To What Extent Is Enduring Love a Love Story?

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To what extent is Enduring Love a love story? Enduring love by Ian McEwan is considered a novel which bridges a plethora of genres, the classic psychological thriller, a tragedy, and in some cases an avant-garde love story. Through the portrayal of the novel, the degree to which the novel fits an avant-garde love story will be assessed. The novels focal point is not only about love, but about the exploration of the mysteries of love, this is shown even in the title of novel, ‘Enduring’ refers to the endurance of Joe’s and Clarissa’s relationship. The term endurance denotes hardship, and perseverance, an abstract concept of love and this is a confusing value to be portrayed, the reader might wonder why a relationship would continue if it took effort that wasn’t wanted to be put in. Furthermore the unwanted love from Jed that is also endured, there is a variety of different forms of love which are portrayed through this novel but all of which are touched by a degree of irrationality which cannot be confined to the religiously and mentally delirious Jed. Ultimately the love of Joe and Clarissa does endure and they rekindle and adopt a child, despite the third party of Jed. The idea of an enduring love is tackled in two ways- first, through playing upon the ambiguity of the word enduring; does this mean a love that endures or a love that is endure, in the negative connotation of suffered. Second of al all, the novel ends up implying that the most genuinely enduring love might be that of “pathological love” embodied by Jed. The novel is relative to a love story because it explores love and the subliminal link to obsession, sanity and insanity. Joe initially presents the relationship as idyllic, going on to describe it as “seven years into a childless marriage of love” but this seems contradictory when one takes into consideration that Joes revelation that actually

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