The true meaning of Stanley Kubrick's 'Lolita'

An analysis of Stanley Kubrick's film 'Lolita'

Stanley Kubrick's film 'Lolita' is about what all of us face as humans. We are all born as animals inclined to follow our desires and emotions. We are taught to suppress our desires and emotions with intelligence, morality, and restraint In short, we are taught to be civilized; however, civilized behavior is not natural or easy for us because it is in conflict with what we really are. This is why no matter how civilized we become we sometimes find ourselves in situations where our emotions or biological urges such as our desire to be loved or accepted, our lusts, anger, fear, depression, jealousies, etc., control us and make us do things that we, in our “right minds,” know are counterproductive to our health, happiness, and the happiness of others. For example:

• You speak your mind even at the expense and hurt of others
• You girlfriend or boyfriend dumps you and you stop eating or you eat too much or contemplate hurting yourself
• Someone cuts in front of you in traffic and you get mad and flip the middle finger
• You are afraid of leaving a job you hate or getting out of a bad relationship
• You have an affair
• You are expecting and you choose to smoke anyway
• You “roll with your emotions”
• You fall in love too fast
• You are overweight, the doctor tells you you’re diabetic, and yet you overeat, especially on Thanksgiving
• You know that he is cheating, yet you can't leave him because you love him

From the day we are born to the day that we die, we are in a constant war with ourselves, with what we would like to be and what we are born to be. Even the life of Jesus Christ exemplified this struggle of principle against the temptations of the flesh.

Humbert is the stereotypical idea of a civilized man: he's disciplined and well-educated; he's British and well-read; he has an English accent. His expertise in translating French poetry reflects his transformation from civilized man to a creature driven by its urges. The French language, which is his specialty, is associated with an emotion that has nothing to do with thinking. 

Lolita is the opposite of Humbert. She’s lives by her appetites, is undisciplined, and primitive relative to Humbert in intelligence. But from the start of the film, she is aware of her power over him and his superior intellect. To symbolize the subordination of intellect to nature, Humbert gives up his teaching position at Beardsley college to pursue his relationship with Lolita.

What’s in a name?

Throughout the film, the names of characters and places play a part in the overall function of the plot: 

• Ms. Haze is immature and confused about her role as a mother to a daughter she views as a rival, starting with Clare Quilty whom she had an affair with and whom Lolita has a crush on, then with Humbert who is infatuated with Lolita herself

• Lolita whose name is French which happens to be type of poetry Humbert likes to read

• Mr. Swine, the manager of the 1st hotel where Humbert and Lolita share the same room

• Clare Quilty whose last name hints at the many identities he assumes throughout the film

• Lolita’s friend Mona whose name is a sexual connotation just by the sound of it

• Ms. Le Bone

• Dick, Lolita’s husband

• Camp Climax

• etc.

Also, Lolita’s nickname in the film is Lo. Considering the fact that all names in this film calls attention to something in each character, the significance of the nickname isn’t random. Lo suggests Lolita’s intellectual development in relation to her potential. All of her decisions come from the way that she feels, her lack of a mature role-model, and a lack of education. In other words, Lo is low because she is deprived of what she needs to develop emotionally, socially, and intellectually. Her mother sees her as a woman and a rival and Humbert takes her out of school to keep her from seeing other boys her age. Lo, in an evolutionary sense, fits the character or any person deprived of the structure, experiences, and knowledge that separates man from animal. Throughout the film, Lolita is taken backwards in development. First, she is deprived of a mature mother to guide her to womanhood; she is treated as an object of desire by Humbert; he, then, deprives her of developing socially by keeping her away from other kids her age; finally, he takes her out of school completely. By the end of the film, both Quilty and Humbert have disappointed her to where she settles for Dick, her husband who also represents his own namesake.

“French Translator”

Humbert’s specialty in translating French poetry to English refers to how he sees Lolita and also to Lolita’s own confusion about what she is. To translate something is to convert or change from one thing to another. This is what Humbert attempts throughout the film with Lolita. Even though he is attracted to her for being the child she is, he also strives throughout the film to make her behave like a woman. Then, he tries reading poetry to her which she thinks is corny. Then, he tries to get her interested in the literature he reads. Then, tries to get her to stay in with him all day instead of participating in activities common with girls her age. Most importantly, he tries to suppress her natural attraction for other men. Lolita’s confusion starts with her own identity in relation to her mother who is just as immature as she is; this confusion then overlaps into her relationship with Humbert and meeting his expectations to act like a grown woman even though she still has the normal needs of girls her age such as being with her peers and having fun.

