Flipped Learning Activity -
The Only Story
This blog is part of a Flipped Learning activity assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad. The task requires watching videos related to Julian Barnes’ novel The Only Story and writing a concise summary of each based on our comprehension. For further details about the task, refer to the teacher’s blog linked here. Teacher's blog
Video 1 - Summary of 'The Only Story' | Plot Overview
At that young age, Paul falls in love with Susan Macleod, a 48-year-old married woman. Susan has two daughters, Clara and Martha, and is trapped in an abusive marriage with Gordon Macleod. Their relationship begins at an exclusive tennis club reserved for the upper class, where they grow close and eventually develop a physical bond. Despite his parents' disapproval, Paul remains committed to Susan until he reaches his late twenties.
As time passes, Susan turns to alcohol and develops a pattern of dishonesty. With little to occupy her as a housewife, her struggles intensify. Meanwhile, Paul begins contemplating his future and career, ultimately realizing that he is unable to support Susan. Eventually, he chooses to leave and move abroad.
Roughly 15 to 20 years before the present moment in the novel, Paul encounters Susan one final time. By then, she has suffered severe mental deterioration. At the request of her daughter Martha, Paul visits Susan, whose life had been marked by pain and hardship. She endured abuse from her husband, Gordon, and later passed away.
Susan's tragic life was shaped by trauma, including childhood sexual abuse by her Uncle Humphrey, which left her struggling with intimacy in adulthood.
Barnes presents the story with a measured and analytical tone, prompting reflection on love, regret, and the fine line between courage and cowardice. The novel shares thematic connections with his Booker Prize-winning 'The Sense of an Ending' (2011), as both works examine memory and the way individuals reinterpret their past.
Video 2 - Character Study: Joan in The Only Story
Joan, Susan’s close friend and Gerald’s sister, was deeply affected by his death. Over time, she became involved in several affairs and eventually became the mistress of an older married man. However, he later chose to marry someone else, leaving Joan abandoned and alone.
As the years went by, Joan distanced herself from people and found solace in the company of dogs. Susan had a dog named Sibyl, whose name carries a mythological significance—Sibyl was a woman granted immortality by a god, but it became a burden rather than a blessing. This idea aligns with the novel’s themes of love, pain, and solitude.
The novel also presents the idea that while death may bring relief, life is full of suffering. Joan, once a resilient woman, eventually isolates herself and turns to her pets after experiencing repeated heartbreak.
Joan drinks excessively and often behaves unpredictably. Paul finds her mannerisms harsh, as she frequently swears. However, Susan justifies her actions, explaining that Joan has seen life for what it truly is and no longer feels the need to conform to social expectations. She prefers the company of dogs because, unlike humans, they do not demand anything in return. Yet, even this companionship is not without sorrow, as pets, too, eventually pass away, leaving only their memories behind.
Video 3 - Memory and History in The Only Story
One of the novel’s central questions is: Who decides what is true in history? Both history and memory are often unreliable, as people question historical narratives just as they doubt their own recollections.
A useful comparison is the film Memento, in which the protagonist suffers from short-term memory loss and relies on notes to remember past events. The movie raises an important ethical dilemma—if a person loses their memory, do they still bear responsibility for their actions? The novel similarly explores themes of guilt, regret, and how people sometimes create false versions of events to avoid facing their mistakes. This theme is also present in works like The Tell-Tale Heart, Claudius' confession in Hamlet, and Arthur Dimmesdale’s internal struggle in The Scarlet Letter.
Trauma and Marginalized Identity
The novel connects with trauma studies and the experiences of marginalized individuals, drawing on ideas from Dipesh Chakrabarty’s work on Partition literature. Trauma alters personal perspectives and leaves deep emotional scars. Paul Roberts, the protagonist, struggles to tell his story truthfully, illustrating how memory can be fragmented or misleading.
Link to The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes' earlier novel The Sense of an Ending also explores the fluid nature of history and memory. A key quote from that book states:
"History is written by the winners, while those who lose reshape their past to suit their own illusions."
Similarly, Patrick Lagrange’s statement highlights how history is shaped by unreliable memories and incomplete records:
"History is the certainty that emerges where flawed memory meets insufficient evidence."
This suggests that history is not an absolute truth but rather a mix of selective memory and imperfect documentation.
