Soraya Character Analysis in Disgrace

A prostitute David visits in the beginning of Disgrace. David sees Soraya every Thursday night and feels that their appointments completely satisfy his sexual desires. However, he happens to see her in public with her two sons one day, and this brief encounter drives her away from him. The next Thursday, she tells him that she won’t be there in the future because she has to go home to care for her mother. And though he knows he shouldn’t, David eventually tracks her down and calls her at home, but she tells him that he’s “harassing” her and that she never wants to hear from him again.

Soraya Quotes in Disgrace

The Disgrace quotes below are all either spoken by Soraya or refer to Soraya. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

).

Because he takes pleasure in her, because his pleasure is unfailing, an affection has grown up in him for her. To some degree, he believes, this affection is reciprocated. Affection may not be love, but it is at least its cousin.

Related Characters: David Lurie, Soraya

Page Number and Citation: 1

Explanation and Analysis:

He has toyed with the idea of asking her to see him in her own time. He would like to spend an evening with her, perhaps even a whole night. But not the morning after. He knows too much about himself to subject her to a morning after, when he will be cold, surly, impatient to be alone.

That is his temperament. His temperament is not going to change, he is too old for that. His temperament is fixed, set. The skull, followed by the temperament: the two hardest parts of the body.

Related Characters: David Lurie, Soraya

Page Number and Citation: 2

Explanation and Analysis:

It surprises him that ninety minutes a week of a woman’s company are enough to make him happy, who used to think he needed a wife, a home, a marriage. His needs turn out to be quite light, after all, light and fleeting, like those of a butterfly. No emotion, or none but the deepest, the most unguessed-at: a ground bass of contentedness, like the hum of traffic that lulls the city-dweller to sleep, or like the silence of the night to countryfolk.

Related Characters: David Lurie, Soraya

Page Number and Citation: 5

Explanation and Analysis:

Soraya Quotes in Disgrace

The Disgrace quotes below are all either spoken by Soraya or refer to Soraya. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

).

Because he takes pleasure in her, because his pleasure is unfailing, an affection has grown up in him for her. To some degree, he believes, this affection is reciprocated. Affection may not be love, but it is at least its cousin.

Related Characters: David Lurie, Soraya

Page Number and Citation: 1

Explanation and Analysis:

He has toyed with the idea of asking her to see him in her own time. He would like to spend an evening with her, perhaps even a whole night. But not the morning after. He knows too much about himself to subject her to a morning after, when he will be cold, surly, impatient to be alone.

That is his temperament. His temperament is not going to change, he is too old for that. His temperament is fixed, set. The skull, followed by the temperament: the two hardest parts of the body.

Related Characters: David Lurie, Soraya

Page Number and Citation: 2

Explanation and Analysis:

It surprises him that ninety minutes a week of a woman’s company are enough to make him happy, who used to think he needed a wife, a home, a marriage. His needs turn out to be quite light, after all, light and fleeting, like those of a butterfly. No emotion, or none but the deepest, the most unguessed-at: a ground bass of contentedness, like the hum of traffic that lulls the city-dweller to sleep, or like the silence of the night to countryfolk.

Related Characters: David Lurie, Soraya

Page Number and Citation: 5

Explanation and Analysis: