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Two questions; your choice:
1. Throughout the novel Disgrace, David Lurie suffers one humiliation after another. Is there a higher purpose in this series of crippling humiliations; does he undergo a process of retribution? Choose one of these humiliations and give your thoughts on whether and how it changes him - or why it doesn't
2. In what ways is the theme of power - powerlessness developed in the novel? Give an example and comment on this theme.
Trivia question of the week: John Malkovich stars as David Lurie in the movie version of Disgrace, which was filmed in South Africa. Why did Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort, originally cast as David Lurie) drop out of the original casting?
37 comments:
I think the theme of power- and powerlessness are themes in the book linked with justice and injustice. Lucy’s rape by three men , for example, was an act of hate. This act renders her powerless (rape is about power). After contemplating her fate she decides not to report the rape because she does not believe she will receive justice and because she wants to stay anonymous and protect her privacy. She feels that the justice system is acting against her. She does press charges for robbery and theft but the perpetrators are never sentenced or even prosecuted. This makes her powerless when it comes to justice but also as a woman. There is also the theme of the division between men and women even with the relationship she has with her father. After her rape her relationship with her father deteriorates and they grow apart.
Melanie on the other hand uses her beauty to exert power over men eventhough she still feels vulnerable when among them.
Hamilton Sousa Pires
I think the theme power-powerlessness comes back many times in the story. I believe it is mostly linked to the theme of justice and injustice. For example the multiple rapes of the main character Lucy. It shows her powerlessness in these situations and the power of the men that raped her. She decides not to press charges because she thinks she will not be heard or taken serious in court. This shows the lack of power of women in society as it is in the time the story takes place in. Men have way more say and power than women do.
Eveline Hilberding 0929840
Noor Gudden DENS3A
The theme of power and powerlessness can be found on different levels in the novel. The theme can be applied to the racial differences in the story, the relation between a father and his daughter and a man and his affairs with different women.
The interesting development in the relationship between David and his daughter is that as a father he wants to protect her, but he realizes that his daughter does not want to be protected and does not really need him. She is an independent woman that takes choices based on different values compared to her father. She looks at her environment in a different way and leads her own life in the way that she wants. After what happened to his daughter, David feels that she is powerless. But it turns out that she is not powerless at all, she is just different to him in dealing with life. She chooses to accept and forgive and hold no anger. David realizes that it is not his daughter that is powerless but he himself is powerless in this situation. He can only be there for her but he cannot direct the course of her life.
Loïs Berghout
VENS3C
We see the theme of power immediately in the first few chapters of the book. David feels like he has the power over Melanie and that he has the power to have a “relationship” with her and that this won’t affect him and his teaching position, however, when the story gets out and he gets fired, he is powerless. He does not have any power left within his work field, his relationship with his co-workers or his students.
The theme of power-powerlessness also returns when he is locked up in the bathroom by the three men who then rape his daughter Lucy. He thought he had the power as a white man over the three black men while he actually did not have any power. He was an older man who was easily defeated by the three young men, leaving David absolutely powerless to the fire, to help and save Lucy, to save the dogs.
He also thought that he had power over Lucy as her father but he is absolutely powerless while she is pregnant, refuses to leave the little farm and makes plans to marry Petrus.
Marieke van Lith - DENS3A
There is a lot of power in the novel. A lot of characters want, have or think they have power. David wants to have power over even woman he encounters in the beginning. From the prostitute he still tries to find even when they won't give him the information to Melanie that he goes after even though he knows it's a bad idea.
Melanie then turns that around by having him fired. Her boyfriend definitely helps her with that and probably overpowers Melanie in that decision. When they meet again in the theatre in the end, he is sure to let David know who has the power.
With Lucy, the men that attack them obviously have the power. The fact that they shoot the dogs is also a sign of power. They are caged, are no threat to them but they feel the need to shoot them anyway. They obviously control the area and Petrus is under their power as well and has no choice but to let them do what they do. Probably to prevent them doing this to him.
Afterwards, Lucy however stays where she is to not give up the little power she has left. She is not willing to let them win and overpower her by making her leave. But living somewhere in fear might still be having power over someone as much as making them do something.
Bonus question: Ralph thought he was too young...
