Author: Ian McEwan 

Genre: Literary Fiction

Length of novel: 40,000 words (novella)

Beginning hook: Edward and Florence, a couple on their wedding night, struggle with their private fears about the consummation of their marriage. Edward knows that Florence is shy and he is anxious about his own performance. We become more acutely aware of Florence’s fear and disgust at the idea of sex.

Inciting incident: During dinner in the hotel suite, Florence attempts to overcome her secret fear by suggesting that she and Edward lie together on the bed.  

Progressive Complications: The act of passionate kissing triggers Florence’s revulsion and dread. The more horrified she becomes; the more certain Edward is that she is aroused. Florence’s desperation to please her husband escalates. She raises the stakes to escape his kiss, and leads him to the bed. The couple, separately and internally, reflect on the circumstances of their first meeting; falling in love and the political and familial context of their courtship. This increases the tension when we return to the bedroom and understand the love the couple share and the pressures they feel as a result of family, society, and their own ambitions. Edward loses confidence when he struggles to remove Florence’s dress. She goes as far as to admit to him that she is scared. They achieve moments of intimacy and greater comfort, but at the last moment they fail to consummate the marriage.   

Turning Point: Florence, disgusted and horrified, flees the room.

Crisis: On the beach, Florence is honest. She admits to Edward that she does not feel able to have sex and that she does not feel a need for sex as others do. She asks Edward to live with her as her husband but without ever consummating the marriage. She suggests he might have sex with other women.

Climax: Edward is outraged and rejects Florence entirely.

Resolution: The couple are divorced quietly and swiftly. Edward reflects on his underwhelming life; his regret is an unarticulated spectre in the background. He views Florence’s offer to him in a more sympathetic light. Florence achieves artistic success, but McEwan hints at her personal sadness.

Perspective: This novel is written in the simple past tense (they were/he saw/she did) but McEwan also uses past perfect tense (he was wandering/was working as/courtship had been) to guide the reader when events occur before the hotel scenes. Backstory is not scattered throughout as illuminatory details – it has a thrust, and progression of its own and it makes up a significant portion of the novel’s action. This is not an easy thing to achieve. To master this technique, carefully study McEwan as well as A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles; both authors use backstory to further plot. Both novels are keenly character driven. In On Chesil Beach we are curious about the characters. The intensity of their desires, their fears and loves are exquisitely drawn. Backstory also propels us forward to the action in the hotel. We invest in the history because it assists us in understanding the story on a deeper level.  

Narrative Voice: McEwan writes from the third-person limited omniscient, or close third perspective. He switches between the novel’s two primary characters, Edward and Florence, so we know their innermost thoughts and feelings as well as their recollections of the past and each other. In this way, their relationship is deconstructed and their fears and ambitions loom large. A writer employing this technique will often start a new paragraph or chapter break before moving from one character to another, but McEwan moves fairly fluidly between the two characters. It is cleverly done. McEwan uses the technique in such a way that we instantly know whose perspective we are following and the two character’s interior worlds dovetail neatly with each other in the writing. This, too, is a difficult narrative devise to use successfully – all too often it can be jarring or confusing for the reader. McEwan is a master, and here the perspective flows naturally – enhancing our understanding all the time. For writers wishing to use this technique, consider studying Normal People by Sally Rooney in addition to On Chesil Beach. 

Themes: With a simple premise, the novel freely explores its context but importantly, this context informs character and plot. The couple are products of the times. Their crisis, too, is a product of the times. McEwan evokes London and Oxford in the early sixties; a time of burgeoning change in which old wisdoms are beginning to be questioned, later to be overturned. McEwan gives us the context neatly; we are inside Harold Macmillan’s London in the midst of debate about the arms race, ‘Ban the Bomb’ protests are taking place and Edward and Florence meet at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament meeting. The British Empire is shrinking fast and the overbearing, older generation do not want to acknowledge that England is now a minor power. Their power too, is waning, but still present as an antagonistic force. Love is not free and the pill only a rumour, censorship and restraint abound and, in this world, marriage represents freedom for a couple who long to be free of the mould they cannot break. 

Characterisation: By using close third perspective we are inside Florence and Edward’s mind, overhearing their thoughts and this assists McEwan in delivering compelling characters on the page. Their ambitions define them; Edward is the less focussed of the two, as he toys with the idea of furthering a career in history, he is happy to digress with other employment. He is intelligent, from a lower middle-class background, with a brain damaged mother and a headteacher father. Florence is more intelligent, from a wealthy family, her relationship with her own father is characterised by a strange mix of worship and repulsion. McEwan brings these characters to life by giving us a window to their private worlds. It is detailed, intimate and intense. The differences between these characters fuel the conflict; Florence’s wealth, intelligence and focussed ambition intimidate Edward on a private level. Florence’s shyness stems directly from society’s subordination of her gender, and while sex might represent to her a diminishing of her will, to Edward it is freedom and joy. Critical to McEwan’s success here is the layering of characterisation and level of detail bringing the reader close to these characters.

Style: McEwan places his words with the precision and the steady hand of a surgeon making a cut. The images and their meanings are complex and brimming with life. From the gravy that congeals on the plates of the abandoned honeymoon dinner, to the wildflowers of the English country where Edward finds shelter and in which Florence seeks him out. McEwan builds a rich world. At times the book is highly sensory; we are trapped with Florence and her fear inside the dress that refuses to be unzipped. The creaking of the honeymoon bed might be described in a hundred ways, but McEwan is perfect, the creak is the bleat of a spring lamb and we feel the impending sacrifice of innocence as if it were our own. 

McEwan moves between the macro and the micro with ease; he lingers on Florence’s going-away shoes, fixes them on the page, then takes a wider view. Florence imagines she is in a deep-sea diving suit with thoughts piped down to her. We feel the pressure of the water. Moving further away, McEwan gives us music; four rising notes and a question posed without words, then he brings us back to the bedroom with the creak of the floorboards. 

Writing exercise: McEwan begins his novel with a line that tells us all we need to know about the book’s central premise:

“They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time where conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible.”
Think of a simple, relationship-based premise that includes two characters and a dilemma. Deliver your premise to the reader in a single sentence. 

If you like your idea, take it further. Develop an inciting incident, progressive complications, a turning point (or phere) a crisis, a climax and a resolution. Write a line or short paragraph outlining each. Now you have the building blocks for a new piece of writing based on the simple, elegant principles of Ian McEwan in On Chesil Beach.

By Lara Saunders