Crime in Atonement Flashcards
The certainty of Briony’s crime (1)
‘Within the half hour Briony would commit her crime’ p156
Briony is only a child (3)
‘Cecilia had always loved to cuddle the baby of the family’ p44
‘poor darling Briony, the softest little thing’ p 65
‘We catch the young girl at the dawn of her selfhood’ p312
Briony genuinely believes what she is saying (7)
‘What strange power did he have over her. Blackmail? Threats?’ p38
‘seal the crime, frame it with the victim’s curse, close his fate with the magic of naming’
‘She did not doubt that her sister was in some way threatened’ p 114
‘Something irreducibly human, or male, threatened the order of their household’ p114
‘She had interrupted an attack, a hand-to hand fight… he looked so huge and wild’ p123
‘She had no doubt. She could describe him. There was nothing she could not describe.’ P 165
‘When she said… I saw him, she meant it, and was perfectly honest’ p 169
Briony is forced into the lie (1)
‘they knew their own minds, they knew what they wanted and how to proceed. She was asked again and again, and as she repeated herself, the burden of consistency was pressed upon her.’ P 169
Robbie’s false imprisonment (1)
‘Robbie between them. And handcuffed! She saw how his arms were forced in front of him… The disgrace of it horrified her. It was further confirmation of his guilt, and the beginning of his punishment. It had the look of eternal damnation’ p184
Grace Turner’s Reaction (3)
‘She raised the umbrella and shouted… Mrs Turner shook her arm free, raised the umbrella again, this time with two hands, and brought it down, goose head first, with a crack like a pistol shot.’ P186
‘As the constables half pushed, half carried her to the edge of the drive, she began to shout a single word so loudly that Briony could hear it from her bedroom.’ P 186
‘Liars! Liars! Liars! Mrs. Turner roared’ p187
Cecilia suffers (1)
‘Her older daughter shrank into private misery’ p175
Briony talks about the severity of her crime (3)
‘She would never be able to console herself that she was pressured or bullied. She never was.’ P170
‘She trapped herself, she marched into the labrynth of her own construction, and was too young, too awestruck, too keen to please, to insist on making her own way back’ p170
‘Lola’s silence in the darkness at the lakeside as she let her earnest, ridiculous, oh so prim younger cousin, who couldn’t tell real life from the stories in her head deliver the attacker into safety’ p 324
Lola’s omissions (2)
‘Lola.. was able to retreat behind an air of wounded confusion, and as a treasured patient, recovering victim, lost child, let herself be bathed in the concern and guilt of the adults in her life’ p168
‘She had little more to do than remain silent behind her cousin’s zeal. Lola did not need to lie, to look her supposed attacked in the eye and summon the courage to accuse her, because all that work was done for her, innocently… Lola was required only to remain silent about the truth, banish it, and forget about it entirely..’ p168
Lola benefits from Briony’s lie (2)
When Briony is assertive and says ‘It was a statement of a fact. It was Robbie’, then ‘it was clear that something was changing in Lola, a warmth rising from her skin’ p166
Crime against the reader (3)
BT
London 1999 pg. 349
‘I merged them in my description to concentrate all my experiences into one place. A convenient distortion, and the least of my offences against veracity.’ pg. 356
‘I cannot think what purpose would be served if, say, I tried to convince my reader… that Robbie Turner died of septicaemia at Bray Dunes on 1 June 1940, or that Cecilia was killed in the September of the same year by the bomb that destroyed Balham Underground station’ p370
Hints about the crime against the reader (6)
Page 40 and 41 – she contemplates fiction.
‘She could write the scene three times over, from three points of view’ p40
‘Having changed the names, it became easier to transform the circumstances and invent’ p280
‘In the later years she regretted not being more factual, not providing herself with a store of raw material. It would have been useful to know what happened, what it looked like, who was there, what was said’ p280.
‘She was under no obligation to the truth’ p280
‘Did she think she could… drown her guilt in a stream – three streams – of consciousness?’ p320
Impact of the rape on Lola (4)
‘Lola’s face was so white and rigid, like a clay mask’ p 154
‘Lola was sitting forward, with her arms crossed around her chest, hugging herself and rocking slightly. The voice was faint and distorted, as though impeded by something like a bubble’ p165
‘The body was bony and unyielding… Lola hugged herself and rocked’ p 165
‘Weak submissive voice’ p165
The rape is later presented as less significant (2)
‘But the scratches and bruises were long healed, and all her own statements at the time were to the contrary.’
‘Nor did the bride appear to be a victim… More than that, surely; a chocolate magnate, the creator of Amo.’ P325
Description of the rape in the wedding scene (1)
‘She felt the memories, the needling details, like dirt on her skin: Lola coming to her room in tears, her chafed and bruised writs, and the scratches on Lola’s shoulder and down Marshall’s face; Lola’s silence in the darkness at the lakeside as she let her earnest, ridiculous, oh so prim younger cousin… deliver the attacker into safety’ p 