The theme power - powerless develops in the story through a number of events and the way David tries to hold or get a grip on the situations. Numerous times he is confronted with the fact that even though he thinks he has power over someone or something, he actually has not.
For example, at the beginning of the book where he and Soraya meet cross paths in public and their relationship changes to the point that she does not longer want to see him or any client she may have as she resigns from her job as an escort. It was coincidence they crossed paths and David knows this will change things, but when he cannot see Soraya again he wants to take control by visiting her and persuading her to keep seeing him. Here he is faced with the first minor incident where he is left powerless over the situation as she shuts him out.
That David is one to try and hold onto his power over his life is seen when he has his hearing about the sexual assault case. The board want him to show remorse so he can keep his position but in order to do so he also needs to get counseling. David would rather give it all up than to hand in his power over the situation and therefore he refuses to tell his side of the story or give a statement and resigns from his position. Here he tries to be the one in power, but if you look at the bigger picture he was the only one without. It all happened to him and he could do nothing but make the best of it, whether he did is to be discussed.
David Lurie was beaten up, set on fire and more horrific things happend to him during the robbery that took place at Lucy's home. After the robbery, David's stuff got stolen too. He wondered who would be wearing his shoes, who would be reading his books, etc. Shortly after that, he realised that he does not need his stuff in order to be happy or to feel complete. He lets go of the value of stuff and starts focussing on himself. He starts helping out Bev Shaw and Petrus. Who would have thought? The charming guy from Cape Town, who always wraps ladies around his finger and has enough money to spend, is now standing in next to the bulky Bev Shaw, holding the legs of a goat so that she could perform her surgery. In the end, David Lurie even started symphatizing with the animals, which shows a great character development regarding empathy. This was difficult for David, since he has a very strong idea of justice.
All over all, David Lurie has been through a lot in the book, which surely can be seen as a process of retribution. This process has a major impact on him, and this scene stood out to me the most.
Tamara Salem - 0920243 - VENS3C
I think at the beginning of the book David feels like a powerful man. He fools around with a lot of women and gets away with the affair with his student, Melanie. Later on when his daughter, Lucy, was raped and he couldn't do anything about it, he felt powerless. He felt like he should have protected his daughter against those horrible men. I think he also feels powerless because of the way Lucy handles the rape. She is very stubborn and acts like nothing has happened. She doesn't inform the police and doesn't want to turn in the boy, who turns out to be a relative of Petrus. When Lucy turns out to be pregnant due to the rape and decides she wants to keep it, David feels extremely powerless. How can his daughter keep a child that is conceived by rape and will remember her about the horrible event for the rest of her life.
Yessica van der Veere, VENS3C, 0893804
Power and powerlessness is shown several times throughout the novel; two of the worst examples are the rape of Lucy and the rape of Melanie.
Yes, David raped Melanie and here’s how you can tell:
- He had power over her because he was her teacher and she depended on him
- She didn’t consent to having sex with him (the lack of a ‘no’ does not mean it’s a ‘yes’)
- He said it was like having sex with a dead body; meaning she was frozen in fear, a thing that commonly happens to victims of rape (powerlessness)
- David later on compared his desire to that of a dog, a dog chases his desire and men do too
Furthermore, it would be appreciated if books like this came with a trigger warning so people with a traumatic past involving sexual assault or rape don’t have to read it/can choose not to read it.
Babette Sutter
VENS3C
There are multiple moments in Disgrace where a shift of power takes place. David used to have lots of power over women because he was so attractive, but all of a sudden that stopped. The first example of this is Soraya, who refuses to sleep with him anymore, which he is powerless against.
Since Melanie is a student, he feels like he’s the one in charge, the one with the most power, but in the end, she gets him fired for sleeping with her. Melanie’s boyfriend played a part in this, so you could say that David lost his powers to him.
David thinks that since he’s a white man, he has power over the three young black men. But he’s on his own, while they outnumber him and are much younger. He is helpless, and is forced to watch his daughter get raped.
The last person he tries to control is his pregnant daughter, who insists on living with Petrus, against his wishes. She refuses to submit to him and wants to have power over her own decisions.
