David Lurie

David Lurie is a constantly evolving character. After he gets fired from his college and he has to move to the country, his morals and views change.

He starts out viewing women as objects for his pleasure and don't consider their opinion in his actions. In his relationship with Melanie, this view of women cost him his job. In this professor-student relationship, David pressured Melanie for sex when she didn't really want it. However, this does not justify the inquiry committee firing him from his job. By law their sexual relationship was legal and technically it wasn't rape. He refuses to admit he is wrong because he believes that he wasn't wrong. Melanie did accept his offers readily. The only thing wrong David could've happened is that Melanie had a boyfriend.

As he spends more time in the country with Lucy, his view towards women changes. Especially after she is raped, David treats women with more respect. As a white man, he is privileged in South Africa. Even though apartheid is over, he holds a position of power, although it makes him blind from the opinion of others. If he were to stay in Cape Town, his views probably would not have changed. He would've had no consequence for his actions and he would've thought that everything that he was doing was okay. He also would not have built his relationship with his daughter that was key to changing his view on women.

Eveline

Eveline is torn between two worlds: her past and her family in Dublin and a happy, married future with Frank. The life that she currently lives is hard and uneventful. Her mother and one of her brothers died and her other brother moved away. With no one to protect her, she is in constant fear of her father hurting her. Although her life is hard, she calls it "not wholly undesirable." She has shelter and food and she has stability in her life. Eveline also knows that her father has a soft side that comes out once in awhile. She says she has "a right to happiness." Frank promises to take her away to Buenos Aires and marry her. She can leave behind her past and start anew in an unknown country. However, seeing Frank is against Eveline's father's wishes and if she were to suddenly leave her home town, she would be ridiculed by the people there. Her life in Dublin is not perfect, but it is not bad either. Eveline in paralyzed in a sense that she has no clue whether to throw away her current life for Frank or not.

Her epiphany comes when she hears the street organ playing down her avenue. The night her mother died, an Italian organ player was playing. That night Eveline promised her dying mother that she would "keep the home together as long as she could." And Eveline's mother screamed as she died, "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" The memory haunted Eveline. Her reaction to escape was just reacting to terror. When she asks God on the docks what she should do, she has already made the decision to stay with her family. Eveline decided to keep true to her promise to her mother.

This is similar to the paralysis and epiphany in "Araby". The boy in "Araby" wishes for more than his going-nowhere life. He, too is paralyzed in the same spot. But his epiphany doesn't come by choice. When he realizes that the bazaar is some run-down place and that he can't afford anything there, he realizes that his life will remain paralyzed and he is forced to stay in the past.

Melanie

I knew he had his eye on me when he said, 'Hi.' His name was David Lurie, my Romantics professor. I've had no previous conversations with him until he approached me in the gardens on a Friday evening. Right away, he invited me to his home for a drink. I was hesitant at first but accepted his invitation. We talked a little of literature when he invited me to stay for supper. Again I was hesitant, unsure of his intentions, but again I accepted. Instead of desert, he offered a dance. I was not enthused at all and walked away as soon as we were done. He asked me to stay the night with him. I was charmed. I already had a boyfriend, but I had not been courted for some time and Professor Lurie was quite good at seducing women. I almost stayed, until he said, 'From fairest creatures we desire increase, that thereby beauty's rose might never die.' I left. Sunday he called. He asked me to join him for lunch. I could've denied his offer but was lost in confusion. I was not hungry, so he took me to his home and used my body for his pleasure.

Because of his relationship with Melanie, David Lurie gets fired from the college and thus starts his life on the farm and his "Disgrace." Melanie was just another woman that David imagined having a romantic relationship with. She wasn't at all interested in the relationship they had, but she wasn't exactly forced into it. Melanie let David do what he pleased. She had many opportunities to turn him down but she didn't have the willpower to say no. David could've recognized that she didn't really want any of this and could've stopped at any time. But his desire and her passiveness led to David's fall. When she decides to stay the night with him and to seem like she wants him, it is merely a trap. Melanie wants to recover on the work she missed and get David caught.