Disgrace

           

            Disgrace is the title of the novel, but the title reaches far beyond just naming the words that consume the 220 pages, it brands David Lurie’s actions and actions that happen to his daughter Lucy.  David Lurie’s actions and the actions carried out on his daughter are disgraces. 

David Lurie treats women as if they are objects.  He only wants women for sex, and he tends to stalk them.  He has multiple sexual affairs with many different kinds of women.  

With Soraya he seems to not know the boundaries of their relationship.  Soraya is a prostitute and is having sex with him because it is her job.  But David does not seem to know the boundaries between having a personal and professional relationship with her.  David ponders on the idea of making their professional relationship a bit more into a personal one when he ponders on the idea of seeing her outside of their professional encounters.  But he decides against it because as he says, “He knows too much about himself to subject her to a morning after, when he will be cold, surly, impatient to be alone” (Coetzee 2).  This quote shows two things: that he does not understand that their relationship is strictly professional, not personal.  He does not understand that seeing her outside is personal… and that can never happen.  He also contradicts himself when he says in his thoughts, “It surprises him that ninety minutes a week of a woman’s company are enough to make him happy, who used to think he needed a wife, a home, a marriage.  His needs turn out to be quite light, after all, light and fleeting…” (Coetzee 5).  He seems to not know whether he wants strictly sex or more of a relationship beyond the sex.

Then with Soraya and his student Melanie Isaacs he crosses the boundary of becoming a stalker.  He finds out their address(es) and phone numbers and uses them to get into contact with them, but it is very unprofessional!  He obtains Soraya’s personal information from a private detective (9) and he obtains Melanie’s by going into the school on a Sunday when no one is there and by looking into her records that are supposed to be used for professional reasons not personal reasons (Coetzee 18). 

It is astounding that David can treat women like objects just as the example of his prostitute and his student, but get mad when men treat his daughter badly.  When Lucy is raped he wants justice to be served, he wants to call the police and have them arrested.  He wants to stay with her and protect her too.  It is a disgrace that David Lurie can treat women the way he does but not want his daughter to be treated badly by men.  It does not make sense how he can have such a different view on women when it comes to the type of relationship he has with them.