Bart Neven VENS3C
Well, When Lucy was raped, David had an affair with one of his students.
The rape of his daughter changed David's perspective of what he did to one of his students. He was clearly a person of power and used that power to get into her pants. Which, you can easily argue also constitutes as rape.
I think this particular humiliation made David see the errors he made and what he might have put the parents of Melanie through. And in the end, he evens owns up to his mistake. He goes to see Melanie's dad and he apologises for the things he has put everyone through. That takes balls to do.
I think this is the best example of a humiliation turning into something of a retribution.
Zeynep Cabuk (0912821)
VENS3C
The theme of power occurs multiple times in the novel. I would link this theme with the raping of Lucy. This terrible thing happened to Lucy while her house was getting robbed. In this case are the rapers the powerful ones and is Lucy, unfortunately, the one who was left with no power.
Another example is the 52 years old professor David Lurie who also happens to be a divorcee. Like every other man, David needs to satisfy his needs. He crossed the line when he slept with one of his students. He is very aware of his actions and of the fact that he misuses his power as a professor. At this moment David seems to be the powerful one. Luckily, it didn't last long and the poor student decided to go to the police. David Lurie lost his job.
I think it's funny how we can see the sudden changeover of power. The student's position switched from vulnerable to powerful.
Reading through the story I realized that the only moment when David felt powerful was when sleeping with his student. Other situations made him feel powerless. I actually believe that karma did work its magic on this one.
Dalina Mahmood 0883915
We see that the most important example of power vs powerlessness comes when David Luri forces himself on Melani. David starts out as a powerful man, but with time he becomes weaker. He can not controle his desire for women.
But Petrus who starts out as a person who is looked down upon but ends up as the most powerful of all. Both undermine and use women to gain more power. They take advantage of their superior positions.
We can see Powerlessness when David is locked up and the three man rape his daughter Lucy.
The theme of power and powerlessness is a clear constant throughout this novel, and no character shows this better than David himself. It’s the specific kind of power he enjoys, and the way in which his powerlessness manifests that’s trickier to explore.
As an affluent, intellectual white man in South Africa, David’s social standing would already be miles above that of most others. The way we see this manifest in the novel is in his attitude towards women. His relation with Melanie is seen through the lens of who he’s been all his life: a casanova who could (often without effort, allegedly) romance any woman he’d set his sights on. Therefore when he assaults Melanie, it doesn’t cross his mind that what he’s doing is non-consensual. Rather, the idea that she would not want to be with a man like him is unthinkable. This is an exertion of power at Melanie’s expense.
The part of this story David did not expect was the disgrace that would follow. He is rightly punished for his action, and his reputation and career are in tatters when his actions are made public. One important side to this is that David essentially fails to exert his power over the proceedings, and is thus forced to bear the consequences of his actions. For someone who is so accustomed to a certain type of power, just losing that social high ground is equal to being powerless.
In my opinion, this is a vital aspect to David’s character that explains how he could rationalize, or simply not care about, committing rape. That said, the reasoning doesn’t nearly excuse the crime.
Debbie VENS3C
There are plenty of power-differences in apparent in the novel, for one: David had power over Melani, she being a student of his. There was also the three men who raped Lucy, and locked up David, establishing a clear power dynamic there as well. Petrus seems to stand apart from the power-plays, while really he is a part of it, going from very low in life to higher up by the land transfer, and not listening to David's pleas.
VENS3C - Besha Mahmood
There are several times in the novel where power and powerlessness has occurred.
First, At the beginning David forces himself upon Melani. He takes advantage of his position he possesses. He feels powerful and undermine women.He loses his job and all his power. At the end of the story David has lost everything his looks and material stuff, but he gains different kind of power and realizes that women are more than just the possession of men; women voices should be heard.
Secondly, Three African men lock David inside the bathroom, and started a fire on his face, then raped his daughter Lucy. Her father David feels very powerless and can not help his own daughter. He can not offer her any comfort.
Thirdly, Petrus hires 3 men to rape Davids daughter Lucy. He does this to scare her and to dishonor her name. This way Lucy is teared apart. Then to get Lucy’s property Petrus offers her protection by marrying her.
Men use their power over a lot of women in this novel.
