Shake

Explore the presentation of the theme of memory in ‘The sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes and Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnets’ and in the course of your writing show how your partner text ‘The Virgin Suicides’ by Jeffrey Eugendes has illuminated your ideas.

SENSE OF AN ENDING QUOTES MEMORY: CRITICS: FREUD AND ANDREW BLACKMAN

‘To some approximate memories which time has deformed into certainty’ Vocab: Deformed, not natural, something wrong? Memories have changed over time based on different feelings and opinions made by Tony.

‘I began remembering forgotten things’ Tony goes through a stage of self-confession. The thought and contact with Veronica forces Tony to re think memories and develop new ones. Also, the word ‘began’ is significant; late into the novel he’s only just getting new memories.

‘I began to remember,…long-buried details of that distant weekend with the Ford family’ Later on in life the memories of the weekend come back to Tony, as we later see, the weekend wasn’t as bad as what Tony has previously made out, his memories in the past could have been inflicted with his feelings after the bitter break up between himself and Veronica.

‘Sleep the sleep of the wicked’ in the past Tony presented Veronica as boring and morbid. A woman who is never spontaneous. However this contradicts Tony’s previous descriptions of Veronica. Can we trust Tony as a reliable narrator? We can’t. Also, it doesn’t sound like something Veronica would say, it sounds very off character, could be Mrs Ford saying this?

“How we react to the damage: whether we admit it or repress it, and how this affects our dealings with others” Tony’s past relations with Veronica and Adrian have impacted on Tony’s life and him as a character. The word repressed being used, as Tony represses all of his feelings and memories.

“I thought of the things that had happened to me over the years, and of how little I had made happen” Tony realises how his life hasn’t been as exciting as what literature novels...