'Lolita': plot summary

This is a summary of Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film 'Lolita'. 

Lolita is 1962 Comedy/Drama directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring James Mason as a middle-aged man named Humbert Humbert who becomes obsessed with a 13 year old girl named Lolita played by Sue Lyons. The film is based on the book of the same title by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov who also wrote the script. The film’s obvious theme of pedophilia limited the extent to which Kubrick could explore the erotic nature of the relationship between Humbert and Lolita, restrictions that Kubrick would cite later and claim that he would never have made the film had he known how much the censorship board would restrict his vision for Nabokov’s story. Nevertheless, the restrictions imposed on the film probably did more for its lasting appeal to and influence on subsequent generations because of what it left out which has more impact on the imagination. If Kubrick had been able to do this film the way he wanted to do it, this element would have overshadowed the other themes in the film. Other actors of note in this film are Shelley Winters as Lolita’s mother Charlotte Haze and Peter Sellers as Playwright Clare Quilty. 

In proportion to its budget of 2 million dollars, Lolita was a box office success earning more than 9 million dollars. The film earned a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay by Nabokov (1962) and won a Golden Globe for Best Promising Newcomer (Sue Lyons). 

Plot

The opening titles show Humbert’s hands painting Lolita’s toenails. The film begins with Humbert driving to Clare Quilty’s mansion to kill him for stealing Lolita. The rooms are full of junk. Humbert asks Quilty to identify himself but Quilty challenges him to a game of ping pong. Humbert puts on gloves and asks Quilty if he remembers a girl named Delores Haze as he draws a pistol. Quilty jokes as though unaware of the danger he is in. 

Humbert asks Quilty if he understands the situation, then hands him a letter explaining why he is shooting him. Quilty starts to read it but Humbert snatches it away. Quilty—still acting goofy— challenges Humbert to a boxing match; Humbert shoots Quilty’s hand. Quilty seems surprised and runs to the piano before making a break for the staircase. 

Humbert shoots him in the leg. Quilty is still blabbering nonsense. Humbert follows him up the stairs. Quilty hides behind a painting and Humbert fires multiple shots through the painting. 

Four years earlier (Humbert narrates)

He’d made some English translations of French poetry and had been invited to a professorship at Beardsley College, Ohio in the fall. Some friends referred him to a home in Ramsdale, New Hampshire where he could stay the summer. The woman of the house gives him a tour. She also happens chair a book committee and once had a playwright named Clare Quilty as a guest speaker. She shows him the artwork in her bedroom and asks him if he is married; he says no. Her dead husband, Harold, worked in insurance and she shows him the urn containing his ashes. Humbert is not impressed by her or her home and, out of politeness, asks for her number so that he can think it over. She shows him her garden and when she opens the doors, Lolita is stretched out on the lawn reading a book. She pulls the lollipop out of her mouth and peeks over her sunglasses. Humbert is transfixed. He asks when he can move in. Ms. Haze asks him what changed his mind. Her cherry pies, he says. 

Montage:

• Humbert, Charlotte and Lolita go to a drive-in to see the Mummy. At a scary part, Lolita instinctively squeezes his hand, he squeezes hers, and Charlotte squeezes Lolitas’ hand thinking it is his
• Humbert and Charlotte are playing chess and he’s positioned to take her queen. Lolita interrupts and kisses them goodnight
• Lolita hola-hooping as he watches her with a smile

They attend a summer dance at Lolita’s school. She introduces a young man named Kenny to Charlotte and Humbert. Charlotte tells Humbert that Kenny may ask Lolita to go steady tonight. Humbert is disappointed. Jean and John greet Charlotte and Humbert. Their daughter, Mona, and Lolita are close friends. John and Charlotte leave to go dance. 

Jean tells Humbert that Charlotte has a glow that she’s never had before. She adds that she and John are very broad-minded. They are sending Mona to Camp Climax. Humbert is distracted but by Lolita and Kenny who are dancing together. Playwright Clare Quilty and a sexy woman are dancing and when Charlotte sees him she runs up to dance with him.  They talk afterwards and she whispers something in his ear. He asks about Lolita.

Charlotte finds Humbert in the balcony with a bird’s eye view of the Lolita and Kenny below. Later at home, Humbert voices concern over Charlotte allowing Lolita stay out late with Kenny. Charlotte puts on some music but Humbert doesn’t want to dance. He gives in, reluctantly. Lolita interrupts them. She didn’t like Mona’s party and left early. Humbert is pleased. 

He fixes her a sandwich with lots of mayonnaise the way she likes it. Lolita gets smart with Charlotte who sends her to bed. Charlotte calms down and wants to stay up but Humbert is tired and retires to bed. Charlotte sobs. 

