the concern about the potential negative effects on the child. Humbert Humbert particularly also shows more aggressive desire towards Lolita. He takes every
opportunity he has to molest, fondle or kiss Lolita. Gently I pressed my quivering sting along her rolling salty eyeball. “Goody-
goody,’ she said nictating. “It
is
gone” “Now the other?” “You dope,” she began, “there is noth−“ but she notice the pucker of my approaching lips.
“Okay,” she said co-operatively, and bending toward her warm upturned russet face somber Humbert pressed his mouth to her fluttering eyelid. She
laughed and brushed past me out of the room. My heart seemed everywhere
at once. Never in my life−not even when fondling my child-love in France−never− Nabokov, 1997:43-44
When Humbert Humbert is asked by Lolita to blow something off of her eyes, instead of blow it off Humbert Humbert takes this opp
ortunity to lick Lolita’s eyeball. Anytime Humbert Humbert has an opportunity to have a physical contact
with Lolita in any kind, he will take his chance to derive some pleasure from it. Any kind of physical contact such as caressing, fondling, and kissing is sufficient for
Humbert Humbert since such preliminary sexual acts can satisfy his aberrant lust. Now, after all of the aberrant sexual inclination and also the characteristics of
pedophilia has been explained, it will not be adequate only to discuss its characteristics and development without discussing its relation with imbalance
personality as the manifestation of the aberrant sexuality.
B. Humbert Humbert’s Imbalance Personality and Its Relation with His
Aberrant Sexuality
If one is discussing sexuality in the psychoanalytical point of view, it is impossible to disregard the important role of the id. To discuss sexual life is to
discuss the seeking of pleasure, and obviously it is under the control of the id from which all of these forces originate. Moreover, when the sexuality that we are
discussing is a ‘singular’ case, to which society still condemn its manifestation as a
fatal crime, one cannot expect to see that a normal transaction between the id and the external world to attain the pleasure will occur. After revealing its symptomatic
inclination and its characteristics, a thorough comprehension of the work of the forces of pedophile individuals wherein they are psychologically driven to attain its
demand of immediate discharge or tension-reduction of their urge regardless the means and its immoral manifestation is also needed.
When a person is driven by hisher needs to find the outlet of hisher repressed desire, in order to find pleasure and release the pain of the tension, one will try to
find the adequate and appropriate action to satisfy hisher needs in acceptable ways if heshe is a person with well-developed personality. However, a person with
disturbed personality will not understand the difference between right or wrong, decent or indecent, appropriate or inappropriate, and virtuous or immoral as long as
hisher need can be satisfied. Moreover, a person whose personality disturbed sometimes tends to desire particular things which is unacceptable in society.
Humbert Humbert constitutes a good example of a man with disturbed personality which is manifested in his aberrant sexuality. His aberrant desire forces
him to find the outlet to gratify his needs and effectively gain some pleasure and release the tension. However, it is impossible for an aberrant desire to find adequate
and morally acceptable means to gain some pleasure without breaking the social values. Thus, disregarding all norms and society’s values is the only way satisfy
hisher needs. Humbert Humbert, however, does not really care about the social norms and moral values.
“At other times I would tell myself that it was all a question of attitude, that there was really nothing wrong in being moved to distraction by
girl- children” Nabokov, 1997:19. Humbert Humbert always tries to vindicate his
aberrant desire even though it is morally wrong. It proves that his super-ego is overpowered by his id. As we have discussed, his super-ego is particularly not well-
developed since he does not undergo Oedipus complex. That is why his id takes the dominant role in his psychic process. In another occasion, he states:
I felt proud of myself. I had stolen the honey of the spasm without impairing the morals of a minor. Absolutely no harm done. The conjurer had poured
milk, molasses, foaming champagne into a young lady’s new white purse; and lo, the purse was intact. Nabokov, 1997:62
This statement is made after Humbert Humbert’s first successful attempt to have a sexual contact with Lolita in the scene
which is known as the ‘davenport scene’. Humbert Humbert again declares his vindication that he did no harm in
doing such a conduct, he simply gives Lolita a new ‘experience’ which does not affect her purse and even she gets a new one which we can assume as her purity or
probably refers to her genital organ. This self-opinionated statement which is actually his justified declaration shows his id domination which shows no feeling
of guilt even after conducting such an immoral offense to gratify his needs. It is another proof of this boundless egoism. He does not care at all about the impact of
his conduct as long as he can derive sexual gratification.
