When Humbert finally gets his hands on Lolita, he’s randy but also conflicted, hesitant and guilty. We crucially discover she’s no longer a virgin, having already slept with a boy at summer camp. She’s presented, at least by our unreliable narrator, as unsympathetic – pushy, confident, manipulative and precocious – and because this is the behaviour we’re shown, it’s what we’ll subconsciously and emotionally respond to. Lolita comes to dominate Humbert before deciding to run off with a far more despicable man, Clare Quilty.
