3. Confident
The word ‘confident’ here is not a surprising fact because this quality sometimes follows someone who has quick and clever mind more than the others
do. Confidence shows one’s strong quality that is positively used to face the reality. With this quality, one will always have a dream in his life because he
believes that he can do the best. However, this quality will emerge as the story flows and finds its end.
As a lecturer in the university, David Lurie does not meet any serious matter in teaching the subjects. He feels confident when he is teaching in front of
the class. He does not care about the situation and the condition of the class. He keeps doing what he must do as a lecturer. It can be seen in the following
quotation.
Usually there is a buzz of talk from the students. Today there is a hush… ‘We continue with Byron,’ he says, plunging into his notes. ‘As we saw
last week, notoriety and scandal affected not only Byron’s life but the way in which his poems were received by the public. Byron the man found
himself conflated with his own poetic creations-with Harold, Manfred, even Don Juan’ Coetzee, 1999: 31.
David seems to understand his position in the class. He knows that the way he
gives the material will influence the class. If he is less confident, the students will not really get the points that he wants to share in front of the class. He needs his
purposes for this class to be fulfilled. As a result, he has to control his manner in front of the class by showing his confidence.
The material that he gives in the class somehow portrays his confidence in his abilities and his traits. He does not count the situation in his surroundings. He
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just focuses on himself. His material that talks about the Romantic Poets, in this case Lord Byron, does not to fit with the culture in where he lives now.
When David Lurie encounters a problem with his student, Melanie Isaacs, he feels confident that he will pass it. Although he knows that it is a serious
matter, he does not feel nervous. It is seen when he does not care with others’ opinions; he believes everything is in his hands.
He does not feel nervous. On the contrary, he feels quiet sure of himself. His heart beats evenly, he has slept well. Vanity, he thinks, the dangerous
vanity of the gambler; vanity and self-righteousness. He is going into this wrong spirit. But he does not care Coetzee, 1999: 47.
Furthermore, David realises that he is somehow in the wrong side but he still
keeps on his way. He does not want to be the guilty one. He continues to have a strong belief in his points about this “sexual harassment” matter. It seems that this
quality brings David to the wrong direction. He becomes a person who does not want to see every single problem from the others’ point of views. He just wants to
see it from his own perspective. From the conversation between David Lurie and Mr. Isaacs, it seems that
David can manage his emotion well. He tries to explain the story of ‘sexual harassment’ that happens to Melanie Isaacs from his point of view. At first, he
thinks that he is a bit nervous about it but he is not. “He had expected to be tense, but in fact finds himself quite calm” Coetzee, 1999: 165. This statement
becomes unusual and surprising when it is looked from the serious matter that he talks about. In this way, the character of David Lurie has a strong confidence on
himself, although, it is known that it might be a misled confident feeling since he neglects the situation and condition that he deals with.
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