La Petit Mort

In French, the phrase la petit mort is a euphemism for an orgasm and literally means "the little death." This french idea of sexual release being equated to death is masterfully shown by Monsieur Humbert during an aside about dreams and murder.

First we see Humbert pouring out his worries of Lolita's constantly aging nymphet form:--

"Has she already been initiated by mother nature to the Mystery of the Menarche? Bloated feeling. The Curse of the Irish. Fall from the roof. Grandma is visiting. 'Mr. Uterus [I quote from a girls' magazine] starts to build a thick soft wall on the chance a possible baby may have been bedded down there.' The tiny madman in his cell."

This not only takes the reader out of the story by reminding us of Humbert's current detainment (Humbert, the prince by the sea--the madman in his cell), thereby dissolving the magic of this "puny unfledged phoenix," but also begins the game of two-fold imagery--a girl's first period is both a sign of sexual maturity and blood (which can be related to death). By creating so many complex images for the reader to relate and reflect, Nabokov essentially makes us the "ladies and gentlemen of the jury" that he has previously described, left only to condemn him as we may.

Then, H.H. goes on to talk about his failed murder attempts that coalesce in his dreams:

"Incidentally: if I ever commit a serious murder... Mark the 'if.' The urge should be something more than the kind of thing that happened to me with Valeria. Carefully mark that then, I was rather inept. If and when you wish to sizzle me to death, remember that only a spell of insanity could ever give me the simple energy to be a brute (all this amended, perhaps). Sometimes I attempt to kill in my dreams. But do you know what happens? For instance I hold a gun. For instance I aim at a bland, quietly interested enemy. Oh, I press the trigger alright, but one bullet after another feebly drops on the floor from the sheepish muzzle. In those dreams, my only thought is to conceal the fiasco from my foe, who is slowly growing annoyed."

Here again we see Humbert's words playing games again (both with himself and the reader); speaking about about two types of guns--the metallic and the phallic-- and two types of enemies--the "babas" and the Quilty's. In the mind of Humbert Humbert, sex and death are not the two things us readers have assumed are distinct and separate things and again challenges the reader against themselves, in order to figure out the puzzle that is this Monsieur Humbert.