''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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or to hold her on his knee (49). There comes a Sunday
on which he achieves what he has been longing for,
on which, alone with her in the house and ostensibly
fooling around with her, he "solipsizes" her, as he
puts it, experiences paradise, ecstasy, without her
being aware of it (Ch. 13). His hope of repeating this
performance is thwarted, for Lolita is sent away to a
summer camp, and all his other schemes, too, seem to
miscarry hopelessly: He marries unloved Charlotte Haze,
for in his exasperation on reading her love letter it
suddenly dawns on him that, if he can bring himself
to. do this, he will be able to bestow on Lolita with
impunity and quite naturally "all the casual caresses"
that he longs for and does not dare to bestow on her
now. "I would hold her against me three times a day,
every day. All my troubles would be expelled, I would
be a healthy man. " His fancy carries him well beyond
those "casual caresses", though at one point he stops
himself: "No, I would not go that far" (70-71). It
must appear to him as a terribly ironic move when,
after he has committed himself with his own very
special end in mind, Charlotte decides: "Little Lo
goes straight from camp to a good boarding school
with strict discipline and some sound religious
training. And then - Beardsley College. I have it all
mapped out, you need not worry" (83). Of course he
does worry. He even plans the perfect murder by which
to remove Charlotte, but cannot bring himself to put
it into action.
It is here that fate interferes and takes over