Thematic Concern of The Sense of an Ending
Introduction
Julian Barnes is a contemporary English
writer of Postmodernism in literature. He was more famous for his prosaic
style, who was born in Leister on 19 January 1946 and was educated at the city
of London school and magladen college Oxford.
The Sense of an Ending is about the
person’s memory of youthful days. The novella is divided into two divisions. The
divisions are entitled as Part1 and Part2. The first part begins in the
1960s.It begins with four intellectually arrogant school friends. We are told
two friends out of four. The first one is Tony Webster who is the narrator of
the story and the second one is Adrian the most talented and intelligent among
four.
When they were in the last year of the
college, a boy killed himself after getting a girl pregnant. Thus, The Sense of
an Ending is not just person’s story; it is a story of a network of
relationships between Tony Webster and Veronica but whose ending is this! That
we cannot understand.
Themes
Julian Barnes here justifies the
Universal Truth that “One cannot know what he does not know” – with the
reference of Tony Webster that he never understand the words of Veronica, When
Tony asked Veronica bout the Money at that time she replied with very tragic
answer “Blood Money”. When Tony asked
about other things at that time Veronica also replied with unaccepted answer: -
"You still don’t get it. You never
did, and you never will. So stop even trying”.
The central theme of the novel is
weakness of memory. Through the narrative of Tony Webster and his search for
reason of Adrian’s death tries to justify one thing that is imperfection of
memory, how our partial memory mislead us! Throughout the novel, writer tries
to prove human memory and how it creates assumption on human mind.
As ‘The Sense of an Ending’ is memory
novel, narrative also tries to give effect of fragmented memory. In the first
part Tony tells his story of schooldays, all the events are in order and narrative
has particular flow. But at the end of the first part narrative moves faster
like “Time passes” section of ‘To the Lighthouse’. In only a paragraph the
narrator tells about his marriage and divorce with Margaret, story of 40 years
is told in some lines only. And the second part moves so slowly that, events
are some but covers half novel.
In first part the narrator tells the
story of 40 years ago. He says the events which he knows and considers as
important. Second section is much important, because there is an event happen
to Tony and he becomes nostalgic and narrates another event of his past. He
tries to revaluate his past. In this
revaluation, he narrates the event of his past with different dimension and
which are not so important according to his memory. Like, his letter to Adrian
and Veronica, he informs when and why he wrote, which he did not narrate in
first section before 40 years ago. This suggests that how memory is partial and
fragmented.
“Well, in one sense, I can’t know what
it is that I don’t know. That’s philosophically Self-evident.” Adrian’s this
sentence is heart of the novel. Because of imperfection and weakness of memory,
we cannot reach to reality as we have an assumption that whatever our memory
suggests is only reality. Tony did not get sense about many things, about young
Adrian; because his memory tells him one thing that Adrian has relationship
with Veronica. Having this memory, he is in assumption that, young Adrian may
is Veronica and Adrian’s son. He even doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, means
he cannot bring himself out of his memory and cannot have view that, perhaps
Adrian had relationship with other.
So, he cannot even guess that, Adrian
was in love with Mrs. Sarah Ford! The mysterious story is actually invented to
show how memory works. The writer clearly tells many interesting lines about
memory, which shows that the main theme, core idea of the novel is to show
imperfection of memory. Even the theme itself deconstructs Tony’s narration
with his own soliloquies!
History:
With criticising memory, the novel also
questions history. One of the central ideas the novel pointed is unreliability
of history. “‘History is that certainty produced at the point where the
imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.’ ” It clearly
says that what we believe history as truth is unreliable.
If human memory is partial than one cannot
rely history or documentation done by man with his partial memory. With history
classes of Old Joe Hunt, novel tries to develop this idea. The discussion about
causes of world war, history is questioned. Adrian with example of Robson, very
beautifully describes history as unreliable and not truth. Many ways novel
tries to deconstruct given history.
It has some very good lines about
history. The novel also focuses on objectiveness of historian. Because, one
cannot be objective, as he cannot come out from his personal assumptions and
cast of mind though he want to be. Even he cannot know what he doesn’t know.
So, what the historian describes is according to his partial memory, imperfect
knowledge and personal perceptions.
For objecting history, narrator gives
his own example and his life, his story, (which he told) his mind, memory which
cannot get sense are portrayed to prove how one cannot reach to the truth and
creates stories, how one makes time personal and invents different version of
past! As narrator says, “The history that happens underneath our noses ought to
be the clearest, and yet it’s the most deliquescent. We live in time, it bounds
us and defines us, and time is supposed to measure history, isn’t it? But if we
can’t understand time, can’t grasp its mysteries of pace and progress, what
chance do we have with history—even our own small, personal, largely
undocumented piece of it?”
