David Lurie's Change

In the novel Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, the character David Lurie is portrayed as a womanizer and a chauvinistic man. However David evolves after going through some traumatic events and becomes a man that finally looks beyond the physical appearance of a woman

He is accused of sexually abusing one of his students and is sent to the campus trial committee for what he did. He is also tagged as a Casanova by the students. When he moves to the country with his daughter to escape the media he is faced with another tragic event. He and his daughter are abused by a trio of African Americans and his daughter is raped. In both incidents he is left feeling disgrace as is the name of the book. Both incidents lead up to the change that happens to David Lurie.

After failing at his first and second marriage he decided he did not need “a wife, a home, or a marriage” (5) all he needs is the ninety minutes a week he gets from his prostitute. David relationship with Soraya is based on a weekly session of pleasuring each other. His relationship with the women in his life reflects his view of women. David Lurie believes women are put on earth to share their beauty with other men. “A woman’s beauty does not belong to her alone. It is a part of the bounty she brings into the world. She has a duty to share it.” (16) He believes that a woman who is beautiful has no right to choose which man she gets instead that all men or mostly he is in the right to have her. This can also be related to the Apartheid that South Africa was getting over, when White men were privilege to certain rights that was not given to everyone else. When White men thought that they could have whatever they wished. David superficial view of women is also reveal when he sees his daughter in overalls walking on her bare feet and also in the scene when he meets Bev Shaw and completely dislikes her because of the way she id dressed, talks and the lifestyle she lives.

However, David’s attitude changes after living in the country and witnessing his daughter rape. He starts to get more involved with the farm by helping Lucy with the dogs. He even moves beyond his dislike for Bev and works in the animal clinic assisting with killing the dogs when needed. The incident of the rape of his daughter David realize that a woman should not be treated that way and realized what he did to Melanie is also almost the same thing. He tries to make Lucy see that she needs to tell her story to the cops because if not those men where going to go free not paying for what they did. David wants to get revenge on the men that rape his daughter and in a way repent for what he did to Melanie. After the incident with the robbers he finally realized that he was wrong in his affair with Melanie. Other change in David is also revealed “One Sunday evening, driving home in Lucy’s kombi, he actually has to stop at the roadside to recover himself. Tears flow down his face that he cannot stop; his hands shake.” (143) This shows how David has changed from the person he used to be where he did not care about anybody opinions and also how he use to believe that animals do not have a soul. David shedding tears for an animal he had to watch getting killed shows that he had cares about more things than only things that are put on earth to please him.