Humbert the Child

Humbert Humbert is nothing but a child. I think there is rarely a time throughout the book that we see Humbert step up and be a man. Everything about him is childlike.

First off, he is completely stuck in the past. He cannot get over a childhood love. So, he continues to prey on little girls in some demented way to regain the innocent love he had. However, it is not so innocent anymore seeing as to now he is in his 30s. It is not longer appropriate to date 12 year olds. Also, Humbert can't even step up in this relationship. Lolita has to be the grown-up. He sits back, watches and waits for things to happen. Like a kid. Lolita is the one to be--in some twisted way--the mature one and make the first move.

Secondly, what job does Humbert Humbert have? None that we know of. Especially since he went touring America with Lolita there was obviously no job holding him back. We know that he went to college, but I feel he spent most of college still chasing after his precious nymphs, like Monique. 

Thirdly, although this may not be the way children handle things, he kills Clare Quilty. He has no other mature way to handle the situation. He just goes out and kills him. I feel like he puts no thought into consequences just as a child would not.

Another point would be the way he handled Charlotte Haze's obsession. Haze quite obviously had a huge crush on HH and he ignored her. He ignored her just as a 12 year old boy would when an annoying girl swoons over him. If Humbert were an adult, he would have acted more appropriately. He could have confronted her and said he doesn’t like her. (Obviously this would make the book a lot less interesting and he would never become Lolita’s creepy Step-father, but hey maybe this whole creepy book could have been avoided.) An adult would have played the situation better.