The Only Story: Love, Loss, and the Disillusionment of Marriage
Name:- Aakash ChavdaBatch:- M.A. Sem 4 (2023-2025)
Enrollment Number:-5108230011
E-mail Address:-aakashchavda637@gmail.com
Roll Number:-01
Assignment Details:-
Topic:- The Only Story: Love, Loss, and the Disillusionment of Marriage
Paper & subject code:- Paper 207: Contemporary Literatures in English
Submitted to:- Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar
Abstract
Julian Barnes’s The Only Story (2018) is a poignant meditation on love, memory, and the quiet unraveling of romantic ideals. This assignment explores how the novel functions as a subtle yet powerful critique of marriage—not just as a social institution but as a deeply flawed framework for human intimacy. Through the unconventional relationship between the young narrator, Paul, and the older, married Susan, Barnes challenges traditional assumptions about love, commitment, and personal fulfillment. The novel's narrative structure, which shifts from passionate subjectivity to distant reflection, mirrors the emotional arc of disillusionment. This assignment highlights how The Only Story reveals marriage as a complex, often constraining force rather than a source of security or happiness.
Keywords: The Only Story, marriage, critique, love.
Introduction
Julian Barnes, a well known figure in contemporary British literature, is known for his incisive explorations of love, philosophy, memory, and the complexities of human relationships. In his 2018 novel The Only Story, Barnes delves into the emotional depths of an unconventional romantic relationship between a young man, Paul Roberts, and a much older, married woman named Susan Macleod. What begins as a passionate, rebellious affair gradually unfolds into a nuanced and somber reflection on the realities of love and the burdens of long-term emotional commitment.
This assignment seeks to examine The Only Story not simply as a narrative of love and loss, but as a critical commentary on the institution of marriage. Through its introspective protagonist, nonlinear narrative, and emotionally layered portrayal of dependence and disillusionment, the novel challenges idealized conceptions of marriage as a source of stability or fulfillment. Instead, it presents marriage as an institution often marred by silence, compromise, and emotional decay. By analyzing the novel’s characters, themes, and structure, this study aims to illuminate how Barnes critiques marriage from both emotional and societal perspectives.
Brief About Plot
"Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question" (Barnes)
The Only Story follows the life of Paul Roberts, a young man who, at the age of nineteen, falls in love with a forty-eight-year-old married woman named Susan Macleod. The two meet at a local country tennis club in a quiet suburban village in 1960s England, where their relationship begins as an unconventional romance that defies societal norms and expectations.
Despite Susan’s existing marriage to a controlling and abusive husband Gordon Macleod, she and Paul develop a deep emotional bond and eventually move in together outside the village. What starts as an idealistic and rebellious love story gradually becomes burdened by emotional strain, particularly as Susan’s mental health deteriorates and she increasingly turns to alcohol as a coping mechanism.
The novel is divided into three parts, reflecting the evolution of Paul’s perspective over time and his detachment from the relationship with Susan—from youthful passion and defiance, to mature disillusionment, and finally to reflective detachment. The narrative shifts from first-person to second- and third-person narration, symbolizing Paul's growing distance from his past and from the idealism he once held about love and relationships.
The novel is less about a singular event and more about the emotional consequences of love that endures, falters, and leaves lasting marks. Through Paul’s journey, Barnes examines the limits of romantic devotion, the quiet failures of marriage, and the painful reality that not all love stories lead to fulfillment or closure.
Marriage in the Novel
In Julian Barnes’ The Only Story, marriage is depicted not as a site of love or mutual understanding, but as an institution marked by emotional emptiness, disillusionment, and quiet suffering. Through the fragmented recollections of Susan, the older woman in a relationship with the much younger Paul, Barnes critiques traditional mid-20th-century British marital norms. Susan reveals that her marriage has been sexless for nearly twenty years, with her and her husband living in separate rooms. This striking admission undermines the conventional image of marriage as a space of intimacy and mutual care. Instead, what emerges is a portrait of domestic life filled with silence, repression, and resigned endurance.
Susan's coping mechanisms—occasional smoking, dry humor, and guarded storytelling—reveal the extent of her emotional fatigue. Her casual remark that she hasn’t “seen his eyes for years” (Barnes)is more than a physical observation; it symbolizes the total absence of emotional connection between her and her husband. Gordon’s grotesque routines—heavy drinking, belching, and rude table manners—transform the home into a space of discomfort rather than companionship. Barnes thus subtly exposes the hidden violence of domesticity, where emotional neglect and habitual disrespect erode whatever bonds might have once existed.
Moreover, Susan’s comment that she was called “frigid” by her husband, not during their intimacy but after it ended, highlights how patriarchal marriages often shame and suppress women’s sexuality. Rather than offering space for healing or intimacy, her marriage became a source of judgment and dismissal. Her past trauma—hinted at in her story of abuse by an uncle—adds another layer to her emotional detachment and reveals how the wounds of the past are often carried silently into marriage. Barnes critiques how societal expectations of marital roles, especially for women, offer little room for vulnerability or complexity.
Susan’s declaration that her generation is “played out” (Barnes) connects her personal disillusionment to broader historical and cultural exhaustion. While Paul, in the idealism of first love, believes that love can overcome all obstacles, Susan’s realism and world-weariness suggest otherwise. For her, marriage is not a romantic ideal but a performance, and love—though present in her affair with Paul—is not necessarily redemptive. In this way, The Only Story presents marriage not as a culmination of love, but as its distortion; not a shelter, but a structure in which individuals are often spiritually and emotionally diminished.
