The events in the novel The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes move back and forth in time through the memory of the protagonist Tony Webster. It is set in a modern context and explores the themes of friendship, love, courtship, marriage and family. The novel focuses on the tragic triangular relationship between Tony, Veronica and Adrian. Tony and Veronica meet as undergraduates at Bristol University but their relationship fails. Then Veronica has a relationship with Adrian who is Tony’s friend from high school. Veronica and Adrian were compatible but Veronica’s mother Mrs. Ford breaks the relationship.
An unsettling aspect of the novel is its exploration of the dysfunctional relationship between Veronica and her mother. Mrs. Ford reveals an unnatural jealousy towards her daughter Veronica and has an adulterous relationship with Veronica’s boyfriend Adrian, and to make matters worse, has a mentally retarded child by him. Tony’s memory of his relationship with Veronica and his description of her as an enigma and a mystery woman reveals his inability to understand her, which is why their relationship fails. Veronica’s attraction to Adrian was perhaps because of his ability to understand her as he was more intelligent than Tony.
The Sense of an Ending is a mini narrative that examines the way in which memory and time interact. It is poignantly expressed by Barnes in the following lines, “…there is objective time, but also subjective time, the kind you wear on the inside of your wrist, next to where the pulse lies. And this personal time, is measured in your relationship to memory…” which illuminates his thematic concerns and narrative technique.