VENS3C - Mehmet Coskun
There is the example of the tall man killing the dogs in the kennel. There is a clear difference in power at that point. The animals are helpless and the tall man is towering above them while killing them. This type of animal cruelty seems to be a huge portroyal of difference in power.
Melisa Maria VENS3C
Power and powerlessness are found in a lot of places throughout the book. The topics discuss racial differences, a father-daughter relationship, and a man and his relationships with women. Also, the fact that Lucy gets raped is a form of powerlessness. And like this, there are many more acts of violence stressing the theme of powerlessness.
Cornelis van der Klooster 0890497
Power - powerlessness
For me this became most apparant in David's life. He started off as a powerful man and ended up feeling as powerless as it gets.
In the beginning, when all is well, David 'gets around' to the point of finding a side chick in one of his students.
Meanwhile his daughter was raped by a bunch of men in some distant resort, over which he has no control at all. This lack of control is an ongoing theme from there on out for David. Lucy doesn't handle the situation the way he wants to and then she goes ahead and keeps the child conceived from the rape scene.
David's life shows a drastic decrease when it comes to being or feeling powerful.
Yesse
VENS3C
There are many power shifts throughout the novel. At the start David has the power over his own life, but he is bored. The first power shift occurs when he falls for Melanie. He becomes entranced with her, but she keeps pulling and pushing him around: Melanie is the first thing he doesn't have power over. Then when she pressed rape charges, David loses everything. His name is in the gutter and his career at university is over. All of a sudden he has no control over his life. He tries to retake it and move to the countryside to live with his daughter. Lucy is another example of something David has no control over. He wished she would have become more then just a simple farm owner. But she is happy with the life he has chosen. Just as David begins to get his life back together, tragedy strikes. The robbery is the biggest show of the theme power/powerless in the whole book. It literally shows David completely powerless as everything he has gets destroyed and there is nothing he can do about it.
I think the books shows the importance of being in power of your own life. But it also shows that being powerless at times is needed. Davis changes after the robbery, he becomes more empathetic. He realizes he doesn't need his stuff to be happy and starts helping around more at the clinic.
Martin Steegmans – Dens2A
At the beginning of the story Lurie is in charge of his life; he has power over it. He has power in his job and over the prostitute Soraya. Later he gets power over Melanie, who feels powerless in the relationship with Lurie and therefore is very passive and indulgent towards him. Later however, Lurie becomes powerless after Melanie files the sexual harassment case against him. After this Lurie never really retains his powerful position.
In his job he isn’t in power, as just he volunteers at the shelter. And he feels incredibly powerless towards his daughter. Lurie is hapless after the rape of Lucy and the ransacking of the house. His daughter even writes a note that she will not be a kid forever, neither will he be a father. This makes clear Lurie is powerless and can’t help his daughter in this matter, nor can he convince her to move to Holland.
As well as her father, Lucy loses the power over own life. She is literally made powerless by the rape. After which she feels she’ll never be safe anymore on her land. On the other hand, Petrus is becoming more powerful. Gathering more wealth, land and power as the story proceeds. In the end, Lucy gives away the little bit of power she has left to Petrus in life in exchange for protection and the right to keep living in her own house. Lucy, as well as Lurie, become totally powerless, whereas Petrus gains more and more power.
Trivia: Ralph Fiennes chose not the play the role of David Lurie as he thought he was too young. He said: “I wrestled with that for a long time, I just felt in the end that I was too young. I’m 42 and I think that’s 10 years too young to have a grown-up daughter and to be having an affair with a student. I think to have the disgrace you have in the book, the audience has to feel: ‘You vain little git,silly idiot’, to believe the character.”
Ercan Yilmaz DENS3A
Some parts of this book were very embarrassing, partly because of the series of humiliations David Lurie had to endure but also inflicted on others – as both the “privileged” and “unprivileged” suffer in this story.
David Lurie is a product of apartheid; a white male who still holds a certain political ideology and has a biased view of women. He is full of self-righteousness and is not willing to show remorse for his sexual transgression with his student Melanie.
