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Mr. Isaacs
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:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
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.
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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.
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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.
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Soraya Character Timeline in Disgrace
The timeline below shows where the character Soraya appears in Disgrace. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...fifty-two, twice divorced, and has “solved the problem of sex” by visiting a prostitute named Soraya every Thursday afternoon. In an apartment rented by the prostitution agency, he and Soraya have...
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David frequently “unburdens” himself by talking to Soraya about his private life, but she doesn’t tell him stories in return. Despite his willingness...
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The fact that his ninety-minute sessions with Soraya satisfy him so much surprises David. Indeed, he “used to think he needed a wife,...
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Several days later, David calls the prostitution agency and asks for Soraya, but they tell him they can’t give out her information. He books an appointment with...
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...something a person can ask a doctor to do, so he continues to obsess over Soraya, eventually tracking down her number and calling her at home. When she answers, she says,...
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Chapter 2
David is bored after Soraya leaves, so he spends the majority of his time in the library, researching Lord Byron...
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