Disgrace Notes
Characters:
- David Lurie (main character, professor)
- Soraya (prostitute who David sees)
- Lucy Lurie (Davoid’s daughter, lives on a farm)
- Melanie Isaacs (David’s student whom he has a relationship with)
- Bev Shaw (Lucy’s neighbor)
- Petrus (Lucy’s former assistant, wants to take her land)
- Katy (dog)
- Byron (an 1800s poet who has an affair, his desires mirror David’s)
- Teresa (the person whom Byron has an affair with)
Quotes:
● ‘For a man of his age, fifty-two and divorced, he has, to his mid, solved the problem of
sex rather well’
● ‘Affection may not be love but it is at least its cousin’
● ‘They own Soraya too’
● ‘A moderated bliss’
● ‘And to an extent a womanizer’
● ‘Not the best student but not the worst’ (Melanie)
● ‘A woman's beauty does not belong to her alone’
● ‘Beauty does not own itself’
● ‘Perhaps he does not own himself either’
● ‘All she does is avert herself’
● ‘He is the one who leads, she the one who follows’
● ‘He does what he feels like. He doesn’t care if it is good or bad.’ (Lucifer)
● ‘You can’t just run away like that’
● ‘An inglorious end to your career’
● ‘I became a servant of Eros’
● ‘No longer a child playing at farming but a solid countrywoman’
● ‘The more things change the more they remain the same’
● ‘Being a father is a rather abstract process’
● ‘I wasn’t made for marriage’
● ‘Preying on children’
● ‘He does not like women who make no effort to be attractive’
● ‘To share some of our human privileges with the beasts’
● ‘Trying to make reparation for past misdeeds’
● ‘They like to slaughter in their own way’ (how owners put down their animals)
● ‘But only as long as I don’t have to become a better person.’
● ‘Bev is aware of you’ (of David)
● ‘Just leave my daughter alone’
Characters:
- David Lurie (main character, professor)
- Soraya (prostitute who David sees)
- Lucy Lurie (Davoid’s daughter, lives on a farm)
- Melanie Isaacs (David’s student whom he has a relationship with)
- Bev Shaw (Lucy’s neighbor)
- Petrus (Lucy’s former assistant, wants to take her land)
- Katy (dog)
- Byron (an 1800s poet who has an affair, his desires mirror David’s)
- Teresa (the person whom Byron has an affair with)
Quotes:
● ‘For a man of his age, fifty-two and divorced, he has, to his mid, solved the problem of
sex rather well’
● ‘Affection may not be love but it is at least its cousin’
● ‘They own Soraya too’
● ‘A moderated bliss’
● ‘And to an extent a womanizer’
● ‘Not the best student but not the worst’ (Melanie)
● ‘A woman's beauty does not belong to her alone’
● ‘Beauty does not own itself’
● ‘Perhaps he does not own himself either’
● ‘All she does is avert herself’
● ‘He is the one who leads, she the one who follows’
● ‘He does what he feels like. He doesn’t care if it is good or bad.’ (Lucifer)
● ‘You can’t just run away like that’
● ‘An inglorious end to your career’
● ‘I became a servant of Eros’
● ‘No longer a child playing at farming but a solid countrywoman’
● ‘The more things change the more they remain the same’
● ‘Being a father is a rather abstract process’
● ‘I wasn’t made for marriage’
● ‘Preying on children’
● ‘He does not like women who make no effort to be attractive’
● ‘To share some of our human privileges with the beasts’
● ‘Trying to make reparation for past misdeeds’
● ‘They like to slaughter in their own way’ (how owners put down their animals)
● ‘But only as long as I don’t have to become a better person.’
● ‘Bev is aware of you’ (of David)
● ‘Just leave my daughter alone’
