Within Joyce's "Eveline", the female protagonist is shown reflecting on her memories and past experiences in a place she has learned to call home. She sits against a window trying to determine her future fate. She has two choices, one to stay home and go on with her daily life or the second, to move away to Buenos Aires with her lover Frank, and live a new life. As she considers her situation, she undergoes a paralysis that ultimately leads her to an epiphany.
From the very beginning of the story, she recognizes that a part of her is unhappy with her life. The life she lives is a hard one; she is constantly working at either keeping the house together, working at the store, or taking care of two children by taking them to school and providing them with meals. Moreover, she is quite lonely. Her mother and brother have passed away, her other brother is always traveling, and all of her childhood friends have either died or moved away. Furthermore, while she lives at home with her father, she fears him as "he had begun to threaten her" while "she had nobody to protect her". Yet, in further pondering her situation, she seems reluctant to leave. As she is writing out her goodbye letters to her father and brother she realizes that they would miss her as much as she would miss them, "She liked Harry...her father...he would miss her. Sometimes he could be very nice." She even goes on to remember how she had promised her mother "to keep the home together as long as she could."
The same night, as she is about to leave to Buenos Aires with Frank, she experiences a sudden paralysis. She is literally unable to move as she clings onto an iron railing petrified by her surroundings, the ship and the sea:
"All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing."
Only then does she come to terms with her epiphany that she can not leave her home in attempts to build a new one, "No! No! No! It was impossible."
She had previously convinced herself that she could escape her life by moving away with Frank. In doing so she could build a new one full of love and happiness. But at the end, she comes to terms with her true feelings towards her home, family, and Frank. She realizes she really doesn't love him as she had originally assumed, "her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition" and that giving up her current situation wouldn't necessarily guarantee her a better one.
In the novel Disgrace, Lucy experiences a very similar situation. After her attack, for a long time she experiences a paralysis, not physically but mentally. Although she tries to move on with her life as though nothing has happened she is unable to do so as demonstrated by the drastic change in her personality. Furthermore, she constantly stays locked up in her room. When David asks her to sell her land and leave her home in the hopes of providing her a better life, she comes to an epiphany that no matter what she can not leave her home. That leaving home, won't guarantee her a better life. Even when she accepts Petrus' proposal for marriage in exchange for her land, she accepts with the condition that she still keeps her house, her home.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A mistake
Melanie's experience with David...
No. Not again. I can't believe this is happening to me. It's all my fault. I mean, I hadn't known that I couldn't have trusted him, but when he asked me to join him for a drink, I said okay. I said okay even though I felt uncomfortable. Maybe if I said no thank you, this wouldn't have happened. I was just so confused, and then he asked me out for lunch... I didn't have to say yes, but I assumed lunch was casual, so it was probably no big deal. How could I think that? I should have known to ignore him after he asked me to sleep with him the night before. But I didn't know what to do or who to tell. I should have told him flat out no, why didn't I stop him? I didn't like what he was doing to me, but I didn't make him stop. Why? So that it could be done and over with, maybe then he would leave me alone, but no. Here I am again. I should have slammed the door on his face, when he tried to force his way in. Telling him no wasn't enough, it didn't stop him. And now it's happened all over again. Oh god! Just make him go away! "Please you must go."
As the door slams shut, the gurgling of a sob threatens to let loose. Aching, I quickly rush to shower, to cleanse myself clean. As the hot water hits my face, my tears rush out as a mass, blurring my vision. I have just been raped.
Analysis
Throughout the entire novel, Melanie is given such a small voice. Although we suspect that she dislikes David, and is forced to have sex with David multiple times, we can't be sure. For instance, there are several times within the novel where David makes us think otherwise. When Melanie comes over in a need for a place to stay, David makes it seem as though she wants to be with him, "she is quick and greedy for the experience...one moment stands out in recollection, when she hooks a leg behind his buttocks to draw him in closer...feels a surge of joy and pleasure" (29). By reading this, it seems as though Melanie is enjoying herself as much as David is. By coming over to David's house willingly, we might assume that this relationship means something to Melanie. Although, David's perception makes us think this, we also have to realize that this is the only instance that asserts such a possibility. If we actually analyze Melanie's entire experience with David we can claim otherwise. For example, throughout the times Melanie sleeps with David she is quite passive,"all she does is avert herself: avert her lips, avert her eyes...and turns her back on him" (25) This demonstrates the fact that she does not appreciate David's sexual advances. Instead she feels helpless and uncomfortable. She is tangled in a web of emotions. At times she may think that what is happening to her is her fault. This may explain why she isn't so resistant towards David,and goes back to him in desperation. As a character, Melanie's actions are conflicting and confusing. Without any insight in regards to her emotions, we as readers can't be sure how she actually feels. This narrative shows the complexity involved with Melanie's situation that we may not appreciate or realize from David's narrative alone.
