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Atonement, ROBBIE AND CECILIA, Theme - Class, 2, 2, The idyllic setting…

- - - - Hyper-emotive, claustrophobic, fractured atmosphere
        
        "I love England in a heat wave. It's a different country. All the rules change." Leon Tallis
        
        "the effect of suffocation was heightened by the dark-stained panelling reaching from the floor and covering the ceiling" Briony Tallis
        
        The opulent surroundings provide a contrast to the priviledged lifestyle and simmering tensions trapped within windows that don't open.
    - - Appearance vs Reality
        
        Appears to be old + gothic but is instead new
        
        "Morning sunlight, or any light, could not conceal the ugliness of the Tallis home- barely 40 years old, bright orange brick, squat, lead-paned baronial gothic." Page 19
        
        The house has a facade of grandeur yet its decaying state symbolises the decay of order within the house
        
        It mirrors a disconnection between the Tallis family and the family striving to maintain an image of wealth.
        
        Mirrors a disconnection between the Tallis Family and the family striving to maintain an image of wealth
      - Large houses can suggest secrecy
        
        Enclosed setting, a feeling of entrappment
        
        An environment that pushes Briony to escape into her imagination where she is able to control the narrrative
      - Microcosm for wider society
        
        Chaos within a confined setting but there are no real-world repercussions (e.g. Paul Marshall) until Briony's crime
  - - - "the half-scale reproduction of Bernini's Triton" Page 18
      - "glistening dark green stain" Page 18
        
        "glistening" Adjective
        
        Symbolic of Briony being drawn towards the Fountain, viewing it as a perfect tool in her bid for uncovered narratives
        
        "stain" Noun
        
        Connotations of marks of disgrace or guilt; reader understand will follow Briony's conception of her role as an omniscient narrator
        
        "green" Adjective
        
        Connotations of a sense of jealousy that Briony feels towards Robbie + Cecilia because at the fountain, they have a simmering lovers narrative that Briony as a niave school girl could only dream to be wrapped up in.
    - - The focaliser switches between Cecilia and Briony, allowing the reader to realise Briony's romantic misinterpretations, emphasising the truth is subjective
  - - - As Briony's development transitions from the family environment of the country estate to the harsh reality of the wartime hospital, Briony's grip of control on the narrative diminishes.
  - - - Perfect environment for Briony to take the narrative into her own hands by manipulating reality to fit her pre-prepared fantasy
      - Connects Robbie + Cecilia; bonding interests
  - - - McEwan's novels often use the strangeness of a setting to enhance the Englishness of the displaced object, and their crisis of identity when confronted with the loss of geographical bearings
  - - - Solemn atmosphere and strict yet uneasy mood; contrasts Briony's melodramatic writing style and sets up her inability to manipulate events with the harsh reality of suffering
      - "deaths" noun
        
        Constant reminder of the necessity for Briony to dimish her theatricality
- - - - When imagining the nettle bushes to be Lola as she beats them (Chapter7), it suggests her response to a loss of control is to retreat into fantasy / her imagination where she can regain that control
    - - It is her way of satisfying her desire for attention and validation, retreating into her imaginatiion
      - LIBRARY SCENE
        
        Briony's perspective
        
        PAGE 123
      - "Within the half hour Briony would commit her crime" PAGE 165
        
        Makes it evident to the reader that Briony is desperate to confirm that her interpretations of the world are true, going to any lengths to align the two world
        
        Her vivid imagination, desire to create dramatic narratives, miguided belief that Robbie is a 'maniac' ad her jealousy towards Cecilia and desperation for control and attention.
        
        Briony repeatedly uses short declarative sentences, highlighting the certainty in her observations
        
        Linguistic technique later mirrored in the interview with the inspector
    - - The theme of innocence is prominent as she attempts to kill her childhhood, highlighting her desire for adulthood and her frustration with her innocence
  - - - Briony's role as a nurse at the hospital is seen as her 'atonement' - caring for others, giving up on her Cambridge dream and witnessing the effect of the warzone
      - Required to frequently wash her hands - time in the hospital is a cleansing
    - - Distances herself from the Briony that committed the crime - changed / somewhat losing her identity from Part One by being referred to as 'Nurse' and having to answer to the sister
- - - - A Simulacrum is a perspective that replaces reality, encouraged by the media and fast moving culture.
        
