How appropriate is the title to the subject matter of the Novel

How appropriate is the title to the subject matter of the Novel

Enduring love?

Throughout the novel Enduring Love McEwan opens the reader’s eyes to

many different forms of love through the actions and emotions of his

characters. He also makes us aware that people are able to have more

than one love.

The first love we encounter is that between Joe and Clarissa whose

relationship up until the day of Logan’s death was “without a trace of

complication”. The fact that the novel starts with something as

clichéd as a picnic could represent their relationship so far, it not

only sets the scene but instantly tells the reader about the kind of

relationship Joe and Clarissa have. McEwan takes the opportunity to

show us how much Joe is in love with Clarissa by letting us know that

her birthday gift from him was the “most expensive single item” he had

ever bought and “must have cost Joe thousands”. Another example of

the strength of Joe and Clarissa’s love is in chapter three when they

turn to each other for comfort after Logan’s death. Joe believes that

sharing his every thought and feeling with his partner will exorcise

his demons (“I wanted to tell Clarissa”, “I wanted to tell her I loved

her”) and in turn Clarissa reveals her need for Joe’s love in her

moment of fear and instability; “I just want to hold you”.

Although Clarissa is in love with Joe, she’s “also in love with

another man”. She is an English academic studying the last letters of

Keats and is passionate about her work. McEwan informs the reader of

her great love for Keats through her trip to Harvard, USA; as much as

she loves Joe, she sacrificed his company for six weeks to search for

“hypothetical letters” and her most prized possession is the “...

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...being that

although the Professor and his student “are in love”, they would

rather have “kept it secret” unlike Luke who is “leaving his kindly

beautiful wife and bonny twin daughters” to live with the actress,

presumably causing pain and chaos for his family. With an age gap of

thirty years and the original relationship being student-teacher,

Bonnie and Professor Reid’s love is unconventional to say the least.

Both the Professor and Luke are throwing away their successful

professional lives for the love of women.

The meaning of the title Enduring Love could mean a love that has to

be endured or one that can endure. By the end of the novel Joe and

Clarissa’s love endured and for Joe, Parry’s love had to be endured.

The title’s significance is that it is neither one nor the other; it

is both as it is relevant to each form of love explored in the novel.