The music of argument: the portrayal of argument in Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach

Abstract

In this article I explore how the authenticity of the argument in the final section of Ian McEwan’s novella On Chesil Beach is achieved by exploiting the underlying mechanisms of real-life conflict talk. The momentum and coherence of argument structure tends toward automatization in the sense that once a conflict sequence is in progress, disagreement prompts (and makes structurally expectable) further disagreement in the subsequent turns, lending arguments a self-perpetuating quality, and this property lends itself well to the creation of confrontational dialogue in fiction. I first trace the trajectory of Edward and Florence’s argument, showing how the structure of conflict talk apparently leads them along — independent of what their original intentions might have been. I also look at the various kinds of oppositional moves that are employed in the course of the dispute, showing that the argumentative techniques deployed by the characters bear a close resemblance to those found in authentic conflict talk and thus contribute to the realistic texture of the interaction as well as its intensity. Finally, I examine the characters’ various attempts at attenuating and terminating the confrontation and defusing the tension and consider why they fail. It appears that the heatedness of the argument and the significance of its topic have an important influence on the effectiveness of attempts at terminating the dispute, on the efficacy of humour and on the trajectory of the interaction.