Paul’s Acts of Avoidance
Two significant moments in the novel reveal Paul’s reluctance to face difficult situations:
- The Fairground Incident – While returning from a fair, Paul and his friend Eric are attacked by thieves. Instead of standing his ground, Paul runs away, pretending to look for help but actually acting out of fear.
- Gordon’s Abuse of Susan – When Susan’s husband, Gordon, physically assaults her, Paul does not intervene. Instead, he chooses to leave, raising the question of whether he is a coward or simply unwilling to face confrontation.
Symbolism: Birds and Youthful Boldness
A scene in the novel is reminiscent of a moment in the film Dil Chahta Hai, where friends silently share a moment of togetherness. In the novel, Paul overhears a man describing a woman resting her head on a man’s shoulder, comparing it to the light touch of a bird. However, birds eventually fly away, sometimes leaving behind a mess. This could symbolize how love, though beautiful, often comes with pain and disappointment.
The discussion in the video also mentions racing driver Max Verstappen, noting that a person's wrist control isn’t fully developed until around 25. This suggests that youth is often bold and impulsive but lacks true courage. This idea reflects Paul’s journey—his youthful confidence fades as he struggles with the realities and responsibilities of love.
Video 4 - Narrative Pattern in The Only Story
The book also reflects on the very nature of storytelling. Early dictionary definitions described a novel as "a short tale, usually about love." This aligns with the novel’s central theme—people often share their romantic successes but rarely talk about their heartbreaks and failures.
Barnes engages the reader directly, almost as if he is imparting a lesson from personal experience. He presents ideas, then challenges them, introducing counterarguments that encourage readers to question their own views on love and memory. This back-and-forth style keeps the narrative thought-provoking.
Another key theme in the novel is the connection between sanity and purpose. People need a sense of direction to maintain mental stability. If their purpose is tied to another person, conflicts arise because both individuals have their own desires and expectations. However, if the purpose is a personal goal, there is no opposing force, which eliminates conflict. This idea is reflected in Paul and Susan’s relationship—love brings deep passion but also inevitable pain.
Video 5 - Question of Responsibility
Julian Barnes' The Only Story delves into the theme of responsibility through the character of Paul Roberts, who reflects on his past with regret. Paul struggles with the weight of his decisions, particularly in relationships marked by domestic violence. He wonders if his involvement with Susan would have occurred had Gordon been a responsible husband. This theme of accountability also appears in The Sense of an Ending, where choices and their consequences shape a person’s life.
The novel uses the metaphor of a chain to symbolize responsibility, questioning what happens when a link breaks and who should bear the consequences. It also draws comparisons to trees bending in a cyclone, suggesting that flexibility is key to survival. Similarly, a snake navigating obstacles without confrontation represents the importance of adaptability in overcoming life’s challenges.
Barnes challenges the way people assign blame in relationships, emphasizing that individuals often overlook their own role in conflicts while focusing on external factors. Through self-reflection, people can better understand their responsibility in shaping relationships. Instead of placing blame on others, the novel encourages introspection and personal growth.
Paul’s reflections on responsibility connect to themes of memory and guilt. Like Tony Webster in The Sense of an Ending, Paul must confront his own role in the suffering of others. While he condemns Gordon’s abusive behavior, he also acknowledges his own part in the situation. This suggests that responsibility is not about identifying a single guilty party but understanding how everyone’s actions contribute to the outcome.
Ultimately, the novel argues that true responsibility comes from self-awareness. Rather than blaming fate or others, individuals must recognize their own mistakes. This reinforces the idea that growth comes from acknowledging one’s faults. The Only Story presents responsibility as a shared and complex experience, prompting readers to reflect on how their choices impact the lives of others.
Video 6 - Theme of Love/ Passion and Suffering
The word passion has evolved significantly from its original meaning. Derived from the Latin patior, meaning "to suffer," its earliest recorded use in English dates back to around 1175 AD. Interestingly, passion appears more often in written form than in spoken language.
In modern usage, the word has largely lost its association with suffering, instead referring to intense emotions, often linked to romantic or sexual desire. However, Julian Barnes' The Only Story brings the word back to its roots, illustrating how passion and suffering are deeply intertwined.
Paul, a 19-year-old, becomes passionately attracted to Susan Macleod, a 48-year-old married woman with two daughters. What begins as an intense love affair gradually transforms into a journey marked by disillusionment and pain.
