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Representation Of Women In Coetzee's Disgrace Analysis

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The Representation of Women in Coetzee’s Disgrace

“That is what their visitors have achieved; that is what they have done to this confident, modern young woman. Like a stain the story is spreading across the district. Not her story to spread but theirs: they are its owners. How they put her in her place, how they showed her what a woman was for.” (Coetzee, Ch14, p115)

Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee is a novel that portrays a bad image of the representation of women. This quotation above emphasises the disregard and lack of respect that is shown towards women. Exploitation and use of women is common by certain characters such as David Lurie, the main protagonist and the three rapists who disturbingly rape Lucy. Throughout the novel there are many different incidents with important characters that justify this thesis statement. Females are portrayed by Coetzee as being weak and vulnerable people that are always in the shadow of superior men. However some female characters like Soraya the prostitute, eventually overrule their men counterparts and stand up for their own cause after periods of hardship and exploitation. Characters such as Melanie Isaacs, Lucy Lurie and Bev Shaw all illustrate vividly the bad image that is associated with females at this current point in society through their everyday experiences. J. M. Coetzee brilliantly expresses the hardship and the poor way women are represented through his literacy techniques and through the realism of the history of this

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