毕业论文关键词：朱利安·巴恩斯；《终结的感觉》；托尼；自我认知 

Contents

Introduction 1

A brief introduction to The sense of an ending 1

Literature review 1

An outline of the paper 2

Chapter 1. A pessimistic and jealous person in high school 4

1.1 Pessimistic attitudes towards life 4

1.2 Jealous of intelligent Adrian 4

Chapter 2. An underdog and a victim in university 5

2.1 An underdog in the relationship with Veronica 5

2.2 A pitiful victim suffering from emotional betrayal 6

Chapter 3. An average person pursuing a peaceable life 8

Chapter 4. A victimizer and a selfish person 9

Conclusion 11

References 12

Introduction

A brief introduction to The sense of an ending

    Three high school friends, of whom Tony Webster is one, are joined by a fourth, Adrian Finn, who is more intelligent than any of them. They age and lose contact with one another. But Tony, eventually marries and porces, cannot rid himself of the memory of his former girlfriend, Veronica, and is hardly surprised when the mysterious Veronica becomes the girlfriend of the more exceptional Adrian. His early misconception hardens into a mystery when he learns of Adrian’s suicide. Nor can he understand why Veronica’s mother should leave him a small legacy and the news that she possesses Adrian’ diary. To understand those puzzling issues, Tony tries to keep in contact with Veronica and he unexpectedly gets the letter that he once writes to Adrian when Veronica takes up with Adrian. It is a letter full of curse, irony and slander and Tony feels regretful for the malicious content. What startles Tony most is the fact that Veronica’s mother and Adrian have a retarded child. Suddenly, Tony feels that he is no longer a victim, instead he thinks it is his letter that is partially responsible for all the tragedies.   

Literature review

   The sense of an ending presents Barnes’ views on a person’s self-knowledge. As Jonna G. Semeiks (2012) says “The narrator, Tony Webster is cautious, unimaginative, dull, so ordinary as to be almost extraordinary, and frightened. Frightened of risk, of commitment, of love, of feeling, of life” (p. 241). Semeiks’s comment on Tony’s personality which is consistent with Tony’s self-knowledge in high school, is pretty accurate. He has no passion for life, let alone an ambition of striving for a better life. 

   Tony’s university life is not satisfying because he could not improve his skill of getting along with girls. However, eventually he gets a girlfriend, Veronica Ford. As Jonna G. Semeiks (2012) comments, Veronica is largely unreadable to us and to the narrator. Almost instantly, it seems, she then goes on to become more seriously involved with Adrian Finn, a once-close friend of and intellectual hero to Webster, and the betrayal (as Webster sees it) causes a breach between the two young men” (p. 241). For Tony, Veronica is an excellent girl and her family members have a strong sense of superiority, which aggravates his sense of inferiority. With Veronica’s becoming Adrian’s girlfriend, there not only emerges a breach between the two young man, but also a grudge towards Adrian. The failure of Tony’s first romance relationship undoubtedly enables him to believe that he is an underdog and a victim.