Dolly’s Return
Dolly’s Return
In my reading of Lolita thus far (I’m not quite done with the second part yet) two scenes seem to present themselves as extremely important and interesting, and both involve Lolita reverting to Dolly in resistance. As we have discussed, it seems HH needs to invent a totally new person, fully separate from Dolores Haze, to validate his actions towards her. Lolita, the name he invented for her, is a person that, in effect, he controls; and as he is the only person who can love her (witness his anger if she dares flirt with boys her age) then he becomes her de facto protector. Dolores Haze, alternatively, is a person with a history, and not of HH’s invention—in this sense, she is out of his control.
The first scene of Dolly/Lolita’s rebellion comes as HH has discovered he has a flat, while he is being followed by his stalker. HH pulls over the car, and the follower-car does likewise. Lolita remains inside the car. As he has been suspicious of the person following them for some time, HH decides to confront him, to ask him for a jack, and find out who he is. While approaching the gray car, HH notices his car begin to move. He rushes over, and Dolly/Lolita says the car had begun to move all on its own, but now she has stopped it. HH is stuck, as he cannot outright know if she is lying, but suspects that she is, as his rushing back to his own car has allowed the other car time to pull away.
The second scene of rebellion occurs on the tennis court. HH has been called away from his tennis match with Lolita to receive a call from inside the hotel. This bothers him, as he enjoys watching Lo play tennis, seeing the nymphet in her more fully pronounced during tennis matches. HH leaves, to be told that a call from Beardsley School has been made long-distance to him. This is preposterous, though, as the school would have no way to know where he is. Upon investigation, he finds that a local call, not a long distance call, was received. He returns outside, suspicious, to find Dolly playing doubles with the man from the gray car and two other people. As HH enters the court area, the man flees.
Both of these scenes show HH in a compromised position, as Dolly begins to take control, ever so slightly, of a situation he so carefully crafted in which she is supposed to be at his will and mercy. Even more so, these scenes show a Dolly who has rejected the “Lolita” name: she is returning to a person that HH has not invented, and in so doing, is rejecting his plan and even purposefully beginning to harm his plan. HH has tried to make Lolita both amorous lover and obedient child, yet at points of rebellion such as these, Dolly indicates that neither suit her—that she does not want to be both his object of love and his obedient follower. She claims her personhood, and seems to throw off the Lolita identity.