        Within Atonement, examples are Briony's depiction of Robbie and Cecilia's ending; eventually the entire book as Briony's interpretation and reality are no longer distinguishable.
    - - Intertextuality : Recognising that no texts exist as an entirely separate entity; postmodern authors draw attention to this by referring to other texts.
        
        e.g. McEwan referring to Northanger Abbey, both stories of a young girl who forges accusations as a product of over-imagination.
        
        e.g. Cecilia reading Clarissa; themes of rape and consequences.
        
        e.g. The references to literary couples mirroring Robbie + Cecilia
        
        e.g. CC comparing Briony's writing to Virginia Woolf
      - Metafiction : When a text demonstrates 'awareness' that it is a fictional text, calling attention to the process of writing and reading
        
        e.g. There are clues throughout to the metafictional nature of the book, including Briony's reference to the Balham tube disaster, the 'BT London 1999' and the trials of Arabella, all leading towards the coda.
        
        e.g. There are also omniscient narrator comments; "within the half hour Briony would commit her crime"
      - Fragmentation : Used to create knowing, playful text that reflect the world; there is no overarching meaning
      - Pastiche : Imitating other texts and genres (similar to parody, but that involves making fun of them)
  - - - McEwan said that he wished Atonement "to enter into a conversation with modernism and its dereliction of duty in relation to the backbone of the plot."
- - - - War juxtaposes Part One and the Tallis Family
        
        Both contain chaos but set set up a contrast of familial vs global chaos; chaos within a confined setting in the Tallis house but there are no real-world repercussions (e.g. Paul Marshall) until Briony's 'crime'; a sense of comforting environment being ripped apart
      - Sudden shift from Part One to Part Two
        
        Shows Robbie's displacement as a direct consequence of Briony's actions; links to the idea of 'elsewhere in Robbie's displacement
      - War pervades early chapters
        
        Robbie's father left them/disappeared; Grace likes to believe in the war; possibly foreshadows Robbie's fate of a sudden relocation
        
        "It looks as though Ernest's mind was already elsewhere,..." "leaving his wife...to wonder about him for the rest of their lives" Page 83
        
        Paul Marshall's 'Amo' bar
        
        Foreshadowing the introduction of war and arrival of conflict
        
        "There'll be one of these inside the kitbag of every soldier in the land. Standard issue"
        
        Suggests the anonymity of war and soliders being stripped of their identity in "Standard issue"
        
        The Vase is a WW1 relic / trophy of war success
        
        It being broken symbolises the outbreak of war and shattered illusions
        
        "The Vase was taken from a shattered glass case and presented in gratitude"
        
        Symbol of bravery being fractured
        
        "split into two triangular pieces"
        
        Foreshadows Robbie + Cecilia breaking apart; a triangle (three) symbolises their relationship with Briony's intrusion
        
        Mirrors the tripartite structure of the novel
        
        The breaking of the vase links to the quote "easily torn, not easily mended" Page 304
    - - Pace
        
        Journey to Dunkirk sets pace for second part of novel; significantly slower; sense of suspense and waiting
        
        Many paragraphs begin with action (looking; moving) - Slow pace
        
        "He walked / across / the land / until / he came / to the sea." Robbie "Five iambs ... the beat he tramped to now." Page 219
        
        Steady rhythm of Iambs helps him stay focused and persevere; finds comfort in literature - preserves a piece of his identity
        
