The Haunting of Clarence

    

   After finally finishing Lolita, I questioned why Clarence was so important over the span of the book. Clarence was mentioned multiple times by Humbert in either subtle or obvious ways. I wondered why he constantly kept referring to Clarence while telling his story of his love for Lolita. Then I finally decided that I knew why; it was because Humbert went mad after killing Clarence. Nabokov purposely made Humbert write his story this way to manipulate the audience. Humbert began writing this story about Lolita after all of the events that took place in to book happened. He constantly refers to Clarence by either speaking directly to him or telling the audience about him.

      After I had learned that Humbert had killed Clarence, it made more sense to me. Humbert was desperately in love with Lolita. The fact that Lolita did not love Humbert the same, but instead loved Clarence, killed him inside. His love in turn led him to murder Clarence. After killing Clarence, Humbert realized how wrong he had been all along. He realized that he took away a young girls innocence and hi love for her led him to kill another man similar to himself. Humbert could not live with this fact; it drove him mad. The idea of killing Clarence haunted him and he could not escape the thought of Clarence. Through this, Humbert constantly referred to Clarence in the book because he could not stop thinking about how his love for Lolita led him to kill.