Humbert has finally met his end emotionally with the end of the story of Lolita. His greatest fear realized, Lolita escaped his grasps and ventured away from him. This personal tragedy transforms him from the strategic intellectual to a cold hearted man driven by vengeance. He treks backwards from his travels with Lolita to catch up with her and kill his brother for the treacherous act, “A thousand-mile stretch of silk-smooth road separated Kasbeam, where, to the best of my belief, the red fiend had been scheduled to appear for the first time, and fateful Elphinstone which we had reached about a week before Independence Day” (247).

Humbert truly loves his Lolita and his passion for her is what drives him to search for her over the long three years. Without her by his side he grows ever more uneasy “Solitude was corrupting me. I needed company and care” (258). This is due greatly in part to fact that Lolita is virtually the only person that Humbert has any true feelings for and the only person he has been himself towards rather than put up a front.  Once she sends him the letter asking for help he quickly rushes to find her to take her back and away from whatever life she has made for herself. Alas he catches up with her at her new home and begs that she come back “I want you to leave your incidental Dick, and this awful hole, and come to live with me, and die with me, and everything with me” (278). She rejects him and lets him know that there was no way she would ever return to a life with him. This is what destroys Humbert Humbert “I covered my face with my hand and broke into the hottest tears I have ever shed” (279). His love for Lolita has been put into question many times since the beginning of the story but now with its end it is evident that he loved Lolita not the nymphet but the individual at heart.

Lolita has truly developed throughout parts one and two of the story thus far. She has grown from a mere child victim of a sick predator to a cunning young woman capable of manipulation. From the beginning Lolita has been seen as a puppet controlled by Humbert and strung along to whatever he says and does, “From the very beginning of our concourse, I was clever enough to realize that I must secure her complete co-operation in keeping our relations secret, “ (149).

He has forced-fed her the notion that she is in fact better off with him than anyone else, “In plainer words, if we two are found out, you will be analyzed and institutionalized, my pet,” (151). With this in my mind Lolita is attached to Humbert, for better or worse, as they continue on their travels and this is in fact a possible conception for Lolita’s future mind games. She has spent a great deal of time with a master manipulator that in fact she may have learned a trick or two from her stepfather/lover. For it is when they finally settle in Beardsley that we see a new Lolita, a new puppet master. Humbert intends for the two to live like an ordinary family on the surface while they are lovers in secrecy.  Now Lolita is a school girl finally back in the world of society and the more she explores the more she works her way out of Humbert’s clutches. He provides her with allowances like any father would give their child but since he craves his little nymphet he gives her extra money, lets her have a gift, or certain privileges of a teenage girl for her sensual touch, “for sixty-five cents plus the permission to participate in the school play, had Dolly put her inky, chalky, red-knuckled hand under the desk” (198). Lolita has him wrapped around her finger and with every gesture she gains more control that it begins to frighten him, “But I was weak, I was not wise, my schoolgirl nymphet had me in thrall. With the human element dwindling, the passion, the tenderness, and the torture only increased; and of this she took advantage” (183). Lolita controls Humbert with through his insatiable appetite for his little nymphet and this will be his downfall; this will be her key to freedom.

All this time we have seen Humbert Humbert scheme and plot to get Lolita in his clutches. Every day he would dedicate his time to perfecting his plan to steal her away from the world, “My scheme was a marvel of primitive art: I would whizz over to Camp Q, tell Lolita her mother was about to undergo a major operation at an invented hospital, and then keep moving with my sleepy nymphet from inn to inn while her mother got better and better and finally died” (106). The reader sees Humbert as a sick monster that desires nothing more than to consume her and that Lolita is too naïve to realize.

Sadly this is not true not only is Lolita aware of Humbert’s advances but she also embraces it. It is almost as if they both believe they are in fact lovers even though their love is deemed wrong by the rest of the world, “Say, wouldn’t Mother be absolutely mad if she found out we were lovers?” (114). There is in fact more to Lolita than what we all have been made to believe. All this affection that he has given to her has sat inside of her until the moment was right and he stole her away. Lolita, in secret from everyone including Humbert, has developed a love for him that is so strong that there “relationship” is in fact serious, “Fact I’ve been revoltingly unfaithful to you, but it does not matter one bit, because you’ve stopped caring for me, anyway” (112). Although they are different ages their love for each other, although sick and amoral, is almost beautiful. They are almost made for each other, two people driven by lust and impartial to any consequences that may follow.

To most readers Humbert Humbert is seen as a sexual predator who seeks nothing more than to satisfy his lust for Lolita. He is a man viewed simply as possessed by intense cravings but in my opinion he is much more than what mere observations suggest.

He is calm, patient and, strategic not only in his quest for Lolita, but for how he deals with the aspects of everyday life, people, and etc. He always knew how to stay one step ahead of everyone and was delighted in his obvious victory. Take for instance when he registered himself into a sanatorium due to a bout with insanity and found rejuvenation at the expense of the psychiatrists, “I discovered there was an endless source of robust enjoyment in trifling with psychiatrists: cunningly leading them on; never letting them see that you know all the tricks of the trade” (34). Next is to examine how he manages ensure a permanent spot in the home of Charlotte and Lolita. Lolita’s mother confesses her love to Humbert and sees it as his golden ticket to get what he wants, “when Monsieur wants to get the whole damned thing over with as quickly as possible, and Madame gives in with a tolerant smile; then, my reader, the wedding is generally a “quiet” affair” (74). Even though this is her moment of happiness he has such control of everything that it goes exactly how he wants. Another example is when she asks if the two may go on a trip to England and sets her straight on the matter on why he is against going and he should be taken seriously. Humbert holds such a position to her that she drops to her knees, “She said I was her ruler and her god” (91). He holds no true love for this woman and yet she follows his every word.

The story shows the readers, in my opinion, how Humbert is playing a game of chess. He is strategically plotting and making every move in order to get what he wants.  Although he is a sick man on a, morally deemed, horrible mission his genius is admirable.