The document provides background details about the novel The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. It summarizes key events and characters from the protagonist Tony Webster's school days and relationship with Veronica Ford. It also describes two important letters: one from Veronica's mother to Tony after their breakup, and another from Tony's friend Alex informing him that their mutual friend Adrian has died by suicide.

1. The Role of memory in The Sense of an Ending
Name: Maru Janak J
Roll No:20
Paper:13 (New Literature)
M.A: Sem-4
Email:marujanak17@gmail.com
Submitted To: Smt.S.B. Gardi Department of
English M.K. Bhavnagar University

2.  The Sense of an Ending
is, a novel written by
Famous British author
Julian Barnes.
 This novel was released
on 4th August 2011 in the
United Kingdom.
 The Sense of an Ending
is a Grey,Grim, Near-
Perfect Novella.
Introduction

3. About Memory
 Memory connected to mind.
 It means something about experiences of past or
recalling the past.
 It is positive or negative.
 Perspective of narrator.
 We can’t relied in it totally because it is the
experience of narrator and so may be it is constructed
also.
 The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man
coming to terms with the mutable past.
 In this novel Tony Webster is the narrator, 60 years
old fellow recalls his memories.

4. Event
Time
Memory
“Memory is a mirror of Human Being”

5. School Days
 Three Friends of Tony- Colin, Alex and Adrian
Finn.
 Class of History: Teacher of History asked
questions about Henry Eighth, Characteristics of
the age, First World War etc.
 Symbol of Watch: It is the symbol of their
bond, they used to wear watches with the face on
the inside of the wrist.
 Class of English: Teacher of English Phil
Dixon- a young master just down from
Cambridge.

6. Continue…
 But Tony Webster can’t understand poem and he thinks that it is
about barn owl.
 Sports: Three of them considered school sports crypto-fascist plan
fro repressing their sex-drive, Adrian joined the fencing club and did
the high jump.
 School situated at Central London, description of their lifestyle in
London
 Idea of Parenthood: How parents behave with adolescence
children?
 Colin’s mother referred Tony as his ‘dark angel’
 Parents doubt their adolescent friendship, and thinks that it is
homosexual relationship.

7. Suicide of Robson
He was in Science Sixth.
 Rumor spread that Robson had got his girlfriend pregnant,
hanged himself in the attic, and not been found for two days.
 Idea of Virginity
 Eros & Thanatos- Adrian connected before the day’s first lesson.
‘Thanatos wins again.’
 ‘Camus said that suicide was the only true philosophical
question.’
 Conclusion of Suicide: Arithmetical sense of the term- increase
of one in the human population.

8. Tony’s affair with Veronica
 Veronica Mary Elizabeth Ford was reading Spanish, she liked poetry, father was a
civil servant.
 He remembered that his bookshelves were more successful with Veronica than his
record collection.
 Veronica shelves-held a lot of poetry, in volume and pamphlet form: Eliot, Auden,
MacNeice, Stevie Smith, Thom Gunn, Ted Hughes.
 He measure her personality to see books- they seemed to be an organic
continuation of her mind and personality.
 So many times Veronica argued with Tony. When he remember Phil Dixon and
Ted Hughes at that time she replied that,
‘Poets don’t run out of material the way novelist.’
 He remembered that she was five months older than him and sometimes made it
feel like five years.
 He never asker her whether she is virgin or not.

9. Letter fromMrs. Sarah Ford to Tony Webster
Letter was brief, she wrote in the letter that,
“ She was sorry to hear we had broken up, and
sure I would find someone more suitable. But she
didn’t appear to mean this in the sense that I was a
scoundrel who deserved someone of equally low
moral character. Rather, she implied the opposite:
that I was well out of things, and she hoped for me.”
 Tony preserved this letter for proof.

10.  The top one contained a brief note from Alex. ‘Dear Tony’, it read,
Adrian died. He killed himself.
 To avoid engaging with this line of theory, I opened Alex’s second
letter. He said that Adrian had done it very efficiently, and left a full
account of his reasons. ‘Let’s meet and talk. Bar at the Charing X
Hotel? Phone me. Alex.’
 In the letter he wrote that “He cut his wrists in the bath.”
Letter from Alex to Tony