Obsession in Enduring Love-Nature

In chapters 1-16 in the novel ‘Enduring love’ by Ian McEwan, the nature of obsession is brought about many times in many different cases. We see this particular subject throughout the novel in very mild cases and very extreme cases. These obsessions range from Clarissa’s obsession with Keats the poet to Jed Parry’s obsession with Joe Rose. The first we would consider a healthy obsession but the latter an extremely unhealthy obsession.

Many of the obsessions I think link in one way or another. In chapter one we hear about Keats the poet for the first time. Clarissa has been hunting for some missing letters by him. Indeed letters feature frequently in the novel. Ironically Jed pesters Joe with unwanted letters later on in the novel. Another link that Keats has with Joe’s situation is that Keats is in love with a woman called Fanny Brawne but was doomed never to marry her, rather like Parry and his hopeless love with Joe.

From the start of the novel I think that it is evident that Joe almost has an obsession with himself. The way the novel is written, from Joe’s point of view, him been the main narrator, gives us a huge indication of the sort of man Joe

As the novel draws on we see how Parry’s obsession increases. It really hits home to both us as the reader and to Joe is at the end of chapter 6. Jed rings Joe and Joe answers, Jed wants them to meet and Joe eventually agrees, he asks where Jed is and Jed reply’s “I’m in the phone box at the end of your road”. At that point it becomes apparent how serious Jed’s obsession has become. After this point in the novel Joe doesn’t seem to be that phased by Parry being there hours upon hours of the day, it’s almost as if he’s accepted it, ‘As I turned away from paying off the driver I saw Parry waiting for me outside the apartment building, right by the entrance, What was I expecting? That he would just vanish because I was thinking about something else?’

I think the theme of obsession plays a big part in the this novel by Ian McEwan, and it is brought to our attention many times throughout the novel. In chapters 1-16 we only really find out how these obsessions gradually expand and become so dominating. We have discovered the cause of the obsession but we have not yet found out what the effect the obsession is and how the obsession eventually come to an end, that is indeed if they ever do.

In chapter 13 Joe goes to visit Jean Logan ostensibly to comfort her but really just to make himself feel less guilty. Jean Logan believes her husband was unfaithful when he was alive, and on the day of his death he was with another woman. Jean Logan is desperate to find out the truth about her husband and is so obsessed with the thought her husband died whilst showing off to another woman seems to have Jean stuck in a time warp, not able to do anything apart from continuously go over and over it in her mind. She even shows Joe evidence of the picnic that was found in John

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