Is Elias van Rooyen in 'Fiela's Child' by Dalene Matthee to be despised or pitied?

Elias van Rooyen is a strong character in the novel "Fiela's Child". He leads a normal life, making beams for money, but the money he makes is 'only just enough to live on' (pg 3). After Lukas is sent back to live with the van Rooyen's after the court case, and this is where we start to get to know Elias better. But the way he treats Lukas, Nina and his wife, and the way he …

…we can see that he is not that bad as towards the end of the novel, when the children are more grown up, he seems nicer and more relaxed. He does love his family and he is only strict and the beginning, because he needs to be. He does everything he can so they have enough money to live on, the only way in which he should be despised, is the way he treats Barta.