Climax or anti-climax are two really important techniques in gaining the reader’s attention and moulding how the plot of a novel flows. These techniques are used to mark various moments in Enduring Love, in Keats’ poetry and by Robert Frost.
There are many climaxes over the course of Enduring Love, and they are significant for the overall destination of the plot. The scene in the restaurant can be considered a climax, in which men come in wearing masks and shoot one of the guests, mistaking him for Joe Rose. This climax is important to the whole plot, as it marks a specific moment in the plot, which climaxes are usually employed to do. This is the point where Joe realises that Jed’s threats of violence were not empty, and that his life is in danger. Therefore it is this seemingly near death experience which seems to spark the events of the conclusion to the novel. It is following this that Joe goes to buy a gun, and the final climax scene of confrontation occurs. Therefore the climax in the restaurant is significant to the plot of Enduring Love because it defines the end of the story, and this is a key point which McEwan marks with the climax of tension and the slowing down of time.
A moment of anti-climax in Enduring Love comes when Joe and Clarissa have an argument in the apartment, which Joe attempts to tell from Clarissa’s point of view. The fact that Joe distances himself from his own point of view during the chapter detracts from the possible tension which otherwise could be created. The scene surely shows significance in terms of the plot of the book, in the way it shows the most defined moment of conflict between Clarissa and Joe so far in the novel, and is a clear moment of tension in their relationship in the novel. The point of this anti-climax is to draw attention away from what could otherwise be seen as a specific meaningful moment. Rather