Lolita and Red
After reading through "Lolita", and each time finding something new and interesting, a thought came to mind right away, while reading the novel comes back. There are quite a few similarities between Lolita and Red Riding Hod. For years there have been speculation the Red had a type of "daddy complex", that is why her cape was red, why she acted so foolishly with the wolf. While reding "Lolita", there are many times where this same "Daddy complex" comes to mind. Lilita is more than wiling to go along with HUmbert on their little trip to 342 different hotels. Lolita wants male attention and that is very clear while reading with how she constantly tries for Humberts attention. Not that she must try hard, but there are some interesting undertones of whatLolita really wants from HUmbert. The one thing that sat all these thought off was the color red. Right after Humbert and Lolita are intimate or the first time, the word red seems to be very prominent when HUmbert is describing situations and conversations he and Lolita are in.
When HUmbert is describing Lolita sitting in the lobby, "in an overstufed blood-red armchair,"(138), he is stil having thoughts of what he and Lolita had done the previous night. It seems that whenever the color Red is written down, there are strong sexual undertones. it is known that the color Red always seems to beused in the same light of seduction, sensual hapenings, and i sthe most emotionally intense color. With all the little meanings Nabokov has all over his work, it seems very fitting that he chose to use the color Red to give the reader just that much more intense , sexual , and even emotional feeling, since that color is seen in the world as encompassing all those things.
After thinking more about red, one has to wonder if maybe Nabokov could have gotten ideas to write Lolita from Litle Red Riding Hood. Its obvious that throughout the book ther are hints of fairy tales; the way all the places they go to, that are worth being mentioned by Humbert, have names that fit the situation too well. For example, the very first hotel where HUmbert and Lolita are intimate is called the Enchanted HUnters. Isnt the wolf a hunter in the forest that Red is walking through? HUmbert describes himself as such an animal and beast, and even calls himself a beast throughout the story, couldnt he be the wolf? The predators in both stories are prying on young, seemingly innocent young girls. But how inocent is Little Red? And how innocent is Lolita?
After Humbert and Lolita are intimate, HUmbert is very aware that he was not Lolita's first sexual experience and soon after, learns about her first sexual experience. Lolita having these types of experiences and knowing what happens between men and women, seems to almost want Humbert to take her innocense away. She is well aware of what she does to him, granted he shouldnt take anything she does too seriously because of her age. But it seems as though Lolita wants to be grown up, she wants to be a woman, and wants the attention she recieves from HUmbert. Lolita wants to be part of the "grown up world". Lolita is constantly trying to be around her mother and doing things with her mother that would represent her as a more mature older girl. And Charlotte see's this in her daughter therefore wants to separate HUmbert and Lolita. Lolita is what the color red is, sexual, emotionally intense, and seducing. It is only fiting that Nabokov uses this color throughout the novel.