No. Not again. I can't believe this is happening to me. It's all my fault. I mean, I hadn't known that I couldn't have trusted him, but when he asked me to join him for a drink, I said okay. I said okay even though I felt uncomfortable. Maybe if I said no thank you, this wouldn't have happened. I was just so confused, and then he asked me out for lunch... I didn't have to say yes, but I assumed lunch was casual, so it was probably no big deal. How could I think that? I should have known to ignore him after he asked me to sleep with him the night before. But I didn't know what to do or who to tell. I should have told him flat out no, why didn't I stop him? I didn't like what he was doing to me, but I didn't make him stop. Why? So that it could be done and over with, maybe then he would leave me alone, but no. Here I am again. I should have slammed the door on his face, when he tried to force his way in. Telling him no wasn't enough, it didn't stop him. And now it's happened all over again. Oh god! Just make him go away! "Please you must go."
As the door slams shut, the gurgling of a sob threatens to let loose. Aching, I quickly rush to shower, to cleanse myself clean. As the hot water hits my face, my tears rush out as a mass, blurring my vision. I have just been raped.
Analysis
Throughout the entire novel, Melanie is given such a small voice. Although we suspect that she dislikes David, and is forced to have sex with David multiple times, we can't be sure. For instance, there are several times within the novel where David makes us think otherwise. When Melanie comes over in a need for a place to stay, David makes it seem as though she wants to be with him, "she is quick and greedy for the experience...one moment stands out in recollection, when she hooks a leg behind his buttocks to draw him in closer...feels a surge of joy and pleasure" (29). By reading this, it seems as though Melanie is enjoying herself as much as David is. By coming over to David's house willingly, we might assume that this relationship means something to Melanie. Although, David's perception makes us think this, we also have to realize that this is the only instance that asserts such a possibility. If we actually analyze Melanie's entire experience with David we can claim otherwise. For example, throughout the times Melanie sleeps with David she is quite passive,"all she does is avert herself: avert her lips, avert her eyes...and turns her back on him" (25) This demonstrates the fact that she does not appreciate David's sexual advances. Instead she feels helpless and uncomfortable. She is tangled in a web of emotions. At times she may think that what is happening to her is her fault. This may explain why she isn't so resistant towards David,and goes back to him in desperation. As a character, Melanie's actions are conflicting and confusing. Without any insight in regards to her emotions, we as readers can't be sure how she actually feels. This narrative shows the complexity involved with Melanie's situation that we may not appreciate or realize from David's narrative alone.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Imperfect change
From the very beginning of the novel, David Lurie is presented most disgustingly as a man who lacks respect for women and goes on to quickly exploit them. Within the first several pages, we discover that David has been divorced twice, sleeps with prostitutes, has affairs with married women and coworkers, and furthermore pursuits to sexually harass his own students. His status as a white male professor, of modest income, grants him with a variety of privileges, that he uses to his advantage. His relationship with Soraya, a prostitute, is purely a physical one. Soraya is illustrated as a married mother of two, who most likely resorts to prostitution as a needed source of income. David, as a man of modest income, takes advantage of this, "For a ninety minute session he pays her R400, of which half goes to Discreet Escorts". (2) After his relationship ends with Soraya, he has a fling with another prostitute named Soraya. Unsatisfied, he pursuits another relationship with a new secretary within his department named Dawn. This ends badly, "It is a failure...he drives her back to campus". (9) As if he hasn't had enough sex, he notices one of his students named Melanie, "It is no great matter: barely a term passes when he does not fall for one or other of his charges. Cape Town: a city prodigal of beauty, of beauties" (12). Although David knows better, he stalks her and eventually has sex with her several times without her approval, "Not rape, not quite that, but undesired nevertheless, undesired to the core" (25).
Earlier within the novel, David merely objectifies women, "a woman's beauty does not belong to her alone. It is part of the bounty she brings into the world. She has a duty to share it" (16). In objectifying woman, he is disregarding their thoughts, emotions, and intellect. He thinks nothing of women, except of the pleasure they give to men. However, throughout the novel, David's perspective gradually experiences change. When David visits his daughter Lucy, he is shown as a caring, sensitive, and overprotective father. He is proud of what his daughter has accomplished as an independant strong willed woman . Even more so, he acknowledges that his daughter Lucy is a lesbian and claims that it is unnecessary for a woman to seek out the company of a man, "in each he recognizes a statement of independence, considered, purposeful. The turn away from men too. Making her own life. Coming out of his shadow. Good! He approves!" David's attitude towards woman has gone through a drastic change. He is shown respecting Lucy, not only as his daughter, but as a woman.
