Characters as victims

Question 1

What is Briony a victim of?

Answer 1

Naivety 
Poor parenting 
Her imagination
Her social status 
The war
The legal system

Question 2

What is evidence that Briony is a victim?

Answer 2

PAGE 170
“[Briony] trapped herself, she marched into the labyrinth of her own construction, and was too young, too awestruck, too keen to please, to insist on making her own way back…by clinging tightly to what she believed she knew, narrowing her thoughts, reiterating her testimony, she was able to keep from mind the damage she only dimly sensed she was doing.

Question 3

What is Robbie a victim of?

Answer 3

His social status 
The war 
Briony 
The Tallises' arrogance and snobbery
His breaking of social conventions

Question 4

What is evidence that Robbie is a victim?

Answer 4

PAGE 202
“Being here, sheltering in a barn, with an arm in rout, where a child’s limb in a tree was something that ordinary men could ignore, where a whole country, a whole civilization was about to fall, was better than being there, on a narrow bed under a dim electric light, waiting for nothing.”

Question 5

What is Cecilia a victim of?

Answer 5

Her breaking of social conventions - education and love
Social context and expectations 
Sexism 
Briony 
The war

Question 6

What is evidence that Cecilia a victim?

Answer 6

PAGE 205
“[Cecilia] told him she had cut herself off from her family. She would never speak to her parents, brother or sister again.”

Question 7

What is Lola a victim of?

Answer 7

Naivety
Poot parenting Paul Marshall
Social context and expectations
Divorce

Question 8

Evidence that Lola is a victim

Answer 8

PAGE 15

“obliviousness to anything beyond her own business”

Question 9

How is Briony a villain?

Answer 9

Lying about the rape, saying she was certain when she wasn’t
Lying as a narrator, causing distrust for the reader
Ruining Robbie and Cecilia’s relationship

Question 10

Evidence that Briony is a villain

Answer 10

PAGE 181 - lies to Lola

“Yes, I saw him”

Question 11

How is Paul Marshall a villain?

Answer 11

Rape
Abuse of power through social status
Exploiting war sitatujopn for own personal financial gains

Question 12

Evidence that Paul Marshall is a villain?

Answer 12

PAGE 62
‘Bite it,’ he said softly. ‘You’ve got to bite it.’ It cracked loudly as it yielded to her unblemished incisors, and there was revealed the white edge of the sugar shell, and the dark chocolate beneath it.”

Question 13

How is Robbie Turner a villain?

Answer 13

Rape
‘Rising above his station’- education and Cecilia
Going against social norms bu having pre-marital sex

Question 14

Evidence that Robbie Turner is a villain?

Answer 14

PAGE 79
“He saw it, he made himself see it again. The way her pelvic bones stretched the material clear of her skin, the deep curve of her waist, her startling whiteness.”

Question 15

How is ‘The War’ a villain?

Answer 15

Taking away characters’ innocence
Killing indiscriminately
Horrific scenes

Question 16

Evidence that ‘The War’ is a villain?

Answer 16

PAGE 226
“Everything that impeded him had to be outweighed, even if only by a fraction, by all that drove him on. In one pan of the scales, his wound, thirst, the blister, tiredness, the heat, the aching in his feet and legs, the Stukas, the distance, the Channel; in the other, I’ll wait for you, and the memory of when she had said it, which he had come to treat like a sacred site.”

Question 17

How is Lola a villain?

Answer 17

Allowing Robbie to take the blame for Paul’s crime
Marrying her actual rapist and thus keeping his secret
Putting her own needs and desires before the truth

Question 18

Evidence that Lola is a villain?

Answer 18

Page 15

“obliviousness to anything beyond her own business”

Question 19

How are ‘The Tallises’ a villain?

Answer 19

Ineffectiveness
Complacency 
Poor parenting 
Snobbery 
Close-mindedness
Self-absorption

Question 20

Evidence that ‘The Tallises’ are the villain?

Answer 20

PAGE 69
“Emily supposed that she herself should be overseeing this bath time. But she knew that even if the knives were not poised above her optic nerve, she would attend to her nephews only out of duty.”