Humbert writes in his diary about Lolita. Charlotte fusses with Lolita about her eating habits and her messy room. She sends Lolita up to Humbert’s room with a tray of food. There, she eats all of his bacon and starts on his toast. He puts his diary away and when she asks what’s in it he tells her poetry. He reads a verse from a book by Edgar Allen Poe but she thinks it is corny. She whispers something in his ear. Then, she hand-feeds him his omelet. Charlotte tells Lolita to come downstairs and reprimands her for disturbing Humbert. 

Charlotte surprises Humbert with good news;  she’s sending Lolita away to Camp Climax! Humbert cries all that night and wakes up in time to look out his window and see Lolita putting her luggage in the car. She runs upstairs to kiss him and tell him that she will miss him. After she leaves, the maid brings him a letter from Charlotte proposing marriage. Humbert laughs. 

They get married and Charlotte wants to be with him constantly. He has to lock himself in the bathroom to write in his diary. He admits to feeling some remorse for having to sneak around Charlotte to be near Lolita. Charlotte knocks on the door for him to come out. He asks for a cup of coffee and when she leaves he sneaks out the bathroom with his diary. She appears with his coffee as he is putting it in his desk drawer. 

She asks him if he believes in God. “Does God believe in me?” he says ironically.

She shows him Harold’s gun and threatens to kill herself if he doesn’t believe in God. He sweet-talks her to put the gun down. She tells him that she has decided to rent Lolita’s room and send her straight to boarding school and then straight to college. Humbert is devastated. The phone rings and Charlotte answers it. It’s Lolita, she says and Humbert becomes alert. 

Lolita lost her new sweater and also wants to thank Humbert for sending her candy. Charlotte reprimands Humbert for doing this and he complains of her bossiness causing Charlotte to leave the bedroom. 

Humbert picks up Harry’s gun. Moments ago, she told him that the pistol wasn't loaded; it was! If, in playing a game with her, he shot her it would seem like an accident. The perfect murder! But at the last moment his conscience bothers him and he doesn’t go through with it. He hears water running but she isn’t in the bathroom. He finds her in his room, at his desk, reading his diary! She hits him with it. He tries to explain but she locks herself in the bedroom. He goes downstairs to fix them a drink. 

She clutches the urn containing Harold’s ashes. Meanwhile, Humbert is downstairs mixing their drinks and piecing together his alibi for what she read in his diary. The phone rings and he answers it. Someone tells him that Charlotte has been hit by a car. Humbert runs outside and sees his wife in the streets. The driver of the car that hit her told him that she ran in front of his car. 

Jean and John stop by to console Humbert while he is taking a bath. He says nothing so they assume he is in shock. They recall fond memories of Charlotte and then see the pistol laying on his towel. They try to talk him out of killing himself. John tells him that Charlotte had Nephritis (a bad kidney) and didn’t have long to live anyway.  Mr. Beale, the father of the man who drove the car that struck Charlotte, comes in the bathroom apologizing and insisting that his son isn’t responsible for Charlotte’s death. Humbert says nothing. Mr. Beale offers to pay for Charlotte’s funeral.

Humbert drives up to Camp Climax to get Lolita. She asks about her mother and he says that she is sick and in the hospital. He missed Lolita over the summer but she didn’t miss him and had been unfaithful. 

Quilty and his lady-friend are in a hotel chatting with Mr. Swine and making veiled references to sex. Humbert and Lolita arrive at this same hotel later. The hotel is overbooked because of the Police convention and Humbert and Lolita are rented a 1 bed suite. Humbert leaves Lolita in the room to go get a cot for himself to sleep on. He goes out on the patio and Clare Quilty is there with his back turned to hide his identity. He pretends to be a cop and asks Humbert about Lolita and the single-bed in the room they are sharing.

Later, the Black porter brings the cot up to Humbert’s room and they set it up without waking Lolita. But when porter leaves, Humbert tries to sneak in bed with Lolita but she wakes up and he ends up sleeping on the cot. She wakes him up the next morning and they talk about the games she’d learned at Camp Climax. She shows him the game that she played with a boy named Roy who worked there.  

On the road, he tells her that they won’t make it to Leppingsville because of their late start. She wants to call her mother and keeps bugging him until he tells her her mother is dead. Lolita laughs at first until he tells her again.

She pours out her grief in their motel room. Humbert is sitting by her dressed in black. They will be happy, he says, and begs her to stop crying. They’ll find a new home at Beardsley. She makes him promise not to leave her and he does. 

