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In Humbert’s fantasy, time is enchanted; it does not pass, and the children do not grow older. This is a crucial point for Humbert. As his narrative unfolds, we see clearly how troubled Humbert is by the thought that Dolly will inevitably grow older, and will lose those prepubescent features he cherishes in the nymphet. His desire to stop time, to arrest the natural processes of life, represents an important theme

Nabokov himself stated in his essay on Lolita that he was “neither a reader nor a writer of didactic fiction”, and what he rejects here is the idea that his work would set forth some moral prescription that can easily be extracted from the text and identified as the work’s “message.” In his view, morality is an essential element of an authentic work of art.

"The control which an artist exerts over his or her created world does not extend to the world of beings who surround the artist . . . Many characters in Nabokov's works make the essential error of regarding the world and its inhabitants around them as the material or medium for their own solipsistic art."