Perhaps it is because he realizes deep down that he is not in control of Lolita even when he is: especially during the sexual act. At one point he describes, perhaps with pure passion and without much of the intellect and enlightenment, that he uses in dealing with the people he lives with and the same people he criticizes as merely commercial , Lolita atop a chair with her foot on top. arms: "I would get rid of all my masculine pride and I would literally crawl on my knees..." (192) Humbert, in his love for Lolita, is unconsciously in over his head: it is perhaps out of love that he succumbed to Lolita and gave and assumed (contrary to her first sight); that it was no longer his love, but love. And while that sounds wonderful, Humbert's captive need to bring everything down means that a part of him is missing, that he no longer feels superior, and that he must bring the world down to his level, at times becoming a