Barnes’s portrayal of marriage can be seen as a poignant critique of its conventional foundations. He explores how love, when constrained by societal expectations and haunted by personal trauma, can fade into quiet tragedy. Through Susan’s life and her failed marriage, Barnes exposes the emotional cost of maintaining appearances, the silence women are forced to bear, and the illusory promises of marital happiness. The novel suggests that while love may begin as a source of hope, it often collides with the painful realities of human vulnerability and the societal structures that fail to support it.
Narrative Structure as Critique
Julian Barnes structures The Only Story in three parts that reflect Paul’s emotional journey and serve as a critique of love and marriage. The first part, told in an idealistic first-person voice, captures Paul’s youthful belief in the power of love to defy societal norms, especially the traditional institution of marriage.
In the second part, the narrative becomes more detached and shifts toward a second-person voice, reflecting Paul’s growing disillusionment as he confronts Susan’s trauma, alcoholism, and the emotional cost of their relationship. Here, love begins to unravel, and the reality of failed intimacy takes center stage. The final part adopts a third-person voice, signaling Paul’s emotional distance and introspection. This shift mirrors his attempt to make sense of the past, revealing the limitations of love and the illusions that shaped his younger self.
Through these narrative transitions, Barnes critiques not just marriage but also the romantic idealism that often precedes it, showing how both can erode under the weight of reality.
Critique of Marriage in the Novel
The Novel gives a scathing critique of conventional marriage by exposing the stark contradictions and inherent injustices of the institution. In the novel, Barnes unpacks the myth that physical violence or other forms of control can be interpreted as signs of love or passion. The narrator reflects on widely held, though outdated, beliefs—such as the notion that it is preferable for a husband to inflict violence rather than commit infidelity—only to counter them with the brutal reality of abuse. This confrontation is particularly evident in Paul’s uncompromising judgment of Gordon Macleod’s actions, as he is held accountable without any possibility for justification. The insistence that a husband’s violent behavior is a “crime of absolute liability” symbolizes a broader condemnation of a marital structure that not only permits, but often conceals, such transgressions behind a veneer of respectability.
The novel presents a powerful critique of marriage by using vivid metaphors and deeply personal experiences to expose the institution’s shortcomings. Marriage is compared to various everyday objects—a jewelry box that mysteriously turns precious metals into base metals, or a disused boat that is no longer seaworthy. These metaphors suggest that, over time, marriage deteriorates, losing its original value and becoming a burden of routine and disillusionment rather than a celebration of love.
This symbolic decay is mirrored in the lives of the characters, particularly in Susan’s story. She endures a sexless, emotionally neglectful, and physically abusive marriage, yet remains trapped by societal expectations of propriety and the shame attached to admitting failure. Her inability to confront the legal system and document her suffering highlights how deeply ingrained social conventions prevent women from escaping unhappy marriages or even acknowledging their pain. Susan’s situation also reflects a broader truth about middle-class respectability: many people suffer in silence, maintaining appearances while privately bearing the weight of unspoken trauma.
Paul’s growing disillusionment with marriage reinforces this critique. As he watches Susan struggle to break free, he comes to see the institution less as a bond of love and more as a social contract rooted in control, power, and compromise. His moral absolutism, especially in the face of Gordon Macleod’s abuse, underscores a key theme in the novel: that marriage, as it is traditionally constructed, can often serve to preserve appearances at the cost of personal freedom and emotional authenticity. Through these interwoven narratives and reflections, the novel condemns the idealized vision of marriage and instead portrays it as a flawed and often damaging institution.
By juxtaposing the expectations of middle-class dignity with the harsh realities of domestic abuse and moral compromise, Barnes sharply critiques the institution of marriage. The portrayal is unflinching: marriage is not a sanctuary or a romantic idyll but a complex web where emotional alienation, societal pressure, and personal shame converge, leaving its participants damaged rather than fulfilled. This critique is woven through the narrative, not only through the characters’ dialogues and reflections but also through the narrator’s internal conflict as he grapples with the disparity between the ideal of romantic love and the pragmatic cruelty of marital life.
Conclusion
In conclusion, The Only Story offers a layered critique of marriage by exposing its emotional, social, and psychological complexities. Through its shifting narrative voices, fragmented structure, and vivid metaphors, the novel reveals how marriage can often mask control, silence suffering, and constrain individual freedom. Characters like Susan and Paul embody the struggle between romantic idealism and societal expectation, showing how love, once entangled in the conventions of marriage, can become compromised. Barnes ultimately challenges the reader to question the authenticity and sustainability of traditional marital roles, emphasizing the need for honesty, autonomy, and emotional truth in human relationships.
References
Barnes, Julian. The Only Story. Jonathan Cape, 2018.
Barad, Dilip. “The Only Story - Julian Barnes.” Dilip Barad | Teacher Blog, https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2022/02/the-only-story.html. Accessed 8 February 2025.
Chavda, Aakash. “The Only Story | Flipped Learning Activity.” Blogger, 7 February 2025, https://aakashchavda.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-only-story-flipped-learning-activity.html. Accessed 16 April 2025.
"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
