All's Fair in Love and Suspense

The Comfort of Strangers

I must admit, though I sensed a hint of darkness in McEwan’s style, I did not see the ending of The Comfort of Strangers coming. I knew that Robert and Caroline’s relationship dysfunction went deeper than the hints that McEwan’s gives the reader throughout most of the novel – Caroline’s physical ailments and disturbing pleas to Colin, Robert’s extreme sexist philosophies, the story of Robert’s past coupled with his pride about his father and grandfathers, etc. But the novel’s climaxing in brutal, sexualized murder by Robert and Caroline shocked me.

It shouldn’t have. As I look back on the novel now, I can trace McEwan’s not-so-subtle hints that the novel will not only end badly, but terrifyingly. McEwan sets up the reader from the beginning, with from disturbing recounts of his childhood and (at first) subtle hints of chauvinism: “sweet things, especially chocolate, were bad for boys. It made them weak in character, like girls” (35).

Originally, I believed that Colin and Mary’s constant reminders to each other that they are “on holiday” spoke more of their tense, strained relationship than set a dark tone. Now, though, I see the repetition of these lines as a literary device used to make the end all the more heartbreaking and ironic: a vacation that should be relaxing and enjoyable takes a tragic turn. I started to consciously suspect a twist after Colin’s swims out to try to save Mary, whom he thinks is drowning. McEwan is telling the reader something –cleverly, but not subtly – through this “false alarm” incident.

So why didn’t I get the hints? Firstly, the ending is truly disturbing; to fully expect it the tone of the whole novel would have to be equally dark. But McEwan builds the suspense brilliantly! I realize now, though, that he tricks the reader into thinking The Comfort of Strangers is a love story. The pages and pages of erotic narratives chronicling the rekindling of Colin and Mary’s relationship are so seductive and romantic! I found myself wanting to be in a foreign city with an attractive and adoring man. McEwan’s brilliant depictions of a revitalized romance make the ending of The Comfort of Strangers all the more surprising and heartbreaking.