By this point the morality of the book was no longer being discussed, instead criticism was mostly focused on the art of the novel, such as the art of persuasion. In earlier criticism critics talked about readers being caught in an involuntary feelings of empathy towards Humbert. But in early 2000s critics singled out the details of and rhetorical devices that Nabokov uses in order to persuade readers. Nabokov allows the narrator’s “blandishments to affect us just as much as is needed for the novel’s total effect” (Pifer 18). The author did intend for readers to identify with Humbert to some degree, to see him as a human being while at the same time to condemn him for his wrong doing (Pifer 18). By this time Lolita is portrayed as a victim,