By exposing David to humiliating events that disgrace him Coetzee seeks to show a gradual change in the status quo both in David’s personal life in combination with South Africa’s social change. Lucy’s attack, which is also a personal attack on him, and the acceptance of change in South Africa leads to his identity change.
http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/prejudice-politics-and-patriarchy-social-decline-and-changing-identity-david-lurie-j-m-coetz
JULIA KARREMAN DENS3A
In the book there are numerous power shifts happening.
First of all there is the change in the feeling of being powerful for the main character, David Lurie. At the beginning of the book he is confident and feeling powerful. When he finds himself falling in love with a student and starts trying to seduce her. As I can image this gave him a feeling of more and more being in control and feeling powerful. But that won’t remain forever and things are starting to fall apart .He loses his job and moves in with his daughter for a short period of time which creates a change of power between father and daughter. In the daughters house they get robbed and his daughter gets raped and he cannot protect her. As every man or woman who will witness such a horrific event a feeling of powerless is one of the emotion you’re going through. It becomes clear to him that he cannot set everything to his hand.
There is also Petrus. Who we in the beginning of the book know as 'a dog-man', helping Lucy Lurie on her farm. But in the end of the story he has constructed himself a house on her property and takes over her farm.
BONUS: Fiennes considered himself too younq for the role at the age of 42 to play the father of younq adult daughter.
It is true that David Lurie suffers one humilitiation after another in the book Disgrace. An example of one very humiliating moment for him is when he's unable to protect his daughter during the attack/assault at her house. The fact that he couldn't do anything to help her, to witness what his daughter goes through after the assault, and also the even worse relationship between them afterwards, had a great impact on his selfesteem and the way he looked at life in general. He even visits Melanie's parents to apologize for all the suffering.
In a way it can be seen as a process of retribution, to make him experience things he might have done to other people in order to show him what consequences actions (can) have..
Ymke Went
DENS3/4A
Dagmar Dubois DENS3A
What starts out as a novel about a man exuding his power over women ends with a big shift in control and perception. A first insight into David Lurie’s life portrays a man who often gets exactly what he wants. His encounters with Soraya depict a man who will stop at nothing to enforce this sense of power, even if it means crossing personal boundaries. He is in control of his job and is in control during his first interactions with Melanie. The tables start to turn, however, when Melanie fights back (albeit through her ex-lover – a man) resulting in David being asked to resign, stripping away his social status at the same time. This starts numerous encounters where David is confronted with the fact that the powerful life he led previously is a thing of his past.
David feels incredible powerlessness and helplessness when it comes to wanting to help his daughter right the wrongs that have been done to her. Her refusal to tell the police the entire story gives the reader the idea that she has no faith in the judicial system which, in turn, suggests a sense of powerlessness she feels as a (white) woman in rural South Africa at this time. The way Coetzee develops the character of Petrus, in addition, can also be seen as a significant nod to these societal changes and how these characters try make them their own – as disturbing as they may be.
In what ways is the theme of power - powerlessness developed in the novel? Give an example and comment on this theme.
There are many ways in which the theme of power versus powerlessness comes back in the novel.
The first example and the most obvious one is the relationship between David Lurie and Melanie, one of his pupils. As her teacher, he has some sort of power over Melanie and he uses this power much or less to seduce her and eventually have sex with her. When this becomes apparent to the outside world, it is David Lurie who loses his powers and is being “overpowered’ by others. David eventually ends up losing his job (though this is more or less his own choice) and has to live with his daughter for a while to escape from the disgrace that he has brought upon himself,
During the visit on the countryside his daughter gets raped by three young men. David who was with his daughter couldn’t do anything to help her. This was David’s “Rock bottom” of powerlessness. Eventually David chooses to stay on the countryside and helps an old lady “Bev Shaw” putting dogs, who no one wants anymore to sleep. Which can be seen as a metaphor for David’s own life.
Bea Viergever DENS3A
In the beginning stages of the novel the reader is introduced to a man who comes across as beaten down and lonely due to his choices regarding affairs and the drudgery that comes form the setbacks in his life. Lurie works a job that seemed ones enticing but he can’t get this across to his students whom seem to endure his classes rather than enjoy them. Lurie uses his sexuality as an escapism, running from a life that indicates missed opportunities.
