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Name – Reena K. Khasatiya
Semester – 4
Roll no- 29
Batch – 2017-19
Paper- New Literature
Submitted to- Dept. Of English MKBU
Plot is not the main point; Character and life are Barnes’ Focus
1. Introduction
“I believe that the best art tells the most truth about life.” – Julian Barnes
‘The Sense of an Ending’ masterpiece of Julian Barnes. Narrated by a retired man
named Tony Webster, the book center around his friendship with a young man
named Adrian Finn back when he was in school, and the events that eventually
tore them apart. When the past catches up with Tony, he is forced to confront the
paths that he and his friends have taken in life. Exploring themes such as death,
regret, and reminiscence.
Through Tony’s memory and narration we visit the each place and characters of
novel. Somewhere we feel he is not reliable narrator too, He remembered each
memory the way he want to construct not the way really what happened. But,
with the growth of time we feel Characters are growing and this development of
characters, their understanding toward life, makes narrative beautiful.
2. About Julian Barnes
Julian Barnes' prose is elegant, witty and playful, and he often employs
techniques associated with postmodern writing - unreliable narrators, a self-
conscious linguistic style, an intertextual blending of different narrative forms -
which serve to foreground the process of literary creation, the gap between
experience and language, and the subjectivity of truth and reality. However,
despite this playful experimentation with language, style and form, Barnes
fiction is also grounded in psychological realism and his themes are serious,
poignant and heart-felt: he frequently addresses the nature of love, particularly
its dark side, exploring humankind's capacity for jealousy, obsession and infidelity,
alongside the perennial quest for authentic love.
About Novel ‘The Sense of an Ending’
The Sense of an Ending is a short, concise novel in which the narrator, Tony, is
forced to re-evaluate his life and his sense of self-identity. In middle age, Tony
reflects on his 1960s schooldays with a small group of close friends, followed by
university, marriage, fatherhood and a civilized divorce - all of which, it seems,
amounts to a respectable life and a sense of oneself as a fairly decent person.
However, a shock from the past shatters Tony's sense of middling respectability
and moral uprightness, confronting him with the consequences of his thoughtless
youthful behavior and de-stabilizing his perception of himself, his past and his
(previously comfortable) place in the world. Like other Barnes novels, The Sense
of an Ending offers a profound contemplation on the slippery and ambiguous
nature of memory, history and even one's sense of self.
To use the variety of themes is the special skill of Julian Barnes. Through the use
of these themes, his novels try to reflect the problems of the contemporary urban
society. The influence of globalization is particularly on the standard of living as
well as on the emotional world of the human beings. He is a novelist of ideas.
According to him the existence of life is in the mind of novelists. The art of the
novelist shapes the life of a human being. Numbers of characters of the novels of
Julian Barnes are from urban life. In the novels these characters seem to be the
victims of the influence of the pace of the present generation in order to achieve
326 the materialistic life. Such a kind of mental state of these characters leads
them towards the adjustment in each and every part of life. And because of this
these characters are frustrated and in a confused state of mind in their sexual as
well as domestic life also.
The sense of an Ending (2011) reflects as the magnum opus and monumental
novel by Julian Barnes. As it is in a specific style as elegant, careful and in a good
order. It is a story narrated in the late middle age by the central character, Tony
Webster. The story of this novel begins at a school in central London where there
are four friends, Tony, Colin, Alex and Adrian. Their group is known as book
hungry, sex hungry, meritocratic, anarchistic group. The boys went to the
different universities, Adrian, to Cambridge University and Tony to the Bristol
University. In Bristol Tony manages to find a girl friend and desires to have full
sex. Actually, he had a good deal of infra-sex with a girlfriend, Veronica. He
introduces her with his friends and spends an awkward weekend with her family.
And there is breakage in their relationships. Later on Adrian goes on date with
Veronica and after some months he commits suicide. Later on Tony got married
with Margaret, had a daughter and divorced. There is a letter received by Tony
from a lawyer informing that Veronica's mother has kept five hundred pounds
and Adrian's diary in her will. The diary is in possession with Veronica and she has
used a strange phrase Blood Money as an explanation to Tony’s email. Veronica
shows Tony a man who calls her by one of her middle names, Mary. Tony tries to
find the man on his own and succeeds but the man responds negatively. Tony has
a conclusion that the man is Veronica and Adrian’s son. But, when Tony is in the
pub where the man supposed to be the son of Veronica who informs him that his
name is Adrian. He is the brother of Veronica. Thus Tony understands that Adrian
is indeed the father, but Sarah Ford is the mother. Thus by using the concept of
romantic love and sexual love Barnes has focused on the various relationships of
the human beings through this present novel. (shodhganaga)
Growth of time and Development of Characters
'An accumulation of years brings with it an accumulation of experiences.'
