Maybe it's because deep down he realizes that he doesn't have control of Lolita even when he does: in particular, during the sexual act. In one case he describes, perhaps with pure passion and without much of the intellect and enlightenment that he uses to deal with the people among whom he lives and the very ones he criticizes as merely commercial, Lolita in a chair with her leg over her arms: " I would put all my male pride and literally crawl on my knees..." (192) Humbert, in his love for Lolita, is unconsciously in over his head: perhaps it is love, which he has given in to Lolita and was giving and assuming to her ( in contrast to the first time he saw her); that it was no longer his love, but love. And even if it seems splendid, Humbert's specious need to belittle everything means that a part of him is missing, that he no longer feels superior and must bring the world back to his level, becoming at some points a