Lolita

Most Controversial and Hated Characters Ever (85 items)
list by Agent Kermit D. Fonz

Lolita is the object of Humbert's love, a young girl who epitomizes the seductive qualities of the nymphet. Though she seems to like Humbert at first, over time she grows irritated with him and defies his authority. Beautiful, she is also vulgar, crude, and attached to popular culture.

Although the name Lolita has become synonymous with underage sexpot, Nabokov's Lolita is simply a stubborn child. She is neither very beautiful nor particularly charming, and Humbert often remarks on her skinny arms, freckles, vulgar language, and unladylike behaviour. Lolita attracts the depraved Humbert not because she is precocious or beautiful, but because she is a nymphet, Humberts ideal combination of childishness and the first blushes of womanhood. To non-paedophiles, Lolita would be a rather ordinary twelve-year-old girl. Her ordinariness is a constant source of frustration for Humbert, and she consistently thwarts his attempts to educate her and make her more sophisticated. She adores popular culture, enjoys mingling freely with other people, and, like most prepubescent girls, and has a tendency toward the dramatic. However, when she shouts and rebels against Humbert, she exhibits more than the frustration of an ordinary adolescent: she clearly feels trapped by her arrangement with Humbert, but she is powerless to extricate herself.