Sense of an Ending

Here i am sharing my own views on the following topics.

What is the meaning of phrase ‘Blood Money’ in Veronica’s reply email?

Julian Barnes here justifies the Universal Truth that “One cannot know what he does not know” – with the reference of Tony Webster that he never understand the words of Veronica, When Tony asked Veronica about the Money at that time she replied with very tragic answer “Blood Money”.  When Tony asked about other things at that time Veronica also replied with unaccepted answer: -

"You still don’t get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop even trying”.

So here it can be interpreted that why does Veronica say ‘Blood Money’? Because there are two persons who are responsible for Adrian’s suicide they are Sarah and Tony Webster according to Veronica. Due to Sarah Adrian committed suicide as he makes her pregnant and another reason can also be given is that Veronica thinks that Tony Webster is responsible as he writes letter to Adrian. So the letter causes damage. Therefore Veronica thinks that Tony Webster is responsible for the suicide of Adrian. Hence we may say that she calls that money as ‘Blood Money’.

Concept of Suicide :

As for Robson’s death, Adrian quotes Camus:

“Suicide was the only true philosophical question.”

This leads the friends to conclude that the suicide could only be considered philosophical in an arithmetical sense: Robson, about to cause an increase of one in the human population, had decided that it was his ethical duty to keep the planet’s numbers constant. Nevertheless the friends are jealous of Robson. His achievement had been “unphilosophical, self-indulgent and inartistic”. When they learn that his suicide note was rumored to consist of just two words, “sorry mum”, they believe it to have “missed a powerful educative opportunity”.

Unreliable Narrator :

    There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. Suicide has never been dealt with except as a social phenomenon.

      Julian Barnes’ has achieved something remarkable with this text, creating a work that is honest in its inaccuracy, that is genuine in its falsehood. Through the narration of The Sense of an Ending, its protagonist Tony Webster teaches himself a set of lessons about the erratic itineraries of memory.

Even in moments of realizing ourselves as split by chronology and duration, we dance freestyle to the beats of being and time. Living implies constant narrative shifts, adjusting to the rhythms of our truths, lies, and indifferences Memory, as Barnes understands it and as Tony is forced to realize is far more edited than we'd like to believe.