Through this it causes Clarissa to disbelief and tries to disprove Joe and this is all because Joe isn’t concerned about her well being or her day at work or what she is feeling. Joe is scientist and this causes some friction between he and Clarissa because she isn’t a scientist and that means that she doesn’t understand anything he is saying as it isn’t in her creative, playful and colourful style of speech. It is in Joe’s scientific, mathematical and factual style of speech. This eventually causes Clarissa and Joe to fight that then leads to Clarissa leaving and go to her brothers house.
I think we need some time apart. Or at least I do. Luke has offered me his old Camden Square place until he finds new tenants. I don’t know where this takes us.
In the ending of the book Clarissa finds out, like everyone else, that Joe was right all along and that Parry does in deed want to love and have Joe for himself. This causes Clarissa to feel a little guilty about the whole matter because she insisted that Joe was delusional and had lost his mind, and that causes her to think about going back to Joe.
I drove to Camden Town to collect Clarissa.
She must have been looking out for my car, for as soon as I parked she appeared at the top of the steps outside her brother’s flat.
Joe has many obsessions throughout the novel, including science, Parry and Clarissa. Joe’s obsession with Parry is fairly large in the book. Joe’s feelings towards this are good, bad and somewhat neutral. The good feelings are that there is someone there that is in love with him beside the love of his life, Clarissa and that causes him to feel as though he is important and that he is definitely wanted in this world.
The bad feelings are that Joe feels threatened and frightened and he feels as though his life could be in danger and that he is driving Clarissa insane everyday that goes past and every second of those days. Also the letters that he is receiving in the mail and the messages on the answering machine he feels as though he is being ignored as the police told him that he didn’t have a proper case to do anything about it and that the police cannot interfere unless he is on the property and unless he has physically hurt or mentally damaged Joe. This had caused Joe to take things into his own hands and deal with the whole Parry obsession himself.
I aimed at is right side, away from Clarissa. In the enclosed space the explosion seemed to wipe out all other senses and the room flashed like a blank screen
Joe’s obsession with Clarissa eventually drives Clarissa away as seen above. Another factor that contributed to the fact that Clarissa left is that both Joe and Clarissa have opposing views and ways of thinking. This causes stress between both of them because Joe is the logical, scientific, rational person (Charles Darwin) that thinks of everything in the logical sense and doesn’t rush into anything without much thought and doesn’t really care about some ones feelings that much whereas Clarissa is the colourful, artistic and romantic person (John Keats) who goes into everything thinking about the look and feelings about something. (for more about this see previous essay).
Joe’s other obsession is that he was a Scientist and that all went wrong and Joe is now always trying to find a new way back. He is now a Science Journalist and e uses all of the information he gets to think of theories that will get him back into being a Science Journalist. This is evident throughout the book and isn’t really that major but he is somewhat obsessed with it. He is always looking for new ways and this also contributes to the time that Clarissa leaves. Clarissa and Joe have frequent talks about him becoming a scientist again and they always end with him promising that he agrees that there is no more of a chance of getting back into science.
The final obsession that Joe has is that of what happened with the balloon incident. This causes Joe to revisit the site of the accident (Chapter 15) and reflect on the differences and the things that are exactly the same as the first time that they were there and most of all, Logan’s death. Joe cannot admit that he was the first to let go (of the rope) and that causes him to distrust himself and to disbelieve himself about the incident and makes him think of ways that they could have done things better to make it all effective and proper.
This all (above) shows how obsession is a theme in Enduring Love by Ian McEwan. It also shows how people can have so many obsessions or fascinations within a short time period that could make or break them or change their lives. This therefore shows that everyone can be guilty of having an obsession such as Joe, Parry and Clarissa do in this novel.
Nicholas Kinnaird
Yr 11T JHA
