Lolita Characters

Meet the Cast

Humbert Humbert

Humbert the HunkPervert and pedophile? Yes. Rapist? Yes. Murderer? Sure. Predatory, compulsive egomaniac? You betcha. Humbert is also a fearful, tortured, guilt-ridden, hand-wringing (literally, as...

Lolita

Lolita at first sight:[…] without the least warning, a blue sea-wave swelled under my heart and, from a mat in a pool of sun, half-naked, kneeling, turning about on her knees, there was my Ri...

Clare Quilty

"A broad-backed man, baldish, in an oatmeal coat and dark-brown trousers" (2.18.3). Clare Quilty is Humbert's "brother" in lust, his double and worthy opponent in verbal skills. Quilty is a playwri...

Charlotte Haze

This is how Humbert describes Lolita's mother, Charlotte Haze:The poor lady was in her middle thirties, she had a shiny forehead, plucked eyebrows and quite simple but not unattractive features of...

Annabel Leigh

Annabel is Humbert's childhood love and first nymphet. Humbert often references their thwarted sexual encounter (her parents took her away) and her death from typhus at an early age as having possi...

John Ray, Jr., Ph.D.

Ray is the editor and author of the Foreword to Humbert's memoir. Ray is a stuffy and self-important academic who anticipates that the work will be "a case history" that will rise to become "a clas...

Valeria

Valeria is Humbert's first wife, whom he married in an effort to cure himself from his desire for young girls. He believes that some home-cooked meals and the routines of domestic partnership will...

Rita

Rita is a good-natured divorcée who goes along for the ride on Humbert's crazy quest around the United States to find Lolita after she has run away. Rita is basically a companion and kind-hear...

Jean Farlow

Jean is the wife of John Harlow and friend and neighbor to the Hazes. Humbert describes her as "handsome in a carved-Indian sort of way, with a burnt sienna complexion" (1.24.1). Jean is one of the...

John Farlow

John is the husband of Jean and friend and neighbor to the Hazes. He handles Charlotte's estate after her death. Unable to deal with the Haze legal "complications" (2.27.4), he leaves the work to a...

Gaston Grodin

A roly-poly clueless acquaintance of Humbert who teaches in the French Department at Beardsley College. He helps Humbert get a job and settle down in Beardsley. Gaston also becomes an on-and-off ch...

Dick Schiller

Dick is Lolita's modest, naïve, working-class husband who knows nothing of her sordid past. He's basically a really decent guy. Lolita isn't "crazy" (29.30) about him the way she was about Qui...

Mona Dahl

Mona is Lolita's BFF at the Beardsley School for girls. She is way too loyal for Humbert's liking because she won't out Lolita for her bad behavior. Humbert burns to know what secrets Mona holds. H...

Mrs. Pratt

Mrs. Pratt is the headmistress of the Beardsley School for girls. Humbert concludes that she is out of it because she thinks Lolita's eyes are blue and that Gaston is a genius. Her emphasis on the...

Ivor Quilty

The Ramsdale dentist and uncle to Clare Quilty. "A white-smocked, gray-haired man, with a crew cut and the big flat cheeks of a politician" (2.33.11). Ivor is an old friend to the Hazes. Humbert lo...

Monique

A French prostitute who fulfills the requisite qualities of the nymphet, despite being out of the age range. Humbert sleeps with her when he lives in Paris. Their affair ends when she loses her nym...

Charlie Holmes

Lolita's hook-up at Camp Q. Lolita loses her virginity with him near Lake Climax while her friend Barbara Burke keeps guard. Humbert is pleased to report that Lolita "held Charlie's mind and manner...

Frederick Beale, Jr.

A man whom Humbert describes as "the fellow who eliminated my wife" (1.23.18). Beale visits Humbert shortly after the accident to explain with maps and documents how the accident was not his fault....

Vivian Darkbloom

Clare Quilty's writing partner. Vivian is a "hawk-like, black-haired, strikingly tall woman" (2.18.29). Lolita tries to confuse Humbert by telling him that Vivian is a man and that Clare Quilty is...

Louise

Charlotte's "Negro maid, a plump youngish woman" (1.10.11), whom Charlotte wants to replace with a European, full-time domestic.

Shirley Holmes

The director of Camp Q and mother to Charlie.