luizetta money box

The luizetta money box enters the narrative as a gift from Gaston Godin, Humbert Humbert's chess partner and fellow European expatriate in Beardsley. Noticing one night that Humbert's chessmen were broken, Gaston sent over, via a little lad, a copper case with an elaborate Oriental design over the lid that could be securely locked. Humbert immediately recognized it as one of those cheap money boxes called "luizettas" that one buys in Algiers and wonders what to do with afterwards. It proved much too flat for holding his bulky chessmen, but he kept it, using it for a totally different purpose.

Concealment and the Weapon

Humbert transformed the luizetta into a hiding place for his .32 caliber automatic pistol, which he had inherited from the late Harold Haze along with a 1938 catalog that cheerily advertised it as "Particularly well adapted for use in the home and car as well as on the person." Inside the box, snugly wrapped in a white woolen scarf, lay the pistol, its magazine capacity of eight cartridges, stock of checked walnut, and full blued finish. It was loaded and fully cocked with the slide lock in safety position, thus precluding any accidental discharge. Humbert kept the luizetta in his possession during the final leg of his journey with Lolita, and one night at Chestnut Court, he woke at four in the morning, ascertained that Lolita was still sound asleep, and satisfied himself that the precious contents of the luizetta were safe.

Thematic Significance

The luizetta money box functions as a concrete emblem of the duality at the heart of Humbert's existence. On one level, it is a cheap, decorative trinket, a gift from a friend that speaks to the ordinary social world Humbert pretends to inhabit. On another, it is the repository of his violent intentions, the instrument of the revenge he fantasizes about and ultimately executes. The box's original purpose—to hold money—is subverted; instead of wealth, it guards death. Its presence during the journey, especially the moment when Humbert checks it in the dead of night, underscores the constant, simmering threat of violence that underlies his relationship with Lolita and his paranoid vigilance against the pursuer he imagines. The luizetta is the physical container for the "Freudian symbol of the Ur-father's central forelimb," as Humbert himself notes, linking the pistol to his own twisted sense of patriarchal authority and his readiness to destroy anyone who threatens his possession of the nymphet.