The novel traces Paul's transformation—from innocence to experience, from youthful infatuation to emotional exhaustion, and from idealized love to harsh reality.
It is a story of suffering, not only for Paul and Susan but for those around them as well, as their relationship impacts their families and reshapes their lives.
Examples from the novel:
The Elasticity of Love
Paul’s youthful idealism is evident when he tells Susan he fears love might take away from the other people she cares about. Susan, however, reassures him:
“Love’s elastic. It’s not a question of watering down. It adds on. It doesn’t take away.”
This moment captures Paul’s innocence—his belief in love as pure and incorruptible—while Susan’s response reflects her experience and understanding of love’s complexity.
Love as an Irresistible Force
Paul later encounters a phrase in another novel:
“He fell in love like a man committing suicide.”
Though it doesn’t perfectly fit his experience, he realizes that love often lacks choice. He feels caught in an emotional paradox—unable to live with Susan, yet unable to live apart from her. This echoes a central question of the novel: is his love for Susan an act of courage, cowardice, or merely fate?
The Duality of Love
Paul notes in his journal:
“In love, everything is both true and false; it’s the one subject on which it’s impossible to say anything absurd.”
This statement highlights the contradictions within love it is at once beautiful and destructive, fulfilling yet deeply painful.
A Psychological Perspective: Lacan’s Theory of Desire
The novel aligns with Jacques Lacan’s idea that people need a driving force in life, whether a person, a goal, or an object. If that motivation is another human being, suffering is almost inevitable. However, if it is a goal, it demands nothing in return. Paul’s devotion to Susan becomes his driving force, yet it ultimately leads to suffering.
The Limitations of Language
Barnes also explores how language fails to fully express human emotions. When we laugh or cry, we do so instinctively, but when asked why we struggle to articulate our feelings. This highlights the inadequacy of words in capturing deep emotions, a theme reflected in Paul’s journey.
The Dream of Susan Falling
Paul imagines Susan hanging from a window, with him desperately holding onto her wrists:
“Her weight makes it impossible for you to pull her back inside. It is all you can do to stop yourself being pulled out with her.”
The metaphor is striking Paul cannot escape his love for Susan, nor can he save her from her struggles. They are locked together in a tragic inevitability, bound until his strength gives out. This dream encapsulates his entrapment—he cannot turn back, and whatever happens to Susan will inevitably affect him as well.
Video 7 - Critique of marriage institution
Julian Barnes' The Only Story presents a strong critique of the institution of marriage, portraying it as a structure that often stifles passion and turns love into something mundane. The novel suggests that love thrives on intensity and risk, whereas marriage tends to domesticate and weaken it.
Marriage as a Confinement
Paul’s skepticism about marriage is reflected in his view that it is incompatible with true love. The novel presents marriage through metaphors that depict it as something deteriorating or imprisoning:
"Marriage is a dog kennel in which complacency lives and is never chained up."
"Marriage is a jewellery box which, by some mysterious opposite of alchemy, turns gold, silver and diamonds back into base metal, paste and quartz."
"Marriage is a disused boathouse containing an old, two-person canoe, no longer water-worthy, with holes in the bottom and one missing paddle."
These comparisons highlight Paul’s belief that marriage drains relationships of their initial excitement and passion, leaving behind only obligation and routine.
The Marriage of Susan and Gordon: A Case Study
Susan’s marriage to Gordon exemplifies this critique. Instead of being a source of love and companionship, her marriage is marked by abuse, neglect, and emotional stagnation. Paul wonders whether Susan's life—and his—would have been different if Gordon had been a responsible husband. This reinforces the idea that marriage, rather than guaranteeing happiness, can instead become a prison.
Love Ends Where Marriage Begins
The novel also touches on the classic literary trope where comedies end in marriage, but real-life tragedies begin after it. This idea is echoed in a passage that presents a more practical view of marriage:
"I remember a woman friend once telling me her theory of marriage: that it was something you should 'dip into and out of as required'... There is no point demanding more than your temperament requires or provides."
This perspective suggests that marriage should not be an all-consuming institution but rather something flexible, adapting to the needs of individuals rather than forcing people into rigid roles.