After the incident of the three men breaking into Lucy's home, robbing most of their belongings including David's car, and beating him up, let alone putting him on fire, David's only concern is Lucy. He is completely outraged at these men for what they have done to Lucy, " I want those men to be caught and brought before the law and punished" and "a flurry of anger runs through him...violation...yes it was a violation...yes, it was an outrage" (119). Earlier within the novel, David took advantage of woman, he exploited them on the basis of his own desires. When he was convicted he did not plead guilty, but instead expressed his need to fulfill and justify his own desires as he became a servant of Eros. As the tables turned, his own daughter had been taken advantage of and made the victim, the exploited. Similarly, these men justified their actions on the notion of desire. They too, were "enriched by the experience"(56) as David was.
Upset, David realizes the irony within the situation, but instead of showing regret for his actions, he thinks "How they put her in her place, how they showed her what a woman was for" (115). This line demonstrates that although David has changed, he has not changed completely. While acknowledging the wrong implied by men in unjustly taking advantage of women, David still believes that women are objects. He does not insist how these men tried to put her in her place and show her what she was for, considering all that Lucy did: moving on with her life, overcoming this obstacle. Instead he emphasizes the fact that she is a woman and how this has made her vulnerable that perhaps living alone on a farm is no longer a good idea, "What are our plans?...to go back to the farm...and then?...then to go on as before...be sensible Lucy. Things have changed.We cant just pick up where we left...why not?...because it's not safe" (105).
Throughout the novel David changes in a variety of ways to a range of degrees. His different attitude towards women echos one of these changes. Slowly throughout the novel, we as readers can gradually start to understand David and even more so, slightly begin to appreciate him for his struggles. In coming to terms with himself, his identity and his life, we realize that he is merely human. Like us he is imperfect.
Earlier within the novel, David merely objectifies women, "a woman's beauty does not belong to her alone. It is part of the bounty she brings into the world. She has a duty to share it" (16). In objectifying woman, he is disregarding their thoughts, emotions, and intellect. He thinks nothing of women, except of the pleasure they give to men. However, throughout the novel, David's perspective gradually experiences change. When David visits his daughter Lucy, he is shown as a caring, sensitive, and overprotective father. He is proud of what his daughter has accomplished as an independant strong willed woman . Even more so, he acknowledges that his daughter Lucy is a lesbian and claims that it is unnecessary for a woman to seek out the company of a man, "in each he recognizes a statement of independence, considered, purposeful. The turn away from men too. Making her own life. Coming out of his shadow. Good! He approves!" David's attitude towards woman has gone through a drastic change. He is shown respecting Lucy, not only as his daughter, but as a woman.
After the incident of the three men breaking into Lucy's home, robbing most of their belongings including David's car, and beating him up, let alone putting him on fire, David's only concern is Lucy. He is completely outraged at these men for what they have done to Lucy, " I want those men to be caught and brought before the law and punished" and "a flurry of anger runs through him...violation...yes it was a violation...yes, it was an outrage" (119). Earlier within the novel, David took advantage of woman, he exploited them on the basis of his own desires. When he was convicted he did not plead guilty, but instead expressed his need to fulfill and justify his own desires as he became a servant of Eros. As the tables turned, his own daughter had been taken advantage of and made the victim, the exploited. Similarly, these men justified their actions on the notion of desire. They too, were "enriched by the experience"(56) as David was.
Upset, David realizes the irony within the situation, but instead of showing regret for his actions, he thinks "How they put her in her place, how they showed her what a woman was for" (115). This line demonstrates that although David has changed, he has not changed completely. While acknowledging the wrong implied by men in unjustly taking advantage of women, David still believes that women are objects. He does not insist how these men tried to put her in her place and show her what she was for, considering all that Lucy did: moving on with her life, overcoming this obstacle. Instead he emphasizes the fact that she is a woman and how this has made her vulnerable that perhaps living alone on a farm is no longer a good idea, "What are our plans?...to go back to the farm...and then?...then to go on as before...be sensible Lucy. Things have changed.We cant just pick up where we left...why not?...because it's not safe" (105).
Throughout the novel David changes in a variety of ways to a range of degrees. His different attitude towards women echos one of these changes. Slowly throughout the novel, we as readers can gradually start to understand David and even more so, slightly begin to appreciate him for his struggles. In coming to terms with himself, his identity and his life, we realize that he is merely human. Like us he is imperfect.
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