The humiliating part is that from the beginning of the novel Lurie comes across as someone who uses sexual encounters to fulfil his lustful needs. In contrast though he describes the acts in such a way where it becomes impossible to deny the emotional connection he forms with his partners, “A week ago she was just another pretty face in the class. Now she is a presence in his life, a breathing presence”, (p.23)
The humiliation comes in my opinion not so much from the occurrence that his relations with his student are made public but more from the fact that he takes the accusations in his stride. He admits to himself and the world from the very beginning that his manner, his ways are faulty and that this should be regarded with disgust and disgrace which he welcomes like it was his lives burden all along.
Karima Belkaid | DENS3A
David is the 'white man', the master, who submits his slave to his will and imposes his sexual needs on her. The relationship between David and Melanie is a reflection of the old relationship between the white male colonist and the black colonized woman: he starts the relationship, she lets it happen, initially at least. David is the white patriarch who is still trapped in the apartheid era of South Africa; the affair he has with Melanie Isaacs is currently not accepted and that is why David is punished.
The time of the intellectual white patriarch is over, David is gradually losing his powers. With Soraya he still manages to keep up appearances and allows the past to continue; his relationship with her is like the relationship of a white master with his slave; he talks, she listens. But this relationship is abruptly broken, after this David can no longer find satisfaction which makes him powerless.
David Lurie, who does not feel any remorse, refuses to repent even though he is assured that he can save himself from the precarious position in which he finds himself.
In the countryside he realizes that, unlike Petrus, he has no power in the social context of the countryside. Gradually, David also understands that he can no longer play a significant role in the power game. He must accept that he cannot punish the rapists of his daughters and that his daughter does not want to follow his advice; he is now too old and has no longer any power as a white patriarch. In the last scene he gives up, which is depicted in a painful way, by bringing his favorite dog to the 'slaughter'. This symbolizes the fact that he surrenders to “fate”.
"Bearing him in his arms like lamb, he re-enters, the surgery. "I thought you would save him for another week," says Bev Shaw. "Are you giving him up?" "Yes, I am giving him up."
Claudia Crenshaw DENS3A
The theme of power and powerlessness is a recurrent one in Disgrace. I believe that Coetzee is trying to show that the idea of power is ironically enough a fragile one. In other words, Professor David Lurie is seemingly powerful because of his position at the University and because he is a white male in a country where black people were systematically made powerless through the totalitarian nature of Apartheid. However, his relationship with a young student forces him to resign from his position. This begs the question of whether he was in fact the more powerful of the two. In his role as father, his supposed power is also put to a test. His attempts to save Lucy from being attacked and raped fail. The idea that he was somehow powerful in his career, his sexual relationships, his role as father and in general as a man, is undermined. David Lurie is in fact powerless to the actions of others. Perhaps this is Coetzee’s way of saying that power is relative, dynamic and perhaps even illusory.
This book is all about power.
David Lurie is a professor from South Africa who loses everything. At the beginning David takes advantages of the power he possesses. He feels the need to undermine women. However, when he loses his job, power, peace of mind and his dream. He then gains a different kind of power and realizes that are more than just men’s possession and that women should also have the right to an opinion etc. Another example of power or powerlessness is when three African men locked David inside the bathroom and started to sexual abuse his daughter Lucy. He felt really powerless and couldn’t help his daughter. The three men were hired by Petrus. A man who wanted to marry Lucy. He hired these men to scare her and to dishonour her name. he offers her protection by marrying her. This another example of how men use their power over women
The effect of the series of humiliations on David Lurie shines through in the way the novel parallels the racial oppression of blacks in South Africa with the treatment and view of dogs in the country. This is illustrated in the discussion that Lucy has with David about the animals when he states:
“as for animals, by all means, let us be kind to them. But let us not lose perspective. We are of a different order of creation from animals. Not higher necessarily, just different. So if we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we feel guilty or fear retribution” (74).
David here is not really talking about the dogs; he is talking about whites and their view of blacks.This view directly reflects the view of white people towards blacks in post-Apartheid Africa. His statement does not illustrate his power over the powerless dogs as much as it illustrates that he feels for them. The dogs are not a parallel for David’s own power and powerlessness, but for South African blacks in a post-Apartheid nation in which he does feel guilt and does fear retribution, but wishes he could simply be kind.
