Lolita Duels

The game of chess is that place, real and mental, where two intelligences square off. It is one of these duels that Humbert and Charlotte engage in at the beginning of Lolita. In this metaphorical match, the Queen, which the literature professor seeks to take from his landlady, is none other than Lolita who approaches the players at the same moment. The novel and film describe an amorous match in which "the protagonists are envisaged as pieces in a chess game" (1). In the opinion of Edmond Bernhard (2), who analysed the novel according to a chess theory, the "promotion" rule (a pawn managing to cross the entire board can turn into any other piece except the King) is embodied by Lolita who, at the death of her mother, takes the place of the original Queen at Humbert's side.

The whole film is constructed round the balance of power and the confrontations between the characters, starting with the one that opens and concludes Lolita, between Humbert and Quilty. Therein 'one will see an obvious connection with the denouement of a match and the expression that punctuates it: "checkmate" (3), the word "mate", of Persian origin, meaning "death". Before this denouement, the characters are in turn seducers and seduced, manipulators and manipulated. Humbert manipulates Charlotte to get close to Lolita but he is used by the girl who is, in turn, manipulated by Quilty.