Summary
Summary AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B - CRIME WRITING ATONEMENT NOTES - Ideas on society
- Course
- Institution
- Book
AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B - CRIME WRITING ATONEMENT NOTES On Society
[Show more]
Connected book
Book Title:
Author(s):
- Edition:
- ISBN:
- Edition:
More summaries for
-
AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE CRIME WRITING ESSAY 'In crime writing some of the innocent always suffer.’
-
AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE CRIME WRITING ESSAY 2020 Atonement – Ian McEwan ‘In Atonement McEwan shows criminals to be products of the society'
-
Atonement Essay – Ian McEwan ‘Briony is just as much a victim of her own crime as Robbie Turner is.
Seller
Follow
ramiriam
Reviews received
Content preview
SocietyChapter 1
In the novel it is stated that Pevsner - the greatest architectural critic of english architecture
stated that the Tallis house was a "tragedy of wasted chances". The house is associated with
privacy and secrecy - "a man who spent a lifetime creating iron bolts and locks understood the
value of privacy".
McEwans book is densely packed with context and intertextuality, almost as if McEwan wrote
the novel attempting to represent English Literature.
The epigraph to Atonement is Northanger Abbey a parody of the Gothic which surrounds the
main character Catherine who is too fantastical. The epigraph ends with Catherine running away
with tears of shame showcasing how fiction and the Gothic is eradicated. Her beliefs are shown
to be fictitious and irrational and she is humiliated due to this. However, in Atonement it is
Briony's fears which end in tragedy which create the substance for the novel . Catherine begins
spinning fairytales due to the dullness of English country life.
The Trials of Arabella is a fairytale which are known for surrounding general archetypes and lack
any deep complexity.
Briony also begins creating a fictitious English landscape due to the dullness of her life.
Briony has a tremendous need for intrigue because she is a writer. In Chapter 1, when we
learn of the squirrels skull she keeps in a box, her need to hide things is revealed. Nothing
in her life is sufficiently interesting or shameful which causes her understanding of scenes
which are normal from other character's perspectives to be heavily dramatised so they
can be the stimulus for her fiction which is lacking in her life.
Part I is quite obviously in a different social and historical light to the rest of the novel. The cozy
isolation of the Tallis's in the country estate can arguably parallel the deluded feeling of
invulnerability felt by the British under Chamberlain in the face of Hitlers aggression in the East.
Fiction can make visible the inequalities in society that ideology works to conceal.
Heat
In English fiction unrelenting heat is associated with deviance. McEwan's first novel, The
Cement Garden, involves a plot of incest between a brother and sister in a house. The novel
surrounds the idea that the summer heat breaks down Englishness causing inner demons which
are usually hidden to be released. Summer heat acts as a threat towards traditional
Englishness.
Briony
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller ramiriam. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $5.68. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
52928 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now