The Question of Consent in Lurie's Affair

One question that came up in previous Disgrace discussions was that of given consent, or lack of, in David Lurie's affair with student Melanie Isaacs. As we all know, the affair did not last long and ended explosively through Isaac's betrayal. Although Melanie Isaac eventually got cold feet and revealed the affair to her guardians and peers, it can be argued that she was initially willing to pursue something more than a student-teacher relationship with Lurie, but eventually changed her mind, adopting a mode of non-consent through silence* when the relationship turned physical. 

(*Anti-rape groups are generally in consensus that sexual consent is given through a clear "yes" and that silence does not necessarily mean the same; usually it is interpreted as a "no" instead.)

 When we are first introduced to Melanie Isaacs, we are first familiarized with her relative mediocreness. As the narrator puts it, Melanie is "not the best student but not the worst either: clever enough, but unengaged" (Coatzee 11). However, we are alerted that something may be different about her when she receives Lurie's initial greeting with a "smile sly rather than shy" (Coatzee 11), and repeats this action a second time a short while later. Why a sly smile? Clearly, Melanie was imagining or plotting something in her head that transcended the traditional chaste student-teacher relationship. Later on that night, when Lurie touches her cheek and invites her to stay the night with him, she is seemingly in a dilemma: she "does not withdraw, but does not yield either" (Coatzee 16), but the reader understands that instead of being repulsed by Lurie's advances, Melanie still retains interested, her voice "[with] a hint of breathlessness. Exciting, always, to be courted" (Coatzee 16). It seems here that despite the social taboo of student-teacher affairs, Melanie remained intrigued due to the excitement that came from an older, mature man singling her out as worthiest of his affections. 

However, Melanie's feelings soon change from mildly interested to doubt and reluctance: at the beginning of Chapter Three Lurie takes Melanie out to lunch; however, she is listless and non-communicative, telling him that she is "worried" about the two of them being in a relationship (the narrator explicitly describes her beforehand on page 18 as "confused"). That same afternoon, Lurie makes love to Melanie for the first time. Although he highly enjoys the experience, Melanie is "passive throughout" and after Lurie comes back to himself, is described as "lying beneath [Lurie], her eyes closed, her hands slack above her head, a slight frown on her face" (Coatzee 19). A second sexual encounter, again initiated by Lurie, further illustrates the idea of nonconsent through silence: during this encounter Melanie does not speak and deliberates averts herself: her lips, her eyes, and her entire body as she burrows naked into the bedsheets with her back to him (Coatzee 25). The narrator sums up the encounter as "not rape, not quite that, but undesired nevertheless, undesired to the core. As though she had decided to go slack, die within herself for the duration...So that everything done to her might be done, as it were, far away" (Coatzee 25). Compared to her initial flirtatiousness with Lurie, her feelings descended to conflict and finally that of silence, and the reader understands clearly that there are signs of unspoken nonconsent interlaced throughout: the frown on her face, her physical aversion, and how she detaches herself mentally rather than involve herself completely.

The circumstances of Lurie's affair with Isaacs reminded me very much of the recent scandal in which a 41-year-old teacher, Mr. Hooker, left his wife and children to move in with one of his 18-year-old students. Here is a news video reporting the affair:

 

Like David Lurie, the real life Mr. Hooker became romantically involved with one of his students and does not try to deny his past actions. Both teachers first regard their students as simply average at first, a feeling which is slowly reversed with time.

What do you think? Does anybody have another opinion on the question of consent in Lurie's affair? Was anybody else reminded of the Hooker scandal?

EDIT: ABC News reported just several hours ago that Hooker has been arrested today (April 6th) for sexual abuse of a minor in a 1998 incident. Read the full story here.