Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Character Relationship in "Disgrace", by J. M. Coetzee, David…
Character Relationship in "Disgrace", by J. M. Coetzee
-
-
"Well, contrary to what you think, people are not divided into major and minor. I am not minor. I have a life of my own, just as important to me as yours is to you, and in my life I am the one who makes the decisions.’"
(p. 193).
"He is offering an alliance, a deal. I contribute the land, in return for which I am allowed to creep in under his wing. Otherwise, he wants to remind me, I am without protection, I am fair game.’" (p. 198).
"‘Mr Isaacs, I am just causing upset in your home,’ he says. ‘It was kind of you to invite me, I appreciate it, but it is better that I leave.’" (p. 166).
"Pollux turns out to be a brother of Petrus’s wife’s. Whether that means a real brother I don’t know. But Petrus has obligations obligations toward him, family obligations."
(p. 195).
Petrus is responsible for Pollux, so he is seen as the superior one in their relationship
Petrus is superior to Lucy since she sees herself forced to marry him for protection. He has to give him her land so that she can be "Under his wing", meaning he will literally be her owner.
Although David is Lucy's father, they never act as if he is supperior to her. They have a respecting relationship but David in no way controls or even influences Lucy's decisions. She makes it extreamely clear in this quote.
Some might even claim that Lucy is slightly superior to David, seeing that he is taking refuge in her house. He needs her in order to have a place to stay and things to occupy her mind with.
"'Lucy tells me the boy is back again,' he says. 'Pollux. The boy who attacked her.'"
‘What if we don’t call it a visit? What if we call it refuge? Would you accept refuge on an indefinite basis?’e (p. 63)
Pollux is superior to Lucy as he is a man who broke into her house and stole many things from it. He was also a man who raped her, abusing of her body and herself. Due to this Lucy is felt to be someone who does not have power over him, because of his actions
"Not rape, not quite that, but undesired nevertheless, undesired to the core." (p. 23).
David is seen as superior to Melanie because, as some might argue, he forces himself on her multiple times. However, he is also superior because he is a professor with more knowledge and because she depends on him to have a place to stay.
-
Mr Isaacs is seen as superior to David since David goes to ask for forgiveness for his actions. David is also inferior since Mr. Isaacs is part of what caused him to leave the university, meaning that he has pover over David.
"We put our children in the hands of you people because we think we can trust you. If we can't trust the university, who can we trust? We never thought we were sending our daughter into a nest of vipers" (page 17)
Here we are able to see the superiority that mr. Isaacs has over where his daughter goes and what classes she takes. We can also notice that he is confronting David instead of having Melanie do it, which shows how he is controlling the actions towards a subject including his daughter.