‘Marriage Lines’ by Julian Barnes – Short Story Analysis

I invite you to read and discuss short stories with me on my blog. I bring you a ‘Read of the Day,’ a short story in English, so that we can indulge in the simple, unadulterated joy of reading. 

Read of the Day 

Today, we will read Marriage Lines by Julian Barnes. 

You can read the short story online here.

About the Author 

Julian Barnes is an award-winning author of several short stories, essays, and novels, including the 2011 Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Sense of an Ending. The conjecture is that Marriage Lines is a semi-autobiographical story of Julian Barnes.

Story Analysis 

Marriage Lines by Julian Barnes is an elegant and modern short story. It has an old-world charm quality in the writing style that’s juxtaposed to the modern age. 

The story is about a man who visits an island and recollects its memories with his wife.

There are two starkly opposite couples in the story – one is orthodox religious with sacramental, practical notions of marriage. And the other is a modern-day, adventurous couple with an opposing notion of marriage yet sharing a strikingly practical outlook as well. 

“As he handed Calum more salt, and saw the oven glove poised in anticipation, he found himself saying, man to man, ‘Bit like marriage, isn’t it?’

Calum frowned slightly. ‘What’s your meaning?’

‘Oh, waiting for something to pop out of the sand. Then it turns out either there’s nothing there, or something that cuts your hand open if you aren’t bloody careful.’

It had been a stupid thing to say. Stupid because he hadn’t really meant it, more stupid because it was presumptuous. Silence told him that Calum found such talk offensive, to himself, to Flora, to the islanders generally.”

Barnes is excellent in building vivid imagery with his words and pulling you, the reader, into his imaginative world as we join the characters in their adventures of hiking, birdwatching, pebble hunting, or clam-digging. 

Marriage Lines is a story about human relationships and love. And where there’s love, can grief be behind? 

Barnes narrates the story in a restrained way, much like its protagonist. He uses the techniques of literary minimalism and symbolism in this poignant love story.

“He told it without tears, in a neutral voice, as if it might have happened to someone else. It was the only way, so far, that he knew how.”

The irony is that the author talks about everything in the story but love. Nevertheless, what a magnificent tribute it is to love and more so, the institution that is marriage!

“They, their: he knew he must start getting used to the singular pronoun instead. This was going to be the grammar of his life from now on.”

By the time you come to the finish line, you’re bound to be choked just like the protagonist himself. An ending that’s perfection – soul-stirring, philosophical, and romantic. One of my most favourite conclusions in any short story. You’ll have to read it till the end to dig this gem of an ending.

How did you find Marriage Lines by Julian Barnes?