He even lectures her on how her class work is suffering during the time he pursues her. He has no clue as to what she is going through, which includes the angry response of a boyfriend. There are no depths other than the physical.
She is passive, then desperate, but no emotion exists between them.
Confused and obviously under his power as an authority figure, she allows him to do what he wishes. The professor has seduced one of his students, Melanie Isaacs, less than half his age at twenty, and child-like physically and emotionally. Professor Lurie resists from inside the wall of his pretensions as an academic and Romantic, as if he has some kind of right to “desire” in an honorable history descending from his study of Byron, who is simultaneously his hero. Oedipus of course is humbled through his arrogance and self-righteousness, so the allusion clearly applies. It extends to white dominance and native reprisal in South Africa, to cruelty with animals, and to self-obsession within the human community generally.Īn early reference on page 2 to the final chorus of Oedipus Rex, “Call no man happy until he is dead,” joins the suggestion David Lurie is a Lucifer in an earthly darkness, the fallen angel. Gradually, the story’s emphasis on “disgrace” pervades the entire narrative.
In Disgrace (Penguin Books, 220 pages), Professor David Lurie’s crisis begins with his foolishly taking advantage of one of his students, then proceeds to his inadequate response under enquiry.
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