Innate drives created his idealized mental image of Lolita, but abstract morality meant that such an image was inaccurate and transitory. Recognizing this, we can see that Lolita is divided into two parts along similar lines; the lines of creation and destruction, but also along the lines of individual perspective and social perspective. The novel has two names as well: "Lolita, or the Confessions of a White Widowed Male." (Nabokov, 3). "Lolita" is not the girl Dolores Haze, but the image of the girl that Humbert creates for himself-it is a part of his internal identity. However, "the Confessions of a White Widowed Male" is clearly the title more socially accurate and appropriate for Humbert"s incarceration. To the end, Humbert remains obsessed with Lolita even though his image of her no longer exists objectively-she is no longer a child. Lolita is destroyed by external social circumstances. So, to understand Nabokov"s treatment of society"s construction of individuals requires us to recognize the disparity between individual perception and social identification. .

             The reader is not allowed with Vladimir or Estragon, on the other hand, a detailed glimpse into their mental states. Consequently, we are left to interpret from their actions and words how they perceive themselves. Whereas Humbert is able to hold onto his past conceptions of Lolita, Estragon possesses a far more limited perceptual link to his mental past. When Vladimir asks him about the previous day he responds, "Yes, now I remember, yesterday evening we spent blathering about nothing in particular. That"s been going on now for half a century." (Beckett, 42). Importantly, Estragon remembers nothing in particular about the previous day, except that he was kicked (Beckett, 43). Estragon"s understanding of himself is based very weakly upon his physical states, and memories are only tied to this construction of himself when associated with these physical states.