Short Focused Paper

Humbert as Vampire

On page 138-9 of Lolita, Humbert is describing Lolita sitting in a “blood-red armchair” and says, “Nothing could have been more childish than her snubbed nose, freckled face or the purplish spot on her naked neck where a fairytale vampire had feasted…”. (Nabokov, 138-9) He is watching a manifestation of Clare Quilty watch Lolita and talking about how innocent Lo looks. Ironically, this moment occurs the morning after the first sexual encounter between Humbert and Lolita, at The Enchanted Hunters. I fail to see how the imagery of a vampire feasting can perceived as innocent. Humbert sees Lolita as food for his “secret delectation”. (Nabokov, 125) When he attempts to satisfy his hunger; he kills Lolita’s childhood, just as a vampire kills the mortal they feed upon to appease their hunger. Neither Humbert nor the vampire can quench their endless hunger for more than a moment.

Humbert describes himself as, “Pathetic-because despite the insatiable fire of my venereal appetite, I intended, with the most fervent force and foresight, to protect the purity of that twelve-year-old child”. (Nabokov, 63) His hunger for Lolita overcomes his intention to protect her purity. The vampire’s hunger is also all consuming and overcomes all logic, reason, and rational objectives. The hunger devours both the victim and the one feasting at the same time.

Humbert’s vampire-like nature is also exposed when he tastes the blood on her nose when he is trying to seduce her. (Nabokov, 240) His hunger to possess her clouds his judgment as an adult and her ‘guardian’, especially since it is his intention to protect and keep her forever, like a husband promises to a wife during the marriage ceremony. He almost cannot see how sick Lolita is, eventually his rational mind pushes through his lust and he takes her to the Elphinstone hospital. He tastes her blood, like a vampire tastes the blood of his victim. In that moment, he gains knowledge. He understands that Lo is truly ill. In vampire lore, when a vampire tastes the blood of a human, the vampire is often able to ‘see’ and ‘know’ things about the person. They can taste disease, malevolence, and purity in the blood. Metaphorically, Humbert does the same; the taste of Lolita’s blood gives him knowledge beyond what had penetrated his hunger up until that point.

According to the mythology of vampires, they are considered to be monsters. Humbert is also a monster. One cannot read the novel and not think Humbert is a monster; he feeds on Lolita’s innocence, and kills her childhood. Both Humbert and vampires prey on human beings. It is because their prey is humankind that makes them monsters in the eyes of others. If either one fed on another type of life form, then they might be perceived as strange but probably not monsters. They are the ‘other’ that we do not understand and thus we fear them. Throughout history, the ‘other’ has always been something to fear, whether that ‘other’ is a monster or not. An example of this is the reaction the Europeans had when they encountered the Native Americans.
Humbert is a human vampire. He is so consumed by his desire and hunger for Lolita that he destroys both their lives. His entire existence is centered on that hunger. Vampire’s existence also centers on feeding their hunger for blood, to the exclusion of all else. Nothing in the world matters beyond feeding the desire and satiating the hunger, if only for a moment. Hunbert does not control his appetite for nymphets, bringing him across the line, from man into monster. Once he becomes a monster, we then look for a name to call our newly ‘born’ monster. Looking to monster lore, the vampire fits Humbert more than only other monster figure. Vampires are sexual predators and so is Humbert. They both feed their desires on the innocent, making Humbert a human vampire.