An Analysis of the Innocence of Leonard Marnham in Ian McEwan’s The Innocent: A Novel
The first example of Leonard Marnham’s “innocence” is based on the fact that he is a virgin, which defined through his relationship with Maria. This aspect of Leonard’s role as a spy define the complex interactions he endures when attempting to be engagement to Maria, which eventually ends the killing of her former husband, Otto, that makes him an accomplice to murder. In this manner, the initial assumption of innocence is that Leonard is inexperienced in sexual and romantic relationships, and it defines his ineptitude to the depth of personal feelings and perceptions of women in his life: “”Leonard was able to define himself in strictest terms as an initiate,
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During the initial struggle between the two men, Leonard was unable to defeat Otto in hand-to-hand combat. During the struggle, Maria saw that Leonard was losing the fight, so she struck him on the head and killed him. In this manner, Leonard was innocent in the death of Otto because Maria had taken the initiative to kill him. In this manner, Leonard and Maria had to figure out a way to dispose of Otto’s body: “How are we going to get rid of him? We could get the police” (McEwan 165). This second aspect of Leonard’s innocence defines the amateur way in which he and Maria chopped up the body of Otto and sought to dispose of the body into cases that were presumed to be used for electronic equipment for tunnel surveillance operations. This is another aspect of Leonard’s unfortunates circumstances, which not only prevent him from the true sexual intercourse he desired with Maria, but also in the context of being innocent of a murder he did not commit. McEwan juxtaposes these two aspects of Leonard’s innocence as part of character development within the complexities of spy organizations during the Cold War. Leonard did not kill Otto, but he had to take responsibility for the body and Maria’s actions as part of his underlying innocence in the plot structure of this