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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Disgrace, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Desire and Power
Shame, Remorse, and Vanity
Violence and Empathy
Love and Support
Time and Change
Summary
Analysis
One day at the Animal Welfare League, Bev turns to David and remarks that he “must be used to a different kind of life.” When he asks her what she means, she suggests that he surely misses “having women friends.” This conversation leads her to say that she assumes he’s bored in the Eastern Cape, and he points out that at least he’s “out of the way of temptation.” As soon as the words leave his mouth, though, he realizes this is a mean thing to say, and so he tries to picture Bev as a young woman. Then, “on an impulse,” he “reaches out and runs a finger over her lips,” and she doesn’t move away. The following day, Bev calls him and asks him to meet her at the clinic, where they have sex on blankets laid out over the floor.
David regrets saying that he’s “out of the way of temptation” because this statement implies that he would never be “tempted” by someone like Bev. It’s worth noting that he then forces an abrupt display of intimacy by touching Bev’s lips, as if he can make up for this mean-spirited comment by giving her the gift of his touch. Of course, it is this vain belief that anyone would be delighted to be touched by him that got him in trouble in the first place, since he never truly stopped to consider whether or not Melanie wanted to go through with their relationship. It seems that David still hasn’t changed very much, despite his daughter’s rape and his newfound commitment to treating helpless animals.
Themes
After having sex, Bev and David lie on the blankets, and David thinks, “After the sweet young flesh of Melanie Isaacs, this is what I have come to. This is what I will have to get used to, this and even less than this.” As he continues to think about “poor Bev Shaw,” he realizes that he should stop referring to her by this name in his head. After all, “if she is poor, he is bankrupt.”
Although it might be the case that David’s sexual impulses haven’t necessarily changed, it’s clear that he has undergone at least a small transformation. After all, he never would have slept with Bev Shaw if he weren’t living in a state of disgrace, since he finds her frustratingly unattractive. More significantly, though, the mere fact that he acknowledges how unfair it is to disparage Bev in his mind suggests that he has actually gained a new sense of self-awareness, finally admitting some of his own shortcomings.
Themes
