Love is eternal - Saturday essay

Authors Avatar

Saturday Essay

“Love is something eternal. The aspect may change but not the essence.”          

        This quote is especially true for the novel Saturday by Ian McEwan, as it shows the development of the theme of love in the novel, and how love may change its form on the outside, but the fundamentals of love are still the same on thew inside. While the theme of love continues throughout the novel, the element that the love Perowne shows towards his family and his job shifts focus. He loves his daughter Daisy for being his daughter and feels a need to be close to her. At the conclusion of the novel, upon discovering her pregnancy, he feels more of a need to protect her, as she is now the bearer of his grandchild. He loves Rosalind as his wife of twenty years to begin with, and ends up loving her more for her support in his and the family’s time of need. He loves Theo as a peaceful son, but ends with the knowledge that his son has much greater depth than his music. These changes in the status of love show the eternity of love, but how it is felt or conveyed can change, even in the course of one day like in Saturday.

        As his wife, Perowne loves Rosalind as his soulmate and his rock, but it is not until he is put into the situation of losing this support, that he realises the importance of her to his life. A marriage of twenty years in the modern world is becoming less and less likely, but through Perowne and Rosalind, author Ian McEwan shows that although the expression of love may shift focus, the real meaning of love doesn’t. Perowne and Rosalind are the loving wife and husband of a modern “nuclear” family. They will love each other, til death do they part, as they would have said in their wedding vows. That is incontestable. But it is not until Baxter challenges this love through his violent invasion, that Perowne understands the collaboration that he and his wife have as a couple. He longs for her at both the beginning and ending of the novel, but the perspective of why he loves her changed. These two contrasting quotes exemplify this point.

Join now!

        “Feeling unhinged and unreasonable, and still in need of talking to her, he

        remains at the foot of the bed.” [P24]

This sentence describes his longing for her sexually, but this second quote still has some erotic features, but also sincerity.

        “He watches her tenderly, and with some amazement, for her ordeal is only        two or three hours behind her and now here she is, pretending to be entirely         herself again.” [P239]

This change in attitude by Perowne certainly encapsulates the quote.

        Daisy, as the daughter of Perowne, shares a unique bond with her father, and this ...

This is a preview of the whole essay