These are detailed character profiles for all of the characters in McEwan's 'Atonement'. For each of the main characters their role in the crime text is considered, along with their key points, key moments, contrasting reader response, motivations and an extensive list of their key quotes. They wil...
Atonement – Characters
Briony Tallis
Role in Crime Text – Criminal/Victim (?)
Crimes – Framing Robbie for the rape, manipulating Lola to believe her lie, understanding the she was wrong but
sticking to her story, allowing Paul and Lola to get married, crime against the reader
About
• 13
• She’s shown to be impulsive, committed, intense and extremely imaginative
• As a child she demands attention from her family, is bored and is desperate for a secret to make her life more
interesting
• She is not given much attention by her family as a child so has no one to turn to when she doesn’t understand
• Might be expected to be the victim as she is an young, innocent girl
Key Moments
• Witnessing the scene at the fountain and misinterpreting what she sees
• Reading the letter from Robbie to Cecilia
• Discussion with Lola about Robbie
• Seeing Robbie and Cecilia have sex in the library
• Witnessing the rape – insisting she saw Robbie and manipulating Lola to think the same
• Telling the police that she saw Robbie and showing them the letter
• FLASHBACK – the swimming lesson at the river
• Giving up place at Cambridge to nurse – learns a lot when the soldiers return
• Writing to Horizon
• Talking with Luc
• Attending Lola and Paul’s wedding
• Visiting Cecilia and Robbie, apologising and making amends
• Seeing Lola and Marshall in London but avoiding them
• Diagnosis with vascular dementia
• Birthday Party
• Revealing that she lied about Robbie and Cecilia – that they both dies and she never got to make amends
Contrasting Reader Response
• She is an extremely unreliable narrator – her aim is to atone so she tries to get the reader to sympathise with her,
ulterior motive. Cyclic structure of the novel shows that she has just as fanciful imagination as she did as a child,
still doesn’t truly understand the consequences of what she did. The reader is left feeling contempt towards
Briony at the end of the novel. She actively searched for something interesting for her to write about that would
fit with her sense of order. Before the crime was even committed, she painted Robbie as a villain. She
manipulated the situation to fit with her story. She wanted to be the centre of attention and to feel important
and gets pleasure out of the attention she receives on the night, causing the reader to be sickened by her
given the horrific nature of the crime. She didn’t understand, nor care about the consequences. Her crime has
devastating consequences as it leads to Robbie and Cecilia’s prolonged suffering and death without the
change to fulfil their newly found love. Briony’s failure to withdraw or change her evidence in the 5 years
following is unforgivable. Yes she was a child, but she wasn’t always. She wasn’t pressured into sticking to her
story, she could have changed it during the investigation. She may have suffered in the war, but so did
everyone so this can’t count as a punishment. She is able to ignore the consequences of the crime and can
ignore the things that trouble her. The contrast between her suffering and Robbie’s suffering reduces hers – the
‘irreparable damage’ vs her temporary suffering. She begins to enjoy nursing – not a punishment at all. She has
an extremely long and successful life as her dream job as an author, surrounded by friends and a loving family.
No one around her will ever know her crime as she uses the excuse of libel (doesn’t stop her from telling her
family) so she never faces any rejection or punishment. She gets to live her dream – something she stole from
Robbie and Cecilia. Briony admits she might not be unhappy with the illness; it might actually be an escape for
her. Not punished. At the end she is caught in fantasies and doesn’t’ face up to the truth that they both died,
just because she wrote that they did it doesn’t make it so. Her final act was self-serving – she is still deluded,
misunderstanding, and self-centred
• Briony suffers and is punished in the novel and deserves sympathy. Through her narrative the reader can see
that she craves forgiveness and has self-hatred and is haunted by guilt. She was just a child who is trying to
make sense of things she knows nothing about. She didn’t act out of malevolence; she merely misunderstood
and didn’t understand the consequences. She, like Robbie, is a victim of the police/justice system who just
seem to have taken her word for it despite the fact she was a child. The case was soon taken out of her hand
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