McEwan also frequently gives the feeling of being in front of an audience, this too links with Florence’s musical talent, but is more of a referral to the idea that the couple feel like they are being pushed by the world around them and social pressure to consummate their marriage on this night. “With my body I thee worship” this extract from the wedding vows is mentioned more than once in the novel. It is a direct point that less than twenty-four hours ago the couple announced, in front of all their wedding guests, and their religion, that they were planning on having sex. This suggests that they are following a tradition set forth not only by previous generations and their parents. It appears to bind them morally, and conscientiously to the promise of sexual contact that night. “A reminder of other honeymoon couples who had passed through, all surely more adept than they were” Further intensifies the idea of peer pressure of the era to have marital sex. ‘Passed through’ suggests that consummation of the marriage is almost an initiation ceremony from childhood to adult maturity, which it is mention at the beginning of the novel, is what the couple are striving for. Also ‘all surely more adept than they were’ makes a point that they feel like they have to prove their ability to make love, McEwan does all this in perfect harmony with the times. The couple are married at the beginning of the 1960’s, when the world is on the cusp of a sexual revolution, to a lack of pressure to have monogamous sexual relationships, especially not in a marriage. This idea proves that the ‘swinging sixties’ were a break-through from this constant pressure from the older generations, and just to be free, which would suit Edward and Florence very much. However, it is too late for the couple.
McEwan also uses setting to suggest the publicity of the couple’s ‘first night’. The hotel seems to be very open, with the idea that there is no where for them to hide. “Behind Edward’s head extended a partial view of a distant past – the open door and the dining table by the French Window…”. The description of the ‘open door’ and the ‘French window’ suggest a clean line of sight for whoever might want to look. McEwan makes it seem that, although the couple seem to believe in romance, and a very private first night, they seem to want to announce their capability in bed. Florence, because she wants to prove that she’s normal, physically and mentally. And Edward feels that he needs to show his manhood.
McEwan cunningly creates this idea in the minds of the reader, that the couple have alternate reasons for having sex, thus suggesting that, in the mind of Edward and Florence, it’s more about their social status than their feelings for each other.
There is always this sense with Florence that the root of her fears of being ‘penetrated’ derive from an experience of paternal incest with ‘Mr. Pointing’. McEwan creates the sense that Florence is held back by the memory of being raped by her father, which she tries to keep out of her mind, but can’t. He uses a sympathetic, omniscient narrative to explain this to the reader. “She was trying not to think of the [past]”… “Here came the past anyway, the indistinct past”… “She was twelve years old, lying still like this, waiting, shivering, in the narrow bunk, with polished mahogany sides. Her mind was blank, she felt she was in disgrace”… “and her father was [undressing, like Edward now]” When the reader learns of this disgusting, terrible experience in Florence’s past, they immediately feel sorry for her, and understand perfectly, why she fears Edward. ‘Here came the past anyway’, suggests that she is doing all she can to keep it out of her mind so that she can please Edward, but it doesn’t work. McEwan creates an irony in that Edward, who is meant to care more for her than any of the readers, is ignorant to this point.
