History Characters / Lolita

* HeManWomanHater: Humbert is not aggressively misogynistic, but there still is a undercurrent of it in pretty much all of his thoughts and opinions on women; subtle at some times, and crystal-clear at others. He frequently describes the women he interacts with in condescending and even mocking language, clearly believing them to be less intelligent than him. At frequent points in his narration, it becomes apparent that what really annoys, and at times even outright angers him is when he believes a woman "fails" to act appropriately subservient to him, even in the smallest of ways. Early on, he describes soliciting services from a young sex worker named Monique because she appears to be underage (despite her own protestations to the contrary), but when he later visits her again, he notices that now she is familiar with him, she is beginning to act more confident around him, which immediately turns him off because he sees her confidence as making her appear "older". He reserves especially angry hatred for his ex-wife, because she was the one who left him. When he criticizes Charlotte, it is easy to pick up on the fact that some of his many criticisms are extremely petty and even ridiculous, such as being angry at her for being in a book club, in other words, having an interest outside of him. Even when looking back at his first sexual experience (when he was a thirteen-year-old with a girl his own age), he outright says he's unhappy knowing that the girl he was with a peer and not an inferior.

* MadonnaWhoreComplex: As a hardcore misogynist he believes in this trope about as much as one possibly can. To Humbert there's a massive difference between the pure, innocent, untouched (and virginal) "nymphets" he lusts after and the disgusting, used up women he has to put up with in his day to day life. Even when he's planning to have sex with Dolores, he at first only wants to do it while she's drugged unconscious so she's spared the experience of sex and remains "pure" in his mind. When she sleepily confesses that she's done things with friends from camp, Humbert is stunned and disgusted, even though she passed out before she could elaborate and could've been talking about innocent kisses for all he knows. He winds up pacing around for some time trying to clear up his cognitive dissonance and rationalize a way to put Dolores in the rigid mental category he's decided she belongs in.

* UnreliableNarrator: The entire story is framed as Humbert presenting an account in his defense before a jury during a trial. As such, he frequently lies, exaggerates, leaves out certain details and invent others out of full cloth, all in the name of making himself appear as sympathetic as possible, despite being a murderer and a child groomer and molester. There is also the fact that Humbert admits to have been committed to sanatoriums and mental institutions at several points in his life for "breakdowns" (the nature of which he refuses to elaborate on), implying that, outside everything else, his account might also be colored by the fact that he is not entirely mentally stable. The narrator of the foreword, John Ray Jr., doesn't mince words in his opinion on Humbert, and outright warns the reader against putting too much trust in his account:

* DefiantCaptive: After Humbert functionally abducts her, Dolores is shown to constantly be looking for subtle ways to stage an escape from him, or at least belay his abuse, or even just making attempts at resisting him in general. When Humbert believes they are being followed by a car and write down its license plate number, she erases it in secret. She frequently tries to convince Humbert to go on public outings with other families, and whenever they are in public she makes sure to always attract the attention of strangers, and often brings up the subject of how far she is from home, as if she is trying to make it apparent that there is something very wrong going on, or at least discourage Humbert from trying anything by making sure to have witnesses around. She tells an employee at a hotel gift shop her real last name just as Humbert is about to check in, forcing him to sign the register as Haze to avoid suspicion, thus leaving a trail. She also sometimes fights back physically, as Humbert once gets a remark that he looks like he has a feisty cat at home.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: In the 1962 Kubrick Film, [[spoiler: Where she doesn't die from childbirth and escapes from Humbert and Quilty's sexual abuse.]]

* MeaningfulName: Dolores means "pain", "suffering" or "sorrow" in most Latin-based languages. It is very apt for everything she is forced go through under Humbert.

* DisabledLoveInterest: He is deaf, and probably the only actual love interest Dolores actually has.

* NiceGuy: Dick is probably the only character in the entire cast to who neither manages to harm Dolores nor fail her; in fact, he is by all appearances a very supportive husband, despite being poor. It says a lot that even for as self-serving as Humbert's narration is, even he can't deny that Dick just seems to be a sweet, friendly person with no ill-will toward Dolores.

** Also, [[SchmuckBait try to say]] "Dolores Haze" in the stiff, clipped accent (parroting upper-class speech) which a poorly-educated snobbish woman like Charlotte Haze was supposed to use.

* EndearinglyDorky: Humbert is very distant and aloof with women his own age (mostly because he's so impossibly alluring that if he gives them any positive attention they fall madly in love with him), but when in the presence of Lolita he often finds himself flustered and tongue-tied, but remains rather charming for it. Of course, all these details are according to Humbert himself, including his irresistible allure, so take them with a massive grain of salt.

* BlackSheep: Her brother is the mayor of a small town with squeaky-clean reputation who pays her monthly just to stay away from him.

* BoyfriendBlockingDad: Humbert is a ''really'' sick example of this trope. He bars Dolores from having any kind of romantic relationship and shoots Quilty for taking advantage of her-- but only because he sees Dolores as his personal possession.

* HeelRealization: Has this toward the end of the book, seemingly. After seeing Dolores HappilyMarried with a man who genuinely loves and cares about her, he stops and lists to the reader all the ways normal parents treat their children that he failed to do, and all the times he never tried to connect with her emotionally or comfort her when she needed it. He finally admits that he was a monster who ruined her childhood and she's better off without him. The fact that he then proceeded to go on to write a novel casting her as a FilleFatale and pulling out countless rationalizations to his behavior make it hard to determine how much of this trope really stuck, though.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Humbert fervently believes he's in a great romance story with the fact of his true love being a prepubescent girl he exerts control over simply being a detail. At other times, he believes he's in a story about a good man corrupted by a seductive temptress and who is utterly blameless for his actions. Needless to say, he's very wrong on both counts.

* SmittenTeenageGirl: She originally is this with her crush on Humbert, which makes their relationship all-the-more upsetting. Her initial crush does, however, die a very messy death after the first time Humbert assaults her. Later she develops an even more unhealthy infatuation on Quilty, another pedophile (though this is actually only in Humbert's besotted eyes; in reality, she really just sees Quilty as a way to escape Humbert's clutches).
* SparedByAdaptation: [[spoiler:While she suffers a DeathByChildbirth in both the novel and the 1997 film, there is no mention of her death in the 1962 film.]]
* SpoiledBrat: One consistent problem Humbert has with Lolita is how impossible she is to keep happy, and the narrative often lapses into bitter rants about the large number of gifts, trips, attractions, and allowance money he's forced to give her to keep her satisfied. He portrays her as a spoiled child who knows he's in a tight spot and is milking him for everything he has. [[UnreliableNarrator Outside of that viewpoint,]] she's a deeply traumatized young girl being abused by someone who only wants her for sex, so it's more likely he keeps giving her presents so he can justify claiming sexual favors.

* AgeGapRomance: Her first husband, Dolores's father, was twenty years her senior. Humbert only mentions it as an offhand curiosity and then blows off the subject out of disinterest over the man and what their relationship was like.

* InsaneTrollLogic:

* NeverMyFault: The entire tale is essentially him trying to charm both his jury and the reader and convince them that all the events described in it are not in any way his fault.