Is the conflict between relative fact and human nature ever resolved in Ian McEwan’s<\/p>\n
The central premise of Enduring Love<\/em> is a conflict between logical and rational facts and the complex, sometimes contradictory emotions which are part of human nature. The protagonist, Joe, is a science journalist and clings to concrete facts and truth in order to make sense of the world; this is compromised when he meets Jed Parry, who suffers from de Cl\u00e9rembault\u2019s syndrome and therefore believes that Joe is in love with him. Throughout the novel, McEwan draws parallels between science (biology in particular) and human moral dilemmas, epitomising the conflict between fact and the unpredictable human nature: this is particularly underlined in the incompatible stances Joe and Clarissa have on the subject (Clark and Gordon, 2004). Joe and Jed meet at the scene of an accident in which a man dies. Jed begins to stalk Joe, but Joe\u2019s partner, Clarissa, does not believe him when he tries to warn her. Joe\u2019s inability to correctly recall the events leading up to an assassination attempt on him, orchestrated by Jed, means that the police officers do not believe his story, either. He is frustrated by this because \u2018facts\u2019 and \u2018truth\u2019 are his coping mechanisms, but ultimately, Joe\u2019s obsession with the truth drives a wedge between he and Clarissa, and his desire to silence Jed\u2019s lies result in a complete lack of compassion for his plight, though he understands that Jed is mentally ill: where \u2018facts\u2019 are prioritised over emotion, undesirable consequences result. Joe and Clarissa ultimately reconcile, emotion triumphing and demonstrating that their love has successfully \u2018endured\u2019 the ordeal; the second appendix reveals that years later, Jed is still fixated on Joe, showing another form of \u2018endurance\u2019. This ending implies that, despite never taking a definitive stance on the debate, McEwan recognises the power<\/em> of emotions over facts. Clark, R., and Gordon, A. (2004). Enduring Love: A Reader\u2019s Guide. New York: Continuum.<\/p>\n McEwan, I. (1997). Enduring Love. London: Jonathan Cape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is the conflict between relative fact and human nature ever resolved in Ian McEwan’s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nReferences<\/p>\nReferences<\/h2>\n