To describe Lolita and other alluring young girls, Humbert coins the word “nymphet.” The word has two derivations: the first from the Greek and Roman nature spirits, who were usually pictured as beautiful maidens dwelling in mountains, waters, and forests; the second from the entomologist’s term for the young of an insect undergoing incomplete metamorphosis. Note the book’s numerous allusions to fairy tales and spells; the proliferation of names like “Elphinstone,” “Pisky,” and “The Enchanted Hunters,” as well as Humbert’s repeated sightings of moths and butterflies. Also note that Nabokov was a passionate lepidopterist, who identified and named at least one new species of butterfly. How does the character of Lolita combine mythology and entomology? In what ways does Lolita resemble both an elf and an insect? What are some of this novel’s themes of enchantment and metamorphosis as they apply both to Lolita and Humbert, and perhaps to the reader as well?
Lolita combines mythology and entomology in the way she is perceived and described by Humbert, not in her actual character.
Themes of enchantment (Humbert’s mythologizing, the reader’s seduction) and metamorphosis (Lolita’s growth, Humbert’s awakening, the reader’s shifting perspective) structure the novel’s emotional and moral journey.
Nabokov employs these lenses to examine how language and perception can distort reality and how dangerous the distortion can be.