirs, countless inns, a brief intermission at Beardsley, and a doppelganger identified as Trapp. And how appropriate is it that an Aztec red convertible haunts H.H.? It parallels his incandescent lust; moreover, it seems that red—commonly used to represent anything in the portfolio labeled “Sin”—makes frequent appearances in the book.
Humbert devises a strategy to maintain Lolita’s compliance in his sexual endeavors; if he goes to jail, she will “become the ward of the Department of Public Welfare” and “A nice grim matron… will take away [her] lipstick and fancy clothes.” H.H. has this power and he also has financial power over his nymphet; however, this power is unstable and shifts back and forth between the nymphetoholic and the nymphet. Delores Haze understands that her part of the bargain consist entirely of sating H.H.’s sexual cravings. She raises the price for her consent in his fantasy and, in exchange for permission to participate in a play, fondles H.H. in a classroom—“…I sat beside Dolly just behind that neck and that hair, and unbuttoned my overcoat and for sixty-five cents plus the permission to participate in the school play, had Dolly put her inky, chalky, red- knuckled hand under the desk.” Sixty-five cents was a lot back then. Despite her bargaining, H.H. remains as aggressive to her as he was to his wife in the first segment of the book; this said, he also had physical power over Lola—“I said nothing. I pushed her softness back into the room and went in after her. I ripped her shirt off. I unzipped the rest of her. I tore off her sandals.” He also, in a scuffle, twists and hurts her arm and, while in the car, slaps her in the face. H.H., in his strict, overbearing guardianship of his nymphet, desperately tries to extract information from Lolita regarding her interactions with males of all sorts. He grows indignant, abuses her, and retraces her steps to insure the accuracy of her truth. He fears that she will come into contact with someone who is exactly like him.