Revision of such experiences usually becomes more recurrent after retirement, a
transition time from one period of life to another and, as such, and a time in
which we, human beings, have a tendency to take stock of our lives. This is
actually one of the main issues present in Julian Barnes's last novel The Sense of
an Ending (2011). When the main protagonist, a retired man quite comfortable
and contented with his present life, receives an unexpected inheritance from the
mother of a girlfriend from his university years, he is forced to track down a part
of his life that he had left at the back of his mind a long time ago. As he
Explains his story, the protagonist and narrator of the novel raises a number of
questions related to the quality and function of memory as one gets into old age.
He experiments the unreliability of memory and questions to what extent
memory is constructed through the remembered emotions that invaded him over
that episode of his life rather than through the events as they actually took place.
On the other hand, the act of revisiting and revising that specific episode, brings
with it feelings of guilt and remorse as the protagonist realizes that his past acts
were not as noble as he remembered them to be. However, these acts are part of
the past and they cannot be changed; thus, another question that the novel raises
is how to account for those actions of which one does not feel proud and, more
importantly, how to manage those bad memories as one gets older.
Tony’s safeness on presence…
“I’m retired now. I have my flat with my possessions. I keep up with a few
drinking pals, and have some women friends – platonic, of course. (And they’re
not part of the about what metal detectors unearth. A while ago, I volunteered to
run the library at the local hospital; I go round the ward delivering, collecting,
recommending. It gets me of course; dying people as well. But at least I shall
know my way around the hospital when my turn comes.” (2012: 56)
At first, I thought mainly about me, and how – what – I’d been: chippy, jealous
and happy. Not that this let me off the hook. My younger self had come back to
shock my older self with what that self had been, or was, or was sometimes
capable of being.
And only recently I’d been going on about how the witnesses to our lives decrease, and malign. Also about my attempt to undermine their relationship. At least I’d failed in this, since Veronica’s mother had assured me the last months of Adrian’s life had been
Conclusion
I’m retired now. I have my flat with my possessions. I keep up with a few drinking History, as narrator Tony Webster reminds us, consists not only of “the lies of the victors,” but also of “the self-delusions of the defeated.” Tony is one of the
defeated, and The Sense of an Ending is a record of his self-delusions. It is a
personal history, and like all histories, it is a “certainty produced at the point
where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”
Tony’s memory proves to be more imperfect than most, and the reader must
assume that Tony’s version of events is not to be trusted.
Name – Reena K. Khasatiya
Semester – 4
Roll no- 29
Batch – 2017-19
Paper- New Literature
Submitted to- Dept. Of English MKBU
Plot is not the main point; Character and life are Barnes’ Focus
1. Introduction
“I believe that the best art tells the most truth about life.” – Julian Barnes
‘The Sense of an Ending’ masterpiece of Julian Barnes. Narrated by a retired man
named Tony Webster, the book center around his friendship with a young man
named Adrian Finn back when he was in school, and the events that eventually
tore them apart. When the past catches up with Tony, he is forced to confront the
paths that he and his friends have taken in life. Exploring themes such as death,
regret, and reminiscence.
Through Tony’s memory and narration we visit the each place and characters of
novel. Somewhere we feel he is not reliable narrator too, He remembered each
memory the way he want to construct not the way really what happened. But,
with the growth of time we feel Characters are growing and this development of
characters, their understanding toward life, makes narrative beautiful.
2. About Julian Barnes
Julian Barnes' prose is elegant, witty and playful, and he often employs
techniques associated with postmodern writing - unreliable narrators, a self-
conscious linguistic style, an intertextual blending of different narrative forms -
which serve to foreground the process of literary creation, the gap between
experience and language, and the subjectivity of truth and reality. However,
despite this playful experimentation with language, style and form, Barnes
fiction is also grounded in psychological realism and his themes are serious,
poignant and heart-felt: he frequently addresses the nature of love, particularly
its dark side, exploring humankind's capacity for jealousy, obsession and infidelity,
alongside the perennial quest for authentic love.
About Novel ‘The Sense of an Ending’
The Sense of an Ending is a short, concise novel in which the narrator, Tony, is
forced to re-evaluate his life and his sense of self-identity. In middle age, Tony
reflects on his 1960s schooldays with a small group of close friends, followed by
university, marriage, fatherhood and a civilized divorce - all of which, it seems,
amounts to a respectable life and a sense of oneself as a fairly decent person.
However, a shock from the past shatters Tony's sense of middling respectability
and moral uprightness, confronting him with the consequences of his thoughtless
youthful behavior and de-stabilizing his perception of himself, his past and his
(previously comfortable) place in the world. Like other Barnes novels, The Sense
of an Ending offers a profound contemplation on the slippery and ambiguous
nature of memory, history and even one's sense of self.