A Parallel with Jude the Obscure
The novel draws a comparison to Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, another work that critiques marriage as a societal construct that often leads to suffering rather than fulfillment. Like Paul and Susan, Hardy’s characters struggle against the expectations of marriage, revealing how rigid social norms can destroy genuine love.
The Absolutist View on Love and Marriage
Paul is described as “an absolutist for love, and therefore an absolutist against marriage.” His belief in love as something pure and transcendent makes him resistant to the idea of marriage, which he sees as a compromise that weakens love. Barnes ultimately presents marriage as an institution that is often ill-suited to sustaining the intensity and authenticity of true passion.
Video 8 - Two ways to look at life
Julian Barnes' The Only Story explores the tension between free will and fate through Paul Roberts’ reflections on his life and choices. The novel presents two contrasting perspectives: one that emphasizes personal agency and another that suggests individuals are often at the mercy of forces beyond their control.
Life as a Series of Choices
One perspective in the novel suggests that life is shaped by conscious decisions. Paul sees life as a river, where each choice determines the course of events while simultaneously eliminating other possibilities. This idea reinforces the notion of responsibility Paul acknowledges that his decision to pursue a relationship with Susan was his own, and he accepts both the love and suffering that followed. He does not attempt to escape his role in shaping his life, even when confronted with regret.
Life as an Uncontrollable Drift
The novel also presents an opposing view, one where life is not entirely dictated by individual choices but rather by external circumstances. The metaphor of a "bump on a log" suggests that people sometimes drift through life, powerless against the currents that carry them forward. Paul questions whether his decisions were truly his own or whether they were the result of inevitable forces, such as societal norms, emotional impulses, or even fate.
The Interplay of Fate and Free Will
Paul’s narrative oscillates between these two ideas, reflecting the complexity of human experience. At times, he feels in control, shaping his own story. At other times, he sees himself as a passive observer, carried along by events beyond his control. This struggle mirrors the universal human dilemma—how much of life is determined by our own choices, and how much is dictated by circumstances we cannot change?
A Philosophical Reflection on Life
By presenting both perspectives without fully endorsing either, Barnes encourages the reader to reflect on their own understanding of fate and free will. The Only Story ultimately suggests that life is a blend of choice and inevitability—while individuals make decisions, they are also shaped by forces they may never fully comprehend.
References:
"Introduction | Character | Plot Summary | The Only Story | Julian Barnes." DoE-
MKBU, YouTube, 31 Jan 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Lxx-C5Tg0
"Joan | Character Study | The Only Story | Julian Barnes." DoE-MKBU, YouTube, 3
Feb 2022, https://youtu.be/st-w_099Yr0?si=OCoRA4CEEaHpXWq8
"Memory Novel | Memory and History | Memory and Morality | The Only Story |
Julian Barnes." DoE-MKBU, YouTube, 2 Feb 2022,
https://youtu.be/H4yoNBCzrUs?si=Vxc5GQPJqnbOxsYE\
"Narrative Pattern | The Only Story | Julian Barnes." DoE-MKBU, YouTube, 1 Feb
2022, https://youtu.be/395rhgkig1w?si=mqvmqwWBRqOxByZ_
"Question of Responsibility | The Only Story | Julian Barnes." DoE-MKBU, YouTube3Feb 2022, https://youtu.be/uBj-ju4RuTo?si=LW1K02vT0oNaw2Fx
"Theme of Love | Passion and Suffering | The Only Story | Julian Barnes." DoE-
MKBU, YouTube, 2 Feb 2022, https://youtu.be/7f7hCKtGkGI?si=gCVaaKw0ksJAn4OY
"Theme of Marriage | Critique of Marriage Institution | The Only Story | Julian
Barnes." DoE-MKBU, YouTube, 3 Feb 2022,
https://youtu.be/SCrSyV2jXzI?si=iLvkpeE_LlO67jpC
"Two Way to Look at Life | The Only Story | Julian Barnes." DoE-MKBU, YouTube, 3
Feb 2022, https://youtu.be/s7Wom7RAqI4?si=EwMPU5omn8eVtnhH
Barad, Dilip. “The Only Story.” The Only Story, 3 Feb. 2022, blog.dilipbarad.com/2022/02/the-only-story.html. Accessed 08 Feb. 2025.
Barnes, Julian. The Only Story. Jonathan Cape, 2018.
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