Content Warning: The source text depicts a nonconsensual sexual and romantic relationship between a minor and an adult.

Lessons and teaching play a key role in the relationships between characters in the novel. For example, Roland recalls how, when he was nine, his father “taught [him] how to dive and hold his breath under water for half a minute and how to swim the crawl” (47). His father also taught him Morse code, and how to fire a rifle. Roland’s father bonds with him by teaching him certain skills.

Additionally, the defining romantic and erotic relationship of Roland’s life is characterized by the student-teacher dynamic. Roland’s relationship with Cornell begins with her teaching him piano, and these lessons continue to dominate the way Roland interacts with her. In this regard, “lessons” are not necessarily healthy or conducive to psychological growth. Cornell uses her role as teacher, and the practice of teaching itself, to establish a hold over Roland and to groom and manipulate him. As the narrative says, “she had seeded herself into the fine grain not only of his psyche but of his biology” (66).

McEwan shows how teaching is not just a way of giving someone skills that they can use once the lessons are over.