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Summary AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B - CRIME WRITING ATONEMENT NOTES - Briony's Atonement Notes
AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B - CRIME WRITING ATONEMENT NOTES Notes on Briony's Atonement
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Briony's AtonementBriony attempts to atone for her crime as a child by writing a novel. She does this through
attempting to enter other characters perspective so that she can understand fully what
happened viewing the build up and aftermath of the crime. Briony holds her attempt at writing
an atonement as ethically more valuable than a public admission of a faulty statement as
through this presents her novel to readers who she hopes will view a fictionalised account of
her crime as a means of confession and forgiveness.
Briony as a detective.
The Tallis estate is the scene of a crime where a detective could look upon a close circle of
suspects determining the criminal (Agatha Christie). The first part of the novel hints many
times that a crime will be committed through the sense of building pressure. This places
the reader in the position of the arm-chair detective where they begin to wonder what the
crime may be or who the criminal is. Later on, Briony takes on this role becoming the
detective herself yet during the London 1999 ending of the novel she reveals to the reader
a plot twist in the same way a detective would. Briony pictures herself as a detective as
she attempts to understand the psychology of other characters which is also does by
writing the scenes through many different perspectives. The ability to understand the
workings of another characters mind is essential for a detective and this is what Briony
attempts to do in Atonement. Her Atonement is her new-found ability to understand other
peoples minds and much like Ian McEwan stated after 9/11 -'if the attackers could have
placed themselves in the victims positions the event would have been unlikely to happen'
- Briony places herself in the psychology of Robbie and Cecilia and through this delivers to
us a happy ending for the lovers which could have happened if she was more emphatic
and a better detective when she was 13.
The adult Briony is preoccupied with why she was insistent on blaming Robbie and the
workings of her young mind is a puzzle she wants to solve. She places herself in the
detectives analytical position and she associates this with taking responsibility for her
actions.
She neither publicly nor privately confesses to a false statement stating that:
Lola cannot be forced to testify against her husband.
A public and private confession would make Briony vulnerable to legal proceedings
from the Marshalls.
Because both Robbie and Cecilia are dead Briony asks the readers to determine whether
the novel was a good enough vehicle for atonement. It remains unclear if the novel is
addressed to Robbie or Cecilia.
The confession portrays Briony as her own judge with satisfaction through the last draft
that she has reached her atonement and can stop confessing.
As a reader it must be considered that Briony does nothing to revoke her legal statement
against Robbie and never clears his name.
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