Eros and Thanatos:
Eros and Thanatos – Greek Myth
Eros – denotes romantic or intimate
love, god of love, desire, sex.
Thantos - In Greek mythology was demon
personification of death.
Minor figure in Greek Mythology
Eros Drive for survival, life instinct,
pleasure, reproduction, and basic instincts like sex hunger and thirst. These elements are necessary to preserve life Energy
created by life instinct is also known as Libido
“The drive to preserve living substance
and bring it together in larger unit.” Eros
is associated with behaviors that supports harmony among people such as love,
collaboration and cooperation.
Thantos
counter part of Eros, Eros and Thanatos
are both help define one another in that one is ‘not the other.’ drive to
return to state of calm or dead state. It includes..negative feelings like
hate, anger and aggression.
It is associated with anti-social
behavior. “Born to die”, it drives human to engage in activities that bring
them closer to death ………..cont...
Eros and Thanatos in The Sense of an
Ending References in Text
‘Eros and Thanatos, sir.’-Adrian
Adrian-‘Sex and death,’ ‘Or love and
death, if you prefer. The erotic principle, in any case, coming into conflict
with the death principle. And what ensues from that conflict.(Barnes, 2011) Robson
of the Science Sixth had passed away during the weekend. ‘Thanatos wins again.’
‘First-class degree, first class
suicide,’
One of the major themes of the novel is
“sex and death”. From the very beginning, the idea is established through the
English class of Phil Dixon. Even suicide of the student-Robson is put
appropriately. Because of having sexual relationship with girl, he has to
commit suicide. “Thanatos weans again” Adrian spoke about Robson’s case. But
how it will turn in reality in Adrian’s life also. Adrian who is more
intelligent, mature, serious, philosopher became victim of the same thing and
in his case also Thanatos weans. His sexual relation with a woman who is almost
as old as his mother becomes reason of his suicide.
The idea, presented at the beginning
with English class, followed by Robson’s suicide is carried throughout the
novel and at the end reached its extreme level with enclosing Adrian’s reason
for death. Even the novel tries to say that “Eros and Thanatos” always destroys
human life. With example of young Adrian, his abnormality, it can be proved.
Existentialism:
With Adrian’s philosophical ideas, the
novel represents existentialist ideas. The well- known ideas of Albert Camus
are shown in the novel. As Camus says, suicide was the only true philosophical
question… Adrian, as existentialist, commits suicide in very young age. Even
his way of killing himself is very significant in philosophical sense. He did
not kill himself with out of mind but at very conscious mental state, he
planned and performed. Some existentialist ideas, the novel presents are as
following…
“he had explained his reasoning: that life
is a gift bestowed without anyone asking for it; that the thinking person has a
philosophical duty to examine both the nature of life and the conditions it
comes with; and that if this person decides to renounce the gift no one asks
for, it is a moral and human duty to act on the consequences of that decision.”
“My philosopher friend, who gazed on
life and decided that any responsible, thinking individual should have the
right to reject this gift that had never been asked for—and whose noble gesture
re-emphasised with each passing decade the compromise and littleness that most
lives consist of. “Most lives”: my life.”
“Camus said that suicide was the only
true philosophical question.” - Adrian
Existentialism Vs Eros and Thanatos:
The novel is open ended about these two
topics. Reason of Adrian’s suicide is not clearly given. But the facts about
his life, before his death is revealed. His philosophical, existentialist ideas
suggest that he was mature and serious about his way of living. Like an existentialist,
he was having anxiety and restlessness about human life. So, these facts
suggest that perhaps following his existentialist mentality, he commits
suicide. In their school days, one of their classmates commits suicide because
he made one girl pregnant. The reference of this story strongly focuses on idea
of Eros and Thanatos.
Even the novel ends with revealing facts about
Adrian’s sexual relationship with Mrs. Sarah Ford quite before his suicide. It
means, we can judge that, the writer may want to say, even Adrian is mature
serious and has philosophical ideas cannot escape from very cheap trap of Eros
and Thanatos. But we can also conclude against that idea that, perhaps,
Adrian’s relationship and following events are only side kick of Adrian’s strong
existentialist ideas on ending his life, the seed of suicide are already there.
There are many such questions which are
not answered in the novel but readers can interpret with their own sense:---
Why Mrs. Ford has Adrian’s Diary?
What was the intention of Veronica to
write Blood Money?
Why only one page of Adrian’s Diary
allowed seeing Tony?
What is the meaning of Veronica’s
statement You still don’t get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop
even trying”.
What is the meaning of the mathematical
equation:
b = s – v x/+ a1