Atonement Chapter 1,2,3
Setting
Briony´s character
Elements
Personality traits
Place: England, high-class country houses.
Innocence
Creative: talented mind and for her storytelling
Weather: "Hottest day of the summer"
Time: 1935
Need of having control
"the model farm spread across a deep window ledge consisted of the usual animals, but all facing one way - towards their owner- as if about to break into song, and even the farmyard hens were neatily corraled". As she is the director of the play, we can see she need having the control of things and needs attention.
Confidence/Determination
She decides to create the play eventhough there would be obstacles in her way
Colorful garden where kids spent they´re summer evenings
Vivid descriptions of the environment
"All this - the river and the flowers, the fine ribbing of the oak trunks, the high ceiling room, the geometry of light, the pulse in her ears subsidingin the stillness - all this pleased her as the familiar was transformedinto a delicious strangeness."
"Hottest day of the summer"
desire attention
misinterpret situations and does not understand adult emotions
Literary Devices
Foreshadowing
"Briony was hardly to know then, but this was projects highest point of fullfilment. Nothing came near it for satisfaction, all else was dreams and frustration."
"(...) that love which did not build a foundation on good sense was doomed. LOVE HINT
Simile
In a generally pleasant and well protected life, she had never really confronted anyone before. Now she saw, it was like diving into the suimming pool in early June; you simply had to make yourself do it".
Diction
"In a prized varnished cabinet, a secret drawer was opened by pushing against the grain of a cleverly turned dovetail joint"
Listing
"Whereas her big sister room was a stew of unclosed books, unfolded clothes, unmade bed, unemptied ashtrays"
Alliteration
"Whereas her big sister room was a stew of unclosed books, unfolded clothes, unmade bed, unemptied ashtrays"
Non defining relative clause
"Mrs Tallis read the seven pages of The Thrials of Arabella in her bedroom, at her dressing table, with the authors arm around her shoulder the whole while"
Vocabulary
unglamorous/not excitingly attractive/ By comparison, monasteries, while sufficiently disliked, where unglamorous and little understood
impetuous
dastardly/wicked and cruel/ pirates and their dastarly deeds
baronial
clutched
bridesmaid
def: to hold somebody/something tightly
ex: I clutched on to the chair for support.
a girl or woman, usually one of several, who accompanies a bride on her wedding day.
"her sister asked her to be chief bridesmaid"
relating to a baron or barons.
"relating to a baron or barons."
Piquancy
a pleasantly sharp and appetizing flavour; spiciness.
"the tangy soy dip gave them a slightly Asian piquancy"
wrangling/ engagement in a long, complicated dispute or argument/ weeks of political wrangling
reluctance
unwillingness or disinclination to do something.
"she sensed his reluctance to continue"
Dazed/unable to think or react properly/ I was left dazed and confused
def: acting or done quickly and without thinking carefully about the results
ex: an impetuous decision
puckered
(especially with reference to a person's face) tightly gather or contract into wrinkles or small folds.
garret
"the child's face puckered, ready to cry"
patter/ make a repeated light tapping sound/ a flurry of rain pattered against the window
def: a room, often a small dark unpleasant one, at the top of a house, especially in the roof
ex: as a poor student, he lived in a garret
elope
def: to run away with somebody in order to marry them secretly
ex: she promises to elope with him in the morning
reticence
def: the trait of being uncomunicative
ex: and there was something brittle in her reticence that sugested strong will and atemper easily lost