Lurie's stubbornness and unwillingness to compromise or comply with those around him demonstrates that he has the characteristics of a difficult, old man, especially when his actions conflict with the standards set by society. Thus, Lurie's character can be perceived as disagreeable. During his trial, for example, he refuses to apologize for his affair with Melanie in front his peers who form the inquiry committee. The committee explicitly informs him that if he apologizes, by giving them a statement that contains an admission of his crime, and is willing to go to counseling, then he would be given time off to reflect on his actions before returning to his post. Rather than apologizing, however, he only states that he is, "'Guilty as charged,'" and in his defense claims that, "'I was not myself. I was no longer a fifty-year-old divorce at a loose end. I became a servant of Eros'" (51, 52). Unbeknownst to the committee, here he justifies his acts of sexual fulfillment, not limited to Melanie, to himself by proclaiming that he is a servant of the god of love and sexual desire. In truth, however, having sexual relations with a prostitute, his secretary, and a young woman, whom he is old enough to be the father of, simply portrays him as a lecherous and promiscuous fifty-year-old man. For his age, his actions and relationships with women are inappropriate to society. Hence, Lurie can easily be interpreted as distasteful.
Because Lurie refuses to apologize, the university forces him to resign as a professor. Immediately afterwards, Lurie flees to the country to take refuge in his daughter’s home. Compared to the complexity in city life, where his relationships with women are limited to only sexual relations, he is able to establish real, honest relationships with Lucy and Bev Shaw in the countryside. He becomes more concerned and protective of his daughter, Lucy, and learns to confide in Bev Shaw while they had sexual relations, demonstrating that he is intimate and is willing to connect with these women more so than any of the women he comes in contact with when he was a professor in the city.
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Your analysis of David is spot on, you quoted what is, in my opinoin, one of the best and most inightful lines about David, the "I am a servant of eros," i believe that, that line completely sums up David. I also liked how you showed his change in the second paragraph.
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