A civil servant, Veronica’s father picks up Tony from the train station during his visit to the family home and, like Jack, seems to Tony to treat him with a jokey demeanor that barely hides his scorn. Veronica’s (unnamed) father is a heavy drinker and eventually dies of complications from alcoholism; this is one of the possible sources of distress and tension in Veronica’s family that Tony doesn’t spend too much time thinking about, even when he casually calls Veronica “damaged.”
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Veronica’s Father Character Timeline in The Sense of an Ending
The timeline below shows where the character Veronica’s Father appears in The Sense of an Ending. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
One
...spend a weekend with Veronica’s family in Chislehurst, Kent. He brought a huge bag and Veronica’s father , a large, red-faced man smelling of beer, made fun of him for it. On...
(full context)
...a posh family. In addition to that, he had sensed a complicity between Veronica and Veronica’s father , who was so casually disdainful of Tony, and between her and Jack—though a certain...
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...everyone has in some way been abused. He wonders if there was “inappropriate behavior” with Veronica’s father or her brother Jack, some “primal” moment of loss. He remembers Old Joe Hunt saying...
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Two
Tony recalls that Veronica’s father drove a Humber Super Snipe—a strange name, it strikes him. He’s wondering if he does...
(full context)
...them. To his surprise and relief, she responds almost as if pleased to be asked. Veronica’s father has been dead for decades, she says, as a result of heavy drinking and eventually...
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...and discovers that there was never a St. Michael’s church there (it must have been Veronica’s father ’s private joke or else another way he was belittling Tony).
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