To use the variety of themes is the special skill of Julian Barnes. Through the use
of these themes, his novels try to reflect the problems of the contemporary urban
society. The influence of globalization is particularly on the standard of living as
well as on the emotional world of the human beings. He is a novelist of ideas.
According to him the existence of life is in the mind of novelists. The art of the
novelist shapes the life of a human being. Numbers of characters of the novels of
Julian Barnes are from urban life. In the novels these characters seem to be the
victims of the influence of the pace of the present generation in order to achieve
326 the materialistic life. Such a kind of mental state of these characters leads
them towards the adjustment in each and every part of life. And because of this
these characters are frustrated and in a confused state of mind in their sexual as
well as domestic life also.
The sense of an Ending (2011) reflects as the magnum opus and monumental
novel by Julian Barnes. As it is in a specific style as elegant, careful and in a good
order. It is a story narrated in the late middle age by the central character, Tony
Webster. The story of this novel begins at a school in central London where there
are four friends, Tony, Colin, Alex and Adrian. Their group is known as book
hungry, sex hungry, meritocratic, anarchistic group. The boys went to the
different universities, Adrian, to Cambridge University and Tony to the Bristol
University. In Bristol Tony manages to find a girl friend and desires to have full
sex. Actually, he had a good deal of infra-sex with a girlfriend, Veronica. He
introduces her with his friends and spends an awkward weekend with her family.
And there is breakage in their relationships. Later on Adrian goes on date with
Veronica and after some months he commits suicide. Later on Tony got married
with Margaret, had a daughter and divorced. There is a letter received by Tony
from a lawyer informing that Veronica's mother has kept five hundred pounds
and Adrian's diary in her will. The diary is in possession with Veronica and she has
used a strange phrase Blood Money as an explanation to Tony’s email. Veronica
shows Tony a man who calls her by one of her middle names, Mary. Tony tries to
find the man on his own and succeeds but the man responds negatively. Tony has
a conclusion that the man is Veronica and Adrian’s son. But, when Tony is in the
pub where the man supposed to be the son of Veronica who informs him that his
name is Adrian. He is the brother of Veronica. Thus Tony understands that Adrian
is indeed the father, but Sarah Ford is the mother. Thus by using the concept of
romantic love and sexual love Barnes has focused on the various relationships of
the human beings through this present novel. (shodhganaga)
Growth of time and Development of Characters
'An accumulation of years brings with it an accumulation of experiences.'
Revision of such experiences usually becomes more recurrent after retirement, a
transition time from one period of life to another and, as such, and a time in
which we, human beings, have a tendency to take stock of our lives. This is
actually one of the main issues present in Julian Barnes's last novel The Sense of
an Ending (2011). When the main protagonist, a retired man quite comfortable
and contented with his present life, receives an unexpected inheritance from the
mother of a girlfriend from his university years, he is forced to track down a part
of his life that he had left at the back of his mind a long time ago. As he
Explains his story, the protagonist and narrator of the novel raises a number of
questions related to the quality and function of memory as one gets into old age.
He experiments the unreliability of memory and questions to what extent
memory is constructed through the remembered emotions that invaded him over
that episode of his life rather than through the events as they actually took place.
On the other hand, the act of revisiting and revising that specific episode, brings
with it feelings of guilt and remorse as the protagonist realizes that his past acts
were not as noble as he remembered them to be. However, these acts are part of
the past and they cannot be changed; thus, another question that the novel raises
is how to account for those actions of which one does not feel proud and, more
importantly, how to manage those bad memories as one gets older.
Tony’s safeness on presence…
“I’m retired now. I have my flat with my possessions. I keep up with a few
drinking pals, and have some women friends – platonic, of course. (And they’re
not part of the about what metal detectors unearth. A while ago, I volunteered to
run the library at the local hospital; I go round the ward delivering, collecting,
recommending. It gets me of course; dying people as well. But at least I shall
know my way around the hospital when my turn comes.” (2012: 56)
At first, I thought mainly about me, and how – what – I’d been: chippy, jealous
and happy. Not that this let me off the hook. My younger self had come back to
shock my older self with what that self had been, or was, or was sometimes
capable of being.
And only recently I’d been going on about how the witnesses to our lives decrease, and malign. Also about my attempt to undermine their relationship. At least I’d failed in this, since Veronica’s mother had assured me the last months of Adrian’s life had been
Conclusion
I’m retired now. I have my flat with my possessions. I keep up with a few drinking History, as narrator Tony Webster reminds us, consists not only of “the lies of the victors,” but also of “the self-delusions of the defeated.” Tony is one of the
defeated, and The Sense of an Ending is a record of his self-delusions. It is a
personal history, and like all histories, it is a “certainty produced at the point
where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”
Tony’s memory proves to be more imperfect than most, and the reader must
assume that Tony’s version of events is not to be trusted.
