Disgrace: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

On Monday, Melanie doesn’t come to David’s office. When he checks his faculty mailbox, he finds “an official withdrawal card” with her name on it, and an hour later receives a call from her father. “Professor,” Mr. Isaacs says, “I wonder if you can help us. Melanie has been such a good student, and now she says she is going to give it all up.” Continuing, he asks David to talk some sense into Melanie, since she has always spoken highly of him. Awkwardly, David says he’ll “see what [he] can do,” later telling himself that he won’t “get away with” this. Still, he calls Melanie at home to speak to her, but her cousin answers and tells him she won’t come to the phone. In the coming days, attendance is down in his classes, and he senses that everybody knows what’s happening.

One afternoon during this period, David is surprised to hear Mr. Isaacs’s voice behind him in the department’s common space. “Professor,” Isaacs says in front of several secretaries and students, “You may be very educated and all that, but what you have done is not right.” As David cowers before him, Isaacs says that parents trust people like him with their children and that he should be “ashamed” of himself for what he’s done. Hearing this, David tries to duck away, rushing down the hall as Isaacs shouts after him, saying, “You have not heard the last of it, I tell you now!”

David receives a notice from the Vice-Rector’s office the following morning. The message tells him that a student has filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. As he reads this, he thinks about how Melanie wouldn’t have “taken such a step by herself,” thinking that her father must have urged her to do this. That evening, he goes to a meeting at the Vice-Rector’s office, where Aram Hakim—the Vice-Rector—welcomes him. Inside, David finds the chair of his department, Elaine Winter, and the chair of the university’s “committee on discrimination,” Farodia Rassool. As he takes his seat, Elaine—who he believes has never liked him because she sees him as leftover personnel in her department—explains that, in addition  to Melanie’s sexual harassment complaint, they are also investigating the fact that David marked her as present even though Melanie has indicated that she hasn’t been attending class.

“I have no defence,” David says, regarding both Melanie’s complaint and his fraudulent attendance records. At this point, Hakim interjects and assures David that this isn’t a hearing, but simply an opportunity to “clarify procedure.” He then says that there will be a disciplinary committee that will hear his case. He also suggests that David seek legal counsel, and when David begins to object to this, he urges him to “sleep on it.” “Don’t tell me what to do, I’m not a child,” David erupts, leaving the office in a fit of anger, though he has to wait at the building’s front door for Hakim to unlock it for him. On their way to the parking lot, Hakim expresses his “sympathy,” saying that these situations are very difficult, but David merely “shrugs” and drives away. 

News of David’s scandal begins to circulate even though the upcoming hearing is supposed to be “confidential.” A lawyer he used for one of his divorces tells him that he should have a woman represent him during the hearing and that he should “minimize the damage” by appearing willing to undergo certain restorative measures, like counseling—a suggestion that frustrates David. One night, he has dinner with Rosalind, one of his ex-wives, and she brings up the “problems” he’s having at the university. “Am I allowed to tell you how stupid it looks?” she asks, and when he says no, she pushes on, saying, “I will anyway. Stupid, and ugly too.” Going on, she tells him not to “expect sympathy” from her or anybody else. The next morning, Rosalind calls and tells him that a local paper has written very unflattering things about him.