On chesil beach
What does the language and structure of the opening sequence of ‘On Chesil Beach’, reveal about the two protagonists characters.
The initial information that we learn from Ian McEwan in the opening paragraph, about the two protagonist characters in ‘On Chesil beach’ is that they are newlyweds on their wedding night, and that they are extremely inexperienced of anything remotely sexual and are both fairly ignorant of the subject. The phrase, ‘They lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible’ describes how one of the factors of their ignorance is the time period that they live in, the 1960’s, perhaps can be called the beginning of the ‘sexual revolution’. However, the two characters, Edward and Florence, are either approximately 22 or 23 years of age, so they would have clearly grown up around people and in an era when the subject of sex was simply unheard of and most probably wasn’t thought of a form of entertainment, but as an act that had to be done to bare children. Especially throughout Florence’s family, who seem to be of a higher class and perhaps stereotypically are fairly repulsed by the subject and never talk about it. This leads the reader to believe that Edward and Florence are both stereotypical of the time frame that they are living in. This supposed normality of the two characters and their parents also leads them to have the clichéd wedding, no abnormalities, structured format of the occasion along with the hotel reception and the typical ‘mid July’ wedding.
The structure of the first paragraph also seems to gradually reveal the social classes and wealth of the two families, with as mentioned Florence’s family being the higher class, providing the car and perhaps the hotel reception as we learn that Edward ‘had never stayed in a hotel before’ therefore immediately relegating Edwards family to a lower class standing, along with his quite unpredictable mother and her trait of forgetting ‘the purpose of
The initial information that we learn from Ian McEwan in the opening paragraph, about the two protagonist characters in ‘On Chesil beach’ is that they are newlyweds on their wedding night, and that they are extremely inexperienced of anything remotely sexual and are both fairly ignorant of the subject. The phrase, ‘They lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible’ describes how one of the factors of their ignorance is the time period that they live in, the 1960’s, perhaps can be called the beginning of the ‘sexual revolution’. However, the two characters, Edward and Florence, are either approximately 22 or 23 years of age, so they would have clearly grown up around people and in an era when the subject of sex was simply unheard of and most probably wasn’t thought of a form of entertainment, but as an act that had to be done to bare children. Especially throughout Florence’s family, who seem to be of a higher class and perhaps stereotypically are fairly repulsed by the subject and never talk about it. This leads the reader to believe that Edward and Florence are both stereotypical of the time frame that they are living in. This supposed normality of the two characters and their parents also leads them to have the clichéd wedding, no abnormalities, structured format of the occasion along with the hotel reception and the typical ‘mid July’ wedding.
The structure of the first paragraph also seems to gradually reveal the social classes and wealth of the two families, with as mentioned Florence’s family being the higher class, providing the car and perhaps the hotel reception as we learn that Edward ‘had never stayed in a hotel before’ therefore immediately relegating Edwards family to a lower class standing, along with his quite unpredictable mother and her trait of forgetting ‘the purpose of