Enduring Love

Analysis:

• Intelligent, analytical thinker.
• Capable of turning that sharp analysis onto himself and his situation 
• Clearly in love with Clarissa and glad/suprised that this love is returned. 
• A resourcefull individual, works hard and finds way to get things done. 
• Will help others and is good with children. 
• Makes assumptions, which he demands others believe to be true.
• His analytical approach can leave him blundering in emotional matters. 
• Contains overwealming guilt over the 'incident' 
• Desperate to be involved in 'real' science again, looks down upon himself and his career. 
• Failure to keep in control of his emotions leads to him losing his relationship with Clarissa. This is generally because of his sulking and failure to understand her needs. 
• Perhaps he does encourage Jed to fill in the gaps in his life.  

Analysis:

• Intelligent, subtle thinker and committed scholar.
• Generous to others, especially others 
• A great listener to many characters in the novel, not just Joe. 
• Deeply in love with Joe, ready to celebrate this often. 
• A strong, supportive individual who will not whine or moan. 
• Her inability to have children hurts and can be used to hurt Joe. 
• Finds it difficult to support Joe because of what she sees of his assumptions, and her fear of his secret life with Parry. 
• She's self-centred she thinks that the Parry situation is about herself. 
• She withdraws from Joe when he needs her the most
• When Joe shoots Parry and saves her instead of being delightful, she is upset as Joe has used a weapon. This is priggish and ungrateful.

Analysis:

• Devout believer with very strong faith. 
• Totally motivated & dedicated. 
• He feels great love not great hatred. 
• Has a lot of money, however does not spend it profligately
• As with any mental illness he needs help as oppose to blame. 
• Introverted and awkward 
• Very average intellect creates his own proof(s) and assertions. 
• No theory in his religious thought. 
• Frequently claims that he is the passive victim, labels Joe responsible with the blame therefore he does not have to be. 
• Persistent and pestering, claims he is aware of the consequences of his actions however does not act as if he has this knowledge.  
• Turns violent when he is neglected his wants. 
• He has no friends or peers to socialise with which may lead to why he is so obsessive over Joe. 

Analysis: 

• Clearly loved her husband 
• Heroically struggling with her husbands death. 
• An intelligent, academic women capable of making persuasive arguments. 
• Fittingly moved when the truth of the picnic is revealed. 
• Sunk deep into private unreachable grief. 
• Allows her children to cope on their own to their best ability, perhaps does not support them enough. 
• To ready to accept the fact that her husband was an adulterer. 
• Uses Joe to satisfy her desire to prove her husband's guilt.  

Analysis: 

• Maybe not of every kind however McEwan is careful to include varieties. 
• The love between Clarissa and Joe 
• The love between Parry and God 
• Jed's love for Joe 
• The ****** love between partners 
• Joe's love of 'real' science 
• Clarissa's love for Keats 
• Keats' great love 
• Jean Logans love for her husband John 
• Clarissa's frustrated love for children 
• Love for the Hippie ideal. 

Analysis: 

• Clearly Clarissa and Joe represent either side, a little mechanically? 
• The two sides tackle the same problem from different angles 
• McEwan allows us to see what both sides opinions are and what both sides would do.
• McEwan also gives a second scientific ending to contrast with the novelistic first ending. 
• McEwan attempts to place the charaters under these labels 
• Parry belongs under neither as science nor art can guide him as he is lost in terms of finding his own persona.  

Analysis: 

• A word perhaps mentioned too early on nevertheless an important aspect of the novel 
• Narrative relates to any method used in an attempt of trying to make sense of the world. 
• A narrative will aim to tell a story that is reassuring and sounds correct. 
• There are competing narratives within the novel. 
• Joe's interest in scientific unreliability of them all should highlight the issue of belief and credibility at the heart of the narrative, or stories, or fictions. 
• Fabrications which we may believe to be true, or perhaps we may question. 

Analysis: 

• We may see Parry as the 'Jesus Freak' Clarissa labels him early on but all of the characters have their own individual views and beliefs. 
• Can we really say that Joe & Clarissa do not force their beliefs on others as we assume Parry does?
• What about inspector Linley's beliefs?
• Jed's enduring belief is the last thing that we get to hear and is strong, stronger than Clarissa's belief in Joe, or Jean Logon's in her husband John. 
• At the end of the novel we witness two calls for forgiveness. 
• Parry asks Joe for his forgiveness and Professor Reid asks Mrs Logan for her forgiveness.
• Mrs Logan herself despairs of ever receiving forgiveness from her husband. 
• With such a religious closing tone, this novel cannot simply be an attack on religious fanaticism- can it?   

Analysis: 

• This is a major theme within McEwan's work. 
• Whether a child suddenly goes missing as in 'The Child In Time' 
• As when the Berlin Wall crumbles (Black Dogs) 
• Or two lovers kill a man and gruesomely cut up his body together, therefore by doing this dismembering their love for each other (The Innocent) 
• Enduring Love is most similar to the last novel mentioned, 'The Innocent' as it has to deal with a love that cannot stand the strain of the consequences of the catastrophe.
• However this raises the question, what is the real catastrophe? 
• That a man died or that one man fell in love with another?