Disgrace (Part II)

1. Disgrace (Part II) Crystal Haynes Will Beaudouin Simone Badshah

2. David now lives in disgrace……… • Novel tracks his transformation from ignorant/indifferent to open-minded • Makes peace with his old age • “A woman’s beauty does not belong to her alone. It is part of the beauty she brings into the world. She must share it…” (16) • Old David Lurie

3. Lord Byron as inspiration • David Lurie admires Lord Byron’s passionate, romantic life. • Lord Byron was an English poet and leading figure in the Romantic movement. • Celebrated in life for aristocratic excesses (huge debts), good looks/ athletic body, love affairs, scandals (intimacy with his half sister) • Inherited wealth from dead uncle • After splitting from one of his wives in 1815 (marriage said to be full of scandal) he went abroad, never returning to Europe • Europe’s most famous exile

4. Lord Byron continued…. • In 1817, he had an illegitimate daughter named Allegra. She lived with him for a few months • He temporarily left her in a convent in Ravenna to be educated at a convent. A year after he returned to her, she died of malaria • “then Byron hears the voice of his daughter Allegra, “Why have you left me? Come and fetch me! SO hot……… 5 year old neglected by her famous father. Has been passsed from hand to hand……….and finally given to nuns.. She is dying of la mal’ aria. “Why have you forgotten me” (186) • David feels he has left/neglected Lucy to die on the farm. He dreams about Lucy calling him after the attack • David feels he didn’t do his job as a father to protect her

5. Byron and Teresa…. • 1819: Byron starting to look older but falls for Countess Teresa Guicciolo • She was 19, married to man 3x her age • Byron courted her in Ravenna • In Ravenna, he was brought into closer touch with the life of the Italian people than ever before • Mirrors how David travels Salem and is more in touch with emotions/frustrations of people in South Africa due to apartheid……got closer to his daughter • Happiest most productive time of his life • Most productive time of David’s life

6. David’s opening heart • “Can he find it in his heart to love this plain ordinary woman?.....If he cannot, what is left for him?” (182) • Can David love someone even if they appear to be of a lower class than him • Can he love Lucy as a peasant • David begins to warm up to the bulldog Katy (no longer calls her a bitch), warms up to animals in general • Becomes more openminded and has a better understanding of women

7. Dogs • Dogs as white South Africans, their protectors • Historically, dogs were brought to South African by European colonists • Confrontation between black South Africans and dogs. • “[D]ogs are bred to snarl at the mere smell of a black man” (110) • “They are part of the furniture, part of the alarm system” (78) • “The dogs are brought to the clinic because they are unwanted: because we are too menny.” (146) • “’Perhaps that is what I must learn to accept. To start at ground level. With nothing…’‘Like a dog.’ ‘Yes, like a dog’” (205)

8. The Rise of Petrus • Petrus representing the idealistic Black man emerging from oppression post-Apartheid • “‘I am the gardener and the dog-man.’”(64) • “‘No more dogs. I am not any more the dog-man.’” (129) • “‘It was history speaking through them,’ he offers at last. ‘A history of wrong. Think of it that way, if it helps. It may have seemed personal, but it wasn’t. It came down from the ancestors.’” (156) • “‘What if… what if that is the price one has to pay for staying on? …. They see me as owing something…. Why should I be allowed to live here without paying?’” (158) • “ His daughter is becoming a peasant.” (217) • “ ‘Yes. He is a child. He is my family, my people.’” (201)