Atonement Flashcards
Briony knows that the manipulation of the mind shows that people will give her the attention she craves
“The imagination itself was a source of secrets”
The social power + hold that the Tallis daily have over Robbie. Also shows how they see potential in him and that Robbie is ambitious
“Now there was talk of medical school too, which after a literature degree seemed rather pretentious”
Briony’s controlling, idealistic nature
“She was one of those children possessed by desire to have the world just so”
Description of the Tallis house
“Morning sunlight, or any light, could not conceal the ugliness of the Tallis home”
Cecilia’s thoughts about Paul Marshall, in third person omniscient voice. Foreshadows the future and paints PM as a villain.
“How self-destructive it would be, almost erotic, tone married to a man so nearly handsome, so hugely rich and so unfathomably stupid”
Briony’s immaturity, and her nosy and controlling nature.
“It was wrong to open people’s letters, but it was right, it was essential, for her to know everything”
Ian McEwan commentary on people
Pt.3
“A person is, among all else a material thing, easily torn, not easily mended”
Older Briony evaluating her atonement and if she’s really writing about the truth
“How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God?”
Brio y defends her choice to change the fate of cecilia and Robbie in her work by stating that once one dies, a person exists only in memories or by being immortalised on paper. Also shows her controlling the events right up to the end of her life
“When i am dead … we will only exist as my inventions”
Briony has no secrets pt.1
“But hidden draws, lockable diaries and cryptographic systems could not conceal from Briony the simple truth: she had no secrets”
Cecilia tells Robbie that Briony read the letter
She said “Briony read it”
“Oh God. I’m sorry”
Briony’s thoughts about Robbie after she’s created this villainous personality about him. Ironic because she mentions how he can’t be forgiven, and it is arguable that her novel is solely about that.
“Did he believe he could conceal his crime behind an parent kindness, behind this show of being the good shepherd? This was surely a cynical attempt for forgiveness for what could never be forgiven”
Briony has no secrets and is cautious pt.2
“Her wish for a harmonious, organised world denied her the reckless possibilities of wrongdoing”
Emily Tallis description
“The less she was able to do, the more she was aware”
Emily Tallis, wanting to stand up but fearing so
“The fear of pain kept her in place”
Emily Tallis’ Briony is no longer a child needing her
“But now baby and bath water had vanished behind a locked door”
Briony’s memory of Cecilia, a motherly gesture
“Come back, her sister used to whisper when she woke her from a bad dream”
Briony quote
“Briony has lost her godly power of creation”
Robbie, bathtub thoughts chapter
“His own rather forced self-certainty. I am what I am”
Robbie, thinking of himself as the protagonist of his own story
“There was a story he was plotting with himself as the hero”
Robbie, dreams and aspirations of a young adult
“Never before felt so self-consciously young, not experienced such appetite, such impatience for the story to begin”
Leon is quite immature/spoilt
“Leon, who had the pure gift of avoiding responsibility, would not assume his fathers role”
Irony about Briony using a nursery rhyme, it foreshadows her situation.
“ she wrote ‘there was an old lady who swallowed a fly’”
Briony hating on Robbie
“He was the incarnation of evil”
Cecilia snaps at Briony at the dinner table
“Shut up for goodness sake! You really are a tiresome little prima donna”
