Control

'Look,' she said as she rode the bike beside me, one foot scraping the darkly glistening sidewalk, 'look, I've decided something. I want to leave school. I hate that school. I hate the play, I really do! Never go back. Find another. Leave at once. Go for a long trip again. But this time we'll go wherever I want, won't we?'
I nodded. My Lolita.” Chapter 14 pg. 207

This reversal of roles shows how the control has shifted. Before Lolita was being possessed by Humbert and he planned the trip around America, however, now Lolita is calling the shots. She seems to have learned that by controlling physical intimacy she can control Humbert, as he does not have self-control over his obsession. Humbert believes he is making her happy and keeping her within his grasp when he is actually helping her to escape in the future. Humbert is confused and enchanted by Lolita's new found maturity and he is so blinded by his obsession with her he misses his real threat, Clare Quilty. Humbert is the enchanted hunter and because he is so enchanted and distracted by Lolita he is unable to see Quilty in the shadows plotting to steal Lolita away.
This new trip also shows Lolita's freedom and she seems less like a fairy child and more calculating teenager. For example, she explains away her piano lessons coolly and arranges for her friend to lie for her. The theater seems to be Humbert's explanation and he is correct, but in the wrong way. It is not only the theater that causes his slipping grip on Lolita, but it is Quilty in the theater. Humbert's superior European knowledge has failed in analyzing the situation and making the connection between the play and real life. Humbert is trying to save his relationship with Lolita and keep her a nymphet for himself and it causes the relationship to become a strange father-daughter relationship, pushing her farther and farther from his lover fantasy. He does not see this aspect and so he follows her out of Beardsley to save their relationship.

Will Lolita finally escape Humbert? Does his inability to accept her maturity and escaping make you pity Humbert? While Humbert is losing control of Lolita does Quilty and the shadows represent self-control? Is Lolita running from one pedophile to another?