Assignment on Ambiguous Relations in "The Sense of an Ending"

Name: Dharaba Rayjada
Semester: 4
Roll No.: 8
Paper No.: 13 New Literature
Email id: dharabarayjada021@gmail.com
Year: 2017-19
Submitted to: Department of English, Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

In this world, relationships are core of the society. Without relations people are nothing and without relations society can’t exist. But these relations are very clear. What if the relations are ambiguous? What if people can’t understand the base of their relation. It would be better if we say that what if human can’t understand their relation it self. It makes life curious and ambiguous for the person also and for the society also. Same way in the novel “The Sense of an Ending” which was written by Julian Barnes, has described so many relations. Relations which can not be understood or justify. In nutshell Julian Barnes has presented ambiguous relationships in this novel. We will see how relationships are ambiguous.

In this novel there are characters like, Adrian Finn, Tony Webster, Veronica Ford, Sarah Ford, Jack Ford, Jr. Adrian, Margaret, Colin, and Alex. These are the characters in which we can found ambiguity. Let see all characters one by one. Of we starts with friendship then Tony, Colin and Alex were friend and Adrian was included later in the group. Tony was the one who goes to Adrian for friendship. We know that Adrian was intelligent student in the class and to have his friendship will be a kind of status for others a d that is why Tony and other two were interested in having this friendship. But the question is why Adrian was befriend with them. Adrian has never considered them so important. In school he will listen all about those three but he has never get involved in their talk. He has also keep most of his life secret from those three. Tony, Alex and Colin wants appreciation from Adrian but Adrian was never in such need. We can also question that Adrian was never so closed to any three of them but then even why he has asked permission of Tony to date Veronica. So reason of Adrian’s behaviour at some times remain ambiguous.

Tony’s relations with his wife Margaret are also somehow ambiguous. First they both got married and have a daughter then Margaret elope with one restaurant owner then that restaurant owner left her, then again Margaret and Tony started meeting. After some time when Margaret again asks to get back together Tony refuses. After refusal also they both didn’t stop meeting. Then Tony started telling her about Veronica, every time Margaret shows him path but one day she just said that he is on his own now. So what is the meaning of keep telling and meeting ex wife and also not getting back together. So their relations are not clear. If they are only friends then why talk of Veronica bothers Margaret. If Tony don’t want to be again in relation then why he keeps telling everything to Margaret until she told him to be on his own. So their relations are some where in between which can not ne defined and that is why it remains ambiguous.

Relations of Tony with almost everyone is ambiguous. If we starts with Veronica then their relations are quite hard to understand. On the other hand Tony’s relation with Veronica’s mother Sarah also remains in ambiguity. While on this Dr. Arpit Kothari, assistant professor at Manipal University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, has said something like this.

Sarah and Tony had frequent sensual encounters that Tony, with the passage of subsequent
decades, had suppressed this meetings in his memories. The first meeting happened when Tony
came for a weekend visit at Veronica’s place in Chislehurst. It is portrayed that on the first morning
of his visit only Sarah is in the house when he wakes up. As Tony remembers that it was Veronica
who told the rest of the family that he desired to have a long sleep, resulted in leaving Tony back
at home and went for a walk without him. Of course, since Tony was apparently asleep at the time,
he could not have known whether the family walk truly was Veronica’s idea or actually Sarah’s.
Sarah’s mysterious “horizontal gesture at waist level” (SE 95) in response to Tony’s goodbye wave
at the end of the visit indicates to the reader that something unusual has taken place between them.
But Tony has not reminiscence of their encounter. Tony tells us that Veronica is unwilling to have
“full sex” (SE 70) with him, but rather limits their physical intimacy to what he refers to as “infra-
sex.” (SE 71) Even after the breakup of Tony and Veronica, he recollects bouncing into Veronica
at a pub, returning to her room, and having sex with her. He is shocked to know about the
Veronica’s skills at rolling a condom onto him while he is of the opinion that Veronica is a virgin.
Tony of course recalls this as an encounter with Veronica because he cannot bring himself to
accept that it was actually an encounter with Veronica’s mother. The manners of his partner do not
match with that of Veronica, giving a hint to the reader that his partner was actually a far more
practiced woman and not at all Veronica.


Forty years later, as it is learnt in Part two, new memories begin to emerge in Tony’s mind
of other episodes with Veronica that he has forgotten for decades. In one of the memories, he
recalls that he is dancing with Veronica, who actually never danced, to 45s played on his record
player. Another incident he remembers is that when he was with his friends, he observed the
reversal of the Thames in the middle of a night. He suddenly recalls that Veronica was there as
well, and that when the rest of the group ran off with torches (flashlights) to watch the reversal, he
stayed behind and lastly, he recalls his version of memories of his weekend visit to the Ford family.
He remembers that Veronica walked him to his room on the second night of his visit, leaned him
against the door, kissed him on the mouth, and whispered into his ear, “Sleep, the sleep of the
wicked.” (SE 342)


Each of these recollections remains partly suppressed, the facts blurred and ambiguous. It’s
apparent to the reader that Tony recalls each of these incidents as involving Veronica because he
cannot bear to believe the monstrous truth that he had an ongoing but an affair between Tony and Sarah is the only plausible explanation for Sarah’s leaving 500 pounds and two documents (one of
them is Adrian’s diary) to Tony in her will. There arises a question that without any intimate
relationship with Tony, why Sarah leaves him money and documents in her will, as he was her
daughter’s ex-boyfriend forty years ago and that too for a very short period of time. Moreover,
according to Tony’s memory he met Sarah only once when he visited on a weekend to their family.
Barely an association that would be reminisced in one’s will and testimony.

This is quite new reading of the relation between Sarah, Tony and Veronica. On the other hand Adrian also has relation with Sarah. To leave girlfriend for girlfriend’s mother that is sort of way too far step. The possibilities are that Sarah was pregnant by Adrian at very late age. Adrian has also described some relations through mathematical equations. b = s – v + a1 or a2 + v + a1 × s = b?. Here in one equation he omits Anthony (Tony) but in second one he made equation with Anthony. This shows how complicated relations are there.

There are complications in relation of Adrian and Veronica. When they first meet Veronica was knowing many things about Adrian. Adrian was also knowing about Jack, brother of Veronica. But then they both comes in relationship but then Adrian end up with Sarah. So what has happened no body knows. Brother Jack’s behaviour with Tony was also complicated. When Tony visited Ford’s house Jack was not talking much to Tony. He also didn’t came for saying good bye to Tony when he was leaving. But then when Tony email him he replied like they both are friends. He also gives details about the place. May be he is playing with Tony. Brother Jack’s relation with his sister Veronica is also complicated. Once Tony says that may be Veronica was sexually abused by her brother and that is why she is not interested in having intercourse. He also mentioned the unusual cuddle of brother sister. So this is also shows the ambiguity in relations.

This is how Julian Barnes has portrayed complex relations. Where everybody is some how connected with each other but then their connections are not clear at some point. So we can say that in this novel “The Sense of an Ending” Julian Barnes has portrayed ambiguous relationships.

Work Cited

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape and Knopf, 2011.

Kothari, Dr. Arpit. "Deconstruction of the Complex Human Relationships in
Julian Barnes' "The Sense of an Ending"." Language in India (2019): 8.