Theme Of Irony In J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace

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In Disgrace the author J. M. Coetzee presents the main character David Lurie with a series of ironic events throughout the novel. David Lurie is a professor at a university and rapes one of his students, Melanie Isaacs. As a result, David loses his job and decides to visit his daughter Lucy. While he is visiting his daughter they encounter two men and a boy who rape her. This is ironic, because David ends up going through the same trials that he caused Melanie’s loved ones. Now he is experiencing what they went through with his own daughter and is able to see their outlook on the situation. By paralleling the two rape cases, Coetzee uses the irony of the situation to finally make David understand his own wrongdoing.
Since David had raped Melanie Isaac it was eye-opening to see the same thing happen to his own daughter Lucy. Although David believed he did nothing wrong when he was with Melanie Isaacs, he was …show more content…

If we can’t trust the university, who can we trust? We never thought we were sending our daughter into a nest of vipers. No Professor Lurie, you may be high and mighty and have all kinds of degrees, but if I was you I’d be very ashamed of myself, so help me God. If I’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick, now is your chance to say, but I don’t think so I can see it in your face.” (38)
David was curious about the reasoning that Petrus had for not being on the farm the day of the Lucy’s rape. After the party he was sure Petrus had some involvement in Lucy rape even if it was indirectly. When David found out Petrus’ involvement in Lucy’s rape he also confronts him almost the exact same way, because he believed that Petrus was trustworthy in protecting Lucy. Petrus had been nothing but kind to both him and Lucy since he has been there until the incident. David could not take it anymore and wanted Petrus to admit to him about being involved, which is displayed in this

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