Humbert Humbert: A Tragic Hero?

Since the beginning of the novel it has been quite clear that Humbert Humbert lacks the ability to distinguish between love and possession. He believes that to love someone is to possess them. He sees to feel that both love and possession cannot be separate forces. This logic is what drives Humbert Humbert to love Dolores Haze, and essentially possess her as his own. As his love for her grows, he becomes more possessive and obsessive of her. From the moment he sets eyes on her, he calls her my Lolita. (40)
This can be seen as Humbert Humbert's tragic flaw. A tragic hero is an individual who has great potential but eventually a tragic flaw leads to his or her downfall. The idea of Humbert Humbert being a tragic hero sounds ridiculous from the start. However, his scenarios is ironically altogether fitting. Because Humbert Humbert loves Lolita, he strives to possess her. As he does this, he becomes more controlling and understand Dolores less and less. As their relationship continues, it gets more strained. The more he tries to possess Lolita, the more he drives her away. In the end, he fails to possess her and, blinded by love, he kills Quilty. He loses Lolita forever and ends up in prison, alone.
Humbert Humbert's ties between love and possession originated in his childhood. His first love was Annabel, and in this relationship, he begins to show signs of this confusion, “All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other's soul and flesh.” (12) From this point forth, Humbert Humbert would only love through possession.
When Humbert Humbert first encounters Dolores Haze, he immediately falls for her. He becomes obsessed with her from the onset. He has names of affection for her, watches her every move, and writes about her in his is diary. He refers to her as “L., my darling, my sweetheart, Lo, my life, my bride.” (42, 47) Humbert Humbert clearly believes that Dolores is his, and his only. He has not professed his love to her, yet he considers her his bride. He obsesses over every part of her, from her skin to the way she moves.
After Charlotte dies, Humbert Humbert begins to move in on his Lolita. Now with Charlotte out of the way, he had Lo all to himself. In one of his schemes to possess her, Humbert Humbert rented a hotel where he drugged her so that he may fondle her. The strange thing in this act is that he never actually has sex with her while she is under this drug. He only dreams of examining her body. Is this because he genuinely loves her and wishes to keep her purity unharmed? However, this love is bound to turn into possession, for that is how, Humbert Humbert believes, loving someone is supposed to be.
As Humbert Humbert and Lolita's sexual relationship continues, Lolita becomes unsure of what to do. Due to her age, she does not understand what is taking place and even refers to it as incest (119) and rape (141). In his desire to possess her, Humbert Humbert becomes less and less understanding of Dolores and her incapacity to understand the emotions between them. He refers to her changing behavior as moods, “Somewhere at the bottom of that dark turmoil I felt the writhing of desire again, so monstrous was my appetite for that miserable nymphet... her mood might prevent me from making love to her again as soon as I found a nice country road where to park in peace.” (140) He does not realize or acknowledge that it might be hard for Dolores to comprehend this relationship with an adult who is supposed to be her stepfather. He overlooks the fact that she is mourning her mother's death, also.
Humbert Humbert and Lolita continue to travel, and as they do so, Humbert Humbert realizes that he must keep Lolita under his control, “I was clever enough to realize that I must secure her complete co-operation in keeping our relations secret...” (149) He only allows her to play with a few girls her own age, but forbids her to to interact with any boys. In order to ensure that Dolores does not accuse him of rape, Humbert Humbert constantly tells Dolores that she has nobody else besides him. He slyly threatens her by telling her that she will be placed in a correctional school, the reformatory, or the juvenile detention center, if she tells people about their relationship. (149-151) He knows exactly what he is doing “By rubbing all this in, I succeeded in terrorizing Lo...” (151)
As their relationship continues, Dolores gets more sullen. In his attempt to have her as his own, Humbert Humbert puts his own desires before hers. She cries every night and he pretends to sleep. Later, he only gives her allowance if she performs sexual favors for him. He then steals the money back because he fears that she might use her cash to run away from him, “What I feared most was not that she might ruin me, but that she might accumulate sufficient cash to run away.” (185)
These actions are what eventually lead to the demise of Dolores' and Humbert Humbert's relationship. He loses Dolores in his attempt to fully control her and have her has his own. It was the only way he knew how to love his Lolita.
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