Some Critical aspects of Julian Barnes' The Sense Of An Ending. As well as what i learnt after reading the novel.

1. Making Sense Of
Sense Of An Ending
By: Prakruti

2. “Past is Autobiographical Fiction Pretending to
be a Parliamentary Report.”
-Julian Barnes (Flaubert’s Parrot)

3. Index
• The Title
• Onomastics
• The diary pages
• The Equations
• Letters and E-mails
• Learning Outcome (So What?) and (What now?)
• Works Cited

4. The Title
• Barnes borrowed the title from Frank Kermode’s book of
the same name.
• A tale or study of reflection and reminiscence
• Jonathan Cape argues that novel is concerned with what
Kermode calls ‘problem of making sense of the way we
make sense of the world’.[1]
• The sense one gets here: There is great unrest.
• Is it really the end?

5. Onomastics
• Etymological origins of the characters’ names
• Anthony (Tony): Derived from the Latin Antonius,
an old Roman family name of unknown etymology.
“Priceless” and “of inestimable worth” are popular
folk definitions of the name[2].
• Adrian: Derived from Latin Adrianus or Hadrianus
which literally means ‘of the Adriatic’.[2]

6. • Veronica:- Greek: Berenike - French: Veronique[2]
• The popular "Saint Veronica" (not in the Roman Martyrology)
traditionally was a pious woman who wiped the face of Christ
when he fell carrying the cross to Calvary. The image of his face
remained on the cloth, and the "veil of Veronica" has been
preserved in Rome from the 8c. Her popularity rose with the
propagation of the Stations of the Cross, and this connection
led to the folk-etymology derivation of the name from
Latin vera "true" + Greek eikon "image.“[2]
• Does the onomastic study prove anything?

7. The Diary Pages
• Mrs Sarah Ford leaves Tony Adrian’s Diary. However,
he’s never able to read it.
• How do we understand or read a diary?
• “Diaries may well give some kind of glimpse into the
past, but that glimpse, the novel suggests, will always
be a partial, biased, and even deceptive one.”[3]

8. The Equations
• b = s – v ×+ a1
• a2 + v + a1 x s = b
• The equations are Adrian’s attempts to make
sense of his situation.
• “You just don’t get it, do you? You never did, and
you never will.” – Veronica to Tony

9. Letters and E-mails
• The change in communicative mediums
• E-mail= marker of the beginning of the digital
age
• A letter and its consequences
• An e-mail and its reply

10. Learning Outcome (So What?) and (What now?)
• The novel makes you reflect on your own life:
your faults, your words and actions
• Can we live or end life without guilt and regret?
• There can be numerous endings if we try to make
sense of how people make sense of the world.
• ‘The end of any likelihood of change’

11. Short Questions
• Write a short note on the use of letters and e-mails
included in the novel.
• What were the consequences of Tony’s letter to
Adrian and Veronica?
• Can we say that Sense Of An Ending deals with grave
existential questions?
• How is memory reconstructed in the novel?
• Short note on the application of Oedipus complex in
The Sense Of An Ending.

12. Long Questions
• How is memory revisited in Julian Barnes’ The
Sense Of An Ending?
• How can we study the text as Memory and
Confessional literature?
• Justify the title of the novel.

13. Works Cited:
[1] Cape, Jonathan. The Sense Of An Ending. 8 August 2011. web. 23 January 2020.
<https://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/08/barnes-tony-sense-life-novel>.
[2] Harper, Douglas. Adrian. 25 October 2017. web. 23 January 2020.
<https://www.etymonline.com/word/adrian>.
[3] Baena, Victoria. The Sense Of An Ending. 15 June 2018. web. 24 January 2020.
<https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-sense-of-an-ending>