Atonement – Ian McEwan ‘Paul Marshall is a
criminal with nothing to redeem him.ʼ To what
extent do you agree with this view of Paul
Marshallʼs role in the novel?
Atonement – Ian McEwan ‘Paul Marshall is a criminal with nothing to redeem him.ʼ To what
extent do you agree with this view of Paul Marshallʼs role in the novel?
Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed exploration of McEwanʼs authorial
methods.
[25 marks]
Lack of motivation making him more evil. Through this he can be seen as a ‘flatʼ character.
His crime against Lola as she was “prized open and taken”. His arrogance and sinister
appearance alongside how he scratches Lola and bruises her showcasing how he believes
he is immune.
Marshallʼs capitalisation of the war – profiting from suffering – class discussion on this.
He is worse than Briony as she believed her statement, yet he smokes cigarettes with the
police becoming involved in a class conspiracy allowing Robbie to be taken away and
punished for a crime he did not commit.
The ending of the novel revealing how he remains unpunished and has lived a lavish life.
For centuries in crime fiction, critics have been specifically interested in the characterisation of
criminals, wondering if they are completely evil and if redemption for them is possible.
Atonement represents two clear criminals of Briony and Paul Marshall, where Brionyʼs “tears of
shame” (as stated by critics) due to her crime make up the novel as it is what she spends sixty
years attempting to atone for. Paul Marshallʼs crime on the other hand is more of the shadowy
crime of the novel forgotten yet in the background, however it is important to note that Brionyʼs
crime would never have been able to occur without Paul Marshall. In this essay I will therefore
focus on Paul Marshall as the criminal of atonement, arguing to what extent he ‘is a criminal
with nothing to redeem himʼ.
As we are introduced to Paul Marshall in Chapter 4, he is immediately portrayed as a somewhat
Dickensian villain exemplified through the ugliness he has inside represented on the very
outside of his appearance. Cecilia describes him as a rather grotesque figure with “pubic hair
growing from his ears” which was “comically kinked” and further described by Robbie in
Chapter 11 as only being “fractions of an inch” from having “cruel good looks” Through this, he
perfectly encapsulates Lombrosoʼs Theory of criminality where criminals were believed to have
a certain appearance likely similar to that of Marshallʼs who makes Robbie “flinch” away.
Therefore, by reading the novel through a psychological Freudian perspective the characters
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