Power versus powerlessness is a mayor theme in this bleak novel. The story reflects the aftermath of Apartheid and the transition South Africa is going through at the time the novel was written. The story of both David and his daughter Lucy can in a way be seen as a symbol of this transition, although it also has universal meaning.
At first we meet David Lurie, a white male professor, as a self-centred person who uses his power to satisfy his sexual urges. But soon his power is deteriorating. After being accused of rape he looses his job, which causes much upheaval. Being in disgrace, he decides to move in with his daughter Lucy, who lives in a village in the East, called Salem. Initially things seem to settle down for David but then he and his daughter get attacked by three black men who rape Lucy and attempt to murder him…black men having power over white people; another example of a ‘shift in power’ taking place in post- Apartheid South Africa. Being exploited by the white colonists they take back what they think belongs to them.
David urges his daughter to move away and report the rape but she refuses, despite the fact that she is deeply scarred. As a consequence of the rape, she is pregnant. Initially Lucy becomes very depressed and lethargic but eventually she seems to be able to reconcile with reality and move on with her life. She marries Petrus, a black man who used to work for her and who is probably family of one of the attackers. He now becomes the co-owner of the farm. This is, again, another example of shift in power.
The way power, or the lack thereof, is portrayed in disgrace is intriguing and keeps the reader thinking. Especially in the character of David Lurie, where you’re first introduce to a powerful, vain and proud man. Who might have even felt indestructible. That is, until things started happening.
The most remarkable events are; first the affair with a young student disgraces his position of notoriety. Then the power dynamics in his relationship shifts, lessening his position as the Alpha. But to bring his world down crashing, his daughter is raped and he couldn’t do anything about that.
In those times status, family and how you portrayed yourself to the world weighed more than now (at least for grown ups). The role of the man as the provider and the head of the family, the father was of great value. Losing your job, your status, are things I believe can hurt you, but they are superficial and most of the value given to it is external.
To lose/weaken your role as the head of the family, who ought to protect, is a hard blow for most men. This feeling of failure can crush you as most of its value comes from within yourself.
This has brought various thoughts and question to my head. Is power something given or taken? Does it come from outside, from affirmation by others or from yourself? In reality, have you ever had any power? And, most importantly, what is power? To have things under control or to be able to let go of that control?
Trivia: Fiennes felt he was too young to play the part and do the story and the character justice. In his own words:
“I wrestled with that for a long time, I just felt in the end that I was too young. I’m 42 and I think that’s 10 years too young to have a grown-up daughter and to be having an affair with a student. I think to have the disgrace you have in the book, the audience has to feel: ‘You vain little git, silly idiot’, to believe the character.”
Andrea Moreira Santos
0765744
Theme of power VS powerlessness:
This can be found in the book through raciality, relation between father and daughter
Humiliations:
The rape of his daughter, his daughter marrying a black man most likely related to one of the rapists, and therefore becoming part owner of the farm.
There is a clear decline of power in the story about David. As a strong man with a respectable occupation, David takes a risk when he gets intimate with a student. He loses his job, his might and status. Another example of decline of power, is when his daughter gets abused and he himself gets locked up with no way to help his daughter. Two examples of events that undermined David’s role as father and as man. Power could arise at one moment and fade away right after.
There is a clear decline of power in the story about David. As a strong man with a respectable occupation, he david takes a risk when he gets intimate with a student. He loses his job, his might and status. Another example of decline of power, is when his daughter gets abused and he himself gets locked up with no way to help his daughter. Two examples of events that undermined David’s role as father and as man. Power could arise at one moment and fade away right after.
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Felicity Postma VENS3C 0881014
When David was set on fire and he saw what the whole violent act had done to his daughter he could distance himself from her, which shows his selflessness.
Before this happening, he was very selfish towards the women around him and he merely saw them for his own gain.
It's clear that he cares for his daughter Lucy when he attacks the boy who raped her (after finding out she's pregnant with him and she's keeping the baby)
He came across as a selfish man who only acted on his own behalf.
By the end of the book, the readers have witnessed his suffering and the reader might feel compassion for him.
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