Humbert completes his 2nd semester at Beardsley. At home, he paints her toenails and chides her for staying out late; school lets out at 3 but she didn’t arrive home until 6. He was driving his car and saw her and Michelle in an ice cream parlor with 2 boys. Michelle looks at him funny and he doesn’t want Lolita seeing her so much.

Lolita wants to be in the school play which Clare Quilty co-wrote. Humbert doesn’t like this idea because there are boys in the play. They argue.

He arrives home one day to find the high school psychologist already waiting. Clare Quilty has taken the identity of Dr. Zemph and wants to know if any one has schooled Lolita on the facts of life. He is concerned about Lolita’s behavior and believes that she is suffering from acute suppression of her libido. He wants the district psychologist with the board of education to visit Humbert’s home to investigate.

Humbert is against this idea, however, and Dr. Zemph tells him to let Lolita take part in more school activities, particularly, the school play; this would discourage his colleagues from getting involved. Humber goes along with Dr. Zemph’s suggestion.

Play:

Humbert watches the play from backstage. The drama teacher chats with him about Lolita. The attractive woman commends him on suspending Lolita’s piano lessons the past 4 weeks. Humbert is upset and surprised at hearing this.

He takes Lolita home and demands to know where she was when she was supposed to be taking her piano lessons. She tells him that she had been taking extra rehearsals for the play. Humbert accuses her of lying and wants to take her out of school and leave Beardsley tonight. Besides, she can get a much better education with him.

She objects and her outburst brings a neighbor named Ms. LeBone over claiming that she can hear everything and that the other neighbors are starting to think about him and Lolita. Lolita leaves while Humbert and Ms. LeBone are talking. 

Humbert sees Lolita leaving a phone booth and accuses her of talking to a boy but she was actually trying to call him to let him know that he’s right about her leaving school. Besides, she hates that school and the play anyhow. Humbert is happy hearing her say this. They leave Beardsley. 

He notices a car following them in his rear view mirror. He stops at a gas station. Looking out the bathroom window, he sees Lolita talking to a man in a car and asks her what the man said to her.  They argue. A tire blows out and as they are stopped, Humbert sees a car stop behind them and thinks it’s the police. He complains about pain in his left arm and Lolita tells him she believes that he’s having a heart attack. The car behind them turns around and drives away. 

Lolita doesn’t feel well and believes that she’s coming down with something. Humbert takes her to the hospital and leaves her overnight. He visits her the next day to give her some books. She is feeling better but he becomes suspicious when he finds a pair of sunglasses and love letters on her tray; the letters belong to the nurse who takes them and leaves the room. Humbert wants to take Lolita home but the doctor wants her to stay in the hospital another 48 hours. The nurse sticks her head in the room to ask Humbert to move his car to the visitor’s parking lot. Humbert leaves. 

The telephone wakes Humbert up in his hotel room. Clare Quilty posing as a cop asks Humbert if he has seen a psychiatrist. Quilty requests a report on Humbert’s sex life. Humbert hangs up the phone. His face is clammy; his cold is getting worse. 

The next morning he stops by the hospital to get Lolita but she’s already gone. He doesn’t believe the nurse and becomes irate. The staff wrestle him to the floor and call for the straitjacket. They tell him that her uncle came to pick her up. He calms down when they threaten to call the police. They pick him up and escort him from the hospital. 

3 years later: 

Lolita types Humbert a letter calling him Dad. She’s now married and expecting. She and Dick, her husband, need some money to get out of debt. 

Humbert drives to see Lolita and Dick. She answers the door in a maternity blouse and offers him coffee and a drink but he refuses. Dick thinks Humbert is her stepfather. They met a year ago when she worked as a waitress. Humbert wants to know who took her from him. She won’t say at first but eventually gives in— it was Clare Quilty! 

She’d had a crush on Quilty for a long time going back to when he dated her mother. She wanted to be in the play at Beardsley because she wanted to be near Clare who wrote the play; she really loved him. And when she skipped piano lessons, she was actually with him. He took her from the hospital to a dude ranch in New Mexico to make an “art” movie and when she refused to participate he kicked her out. 

Humbert meets Dick who was working on the garage. He and Lolita sit together on the bed, she between his legs, both drinking a beer. They tell Humbert they plan to move to Alaska. Alaska is a great place to raise their children. Dick calls Humbert Dad and leaves. 

Humbert takes Lolita to the door, pleading with her to run away with him but she won’t leave Dick for anything in the world. Humbert breaks down then gives her 13,000.00 with no strings attached. With Harold’s gun in his pocket, he leaves Lolita and drives to Clare Quilty’s mansion. The end.