        Juxtaposition of 'beat' and 'tramped' - 'beat' = steady, beautiful, musical, represents his upper class environment VS 'tramped', exhausted, injured, reflects his current surroundings; reminder he is an outsider
      - "walking into the setting sun. Always a hopeful act."
        Sense of hope and optimism; walking suggests a universal human experience, showing his humanity and collective experience to build sympathy
      - "If there has be a moon he would have been happy walking all night." Absence of moon symbolises an absence of normaility, rhythm and Cecilia: imagery
      - "One field of cattle had a dozen shell craters, and fragments of flesh"
        Imagery, destruction of innocence; foreshadows Robbie + Cecilia's deaths; "fragments of flesh" fricatives emphasise violence and grotesque
      - Part Three
        
        Hospital - flip side of the war-time suffering
        
        Soliders in hospital - punctuates Briony's narrative and guilt, the harsh reality of the real world shatters fictional world; hospital amplifies her need to atone
        
        Equally an attempt to be the Savior as it is a self-serving act to wallow in the guilt of her 'crime'
        
        The soldiers suffering mirrors Robbie's suffering vicariously through soldiers
        
        "The brisk air of spring did not dispel the stench of engine oil and festering wounds" Juxtaposition, beautiful time of year (birth, life, renewal) surrounded by dying soldiers
        
        "festering" adjective
        
        Visceral imagery, unsettling, normalised - sense of continuation
        
        "easily torn, not easily mended" guilt - inability to reconcile with actions
        
        "the public upheavel of war had always seemed separate worlds"
        
        Links back to comfort and microcosm of Tallis estate and intrusion of reality
        
        "the war might compound her crime" - War shows her own harsh reality of actions
  - - - McEwan's novels often use the strangeness of a setting to enhance the Englishness of the displaced object, and their crisis of identity when confronted with the loss of geographical bearings
    - - Lack of chapters
        
        Equally reflects the mundane trudge towards Dunkirk
        
        Emphasises how Briony's actions have put Robbie into a continuous chaotic, intense atmosphere
      - The 5 year jump could suggest and signify a moment of change in perspective towards the rape
        
        Briony is beginning to accept she may have been wrong
        
        Robbie is allowed out of prison for the war
        
        The transition between the two parts shows Robbie disappear and reappear at war, almost as if Briony has directly placed him there
    - - Surrealism : Above reality
      - Soldiers shown to be going on rides, imitating a carneval
    - - Highlights his lack of logical thinking, one thought leading onto the next
      - It moves between past and present - reality vs memories
      - Short sentences signify his disjointed thoughts and feverish state
      - McEwan's use of listing and questions suggest he is on edge, aware of every intricate movement around him
- - - - 'Turner'
        
        Loses his identity amonst the mass number of soliders
        
        Reflects him losing the features that made him (feel) special - Cecilia, keen interest in literature, education
        
        Suggests the name 'Robbie' is a term saved for his former life and Cecilia
        
        Much less personal, the reader is less connected
    - - Aspires to be a doctor
        
        Mr Tallis intends to pay for his medical school fees
      - Son of the Talls Family maid
        
        As a result, he grew up around the Tallis family
        
        His introduction encourages the themes of social class and gender roles
    - - Both an insider and outsider - realises his class but "he liked people to know, he didn't care"
      - Letter to Cecilia
        
        CHAPTER 8
        He fantasizes about Cecilia, contemplating whether he should attend Leon's dinner invitation but eventually deciding to write a note to Cecilia, expressing his emotions
        
        He also writes a draft expressing his sexual desires and accidentally sends that one
        
        Freudian Slip - Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious mind
        
        Suggesting Robbie sent the wrong letter in a Freudian Slip becuase he unconciously wanted to express his sexual desires more explicitly
        
        Robbie also alludes to Sigmund Freud's three essays on sexuality and he is reading Grey's Anatomy to express his sexual frustration and the transition into adulthood
      - Library Scene
        
        PAGE 137
  - - - CHARACTERISATION
        
        Briony's older sister
        
        Returning from university
        
        Although women weren't given degrees at the end of their studies during this period
        
        She is unsure of her next stage, in an in-between stage at life (in Part One)
        
        Keen interest in literature
    - - SYMBOLISM
        
        VASE
        
        Represents a heroic action, awarded to Mr Tallis' brother for saving a small village from attack in World War One - a mark of gratitude
        
        It has emotional, sentimental and historical value - not monitary.
        
        A symbol that all things traditional and perfect in the Tallis home are about to break
        
        Robbie + Cecilia
        
        It is the object that bridges them but it's broken before it can be used
        
        The vase being broken suggests something has been broken open between Cecilia and Robbie
      - PAUL MARSHALL
        
        CHARACTERISATION
        
        Outsider
        
        Arriving and invading the tranquility in the country house
        
        Presented as arrogant, superior, direct and authoritative
        
        Paul is careful and controlled in what he says, whilst acting flirtatiously towards Lola
        
        His speech features provocative sexual innuendos and there is frequent double meaning in speech directed towards Lola
        
        The description of his "arousal" from the dream about his sisters disturbs the reader and foreshadows his inappropriate sexual tendencies
        
        Manipulative and calculated
        
        He is able to lead the suspicion away from himself in a conversation with the policeman
        
        He uses his position in the class hierarchy and career sucess to exploit others and take advantage of them, presenting his villainous tendencies
      - MORE
        
        Lola Quincey
        
        CHARACTERISATION
        
        She is shown to be perceptive and receptive of Paul Marshall's subtle advances
        
        She presents herself as older and more sophisticated to appeal to Paul, e.g. saying she watched Hamlet when it was the pantomime and "amo amas amat" meaning He, She or It loves
        
        She has a motherly nature towards the twins, speaking to them in a strict tone
        
        She is ashamed of her parents' divorce, even more that others know
        
        THE TWINS
        
        Presented as childish, immature and attention seeking
        
        It is suggested that they are inwardly unhappy
        
        MORE
        
        Mrs Tallis
        
        First introduced in Chapter 6
        
        CHARACTERISATION
        
        Her frequent migranes mean she is an absent figure, there is seemingly a lack of connection between her and her children
        
        She misses child-like Briony who seems to have inherited the controlling part of her personality from her mother
        
        Appearence VS Reality
        
        When she analyses the sounds of the house, there is a contrast between what she believes is happening and what is really happening.
        
        Events are happening concurrently, sense of not knowing what is really happening
        
        STRUCTURE
        
        Tripartite structure
        
        Significant focaliser switches between chapters
        
        Briony's crime > Robbie in France
        
        Direct consequence
        
        Part One
        
        During part one, McEwan exploits a non-linear narrative to highlight the inability to misconstrue the past and current events.
        
        1 more item...
        
        Part Two > Part Three
        
        Highlight the consequences of the turbulent environement Briony placed Robbie into - reality of war with extreme injuries
        
        1 more item...
    - - Hospital
        
        McEwan depicts the consequences of war to be grusome - masses of extreme injuries - helplessness amongst the soldiers - losing heroism - described through precise imaergy - feeling of verismilitude
        
        Tone has changed to become more chaotic
        
        The sister dismissal of procedures alongside people anticipating death everywhere
        
        Amongst this environment, Briony must relenquish her control
        
        Structure
        
        A lot in common with Part Two
        
        One, singular focaliser; highlighting their chaotic environment
        
        Written in chronological order
      - Atonement
        
        The novel suggests atonement is difficult to achieve - not something tangible that can represent the finality of guilt but an ongoing fight with your conscious
        
        For Briony, there is no one left to grant her forgiveness
      - Class
        
        In-built class prejudice is suggested by Robbie + Cecilia blaming Danny Hardman
        
        Impossible to believe someone of Paul Marshall's class could commit that crime
        
        Robbie metaphorically punished for transitioning out of his class ranking; attending Cambridge, wanting to be with Cecilia
      - Letters from Cyril Connolly
        
        Hints at Briony writing the novel
        
        'Two Figures by a Fountaini
        Pivotal moment - A time when she is unable to fully represent R + C's perspective due to her age and maturity
      - Robbie + Cecilia
        
        Portrayed to be in love, having found contentment in the chaos.
        
        Sterner, as a result of terrible experiences, losing excitement and optimism of early adulthood