Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lolita, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Perversity, Obsession, and Art
Suburbia and American Consumer Culture
Exile, Homelessness and Road Narratives
Life and Literary Representation
Women, Innocence, and Male Fantasy
Patterns, Memory and Fate
Summary
Analysis
Finishing with his diary, Humbert Humbert complains of the frustration he felt at being so close to Lolita, while remaining unable to sexually possess her. He imagines his desire as a devil who erotically tempts him, then ruins his opportunities. He names the devil “Aubrey McFate,” after a name he has seen in a list of Lolita’s classmates.
Humbert imagines his life as planned out and controlled by invisible forces. This is part of the book’s self-awareness—Humbert seems to have some idea that he might be a fictional character, or at least that the patterns in his life resemble something planned out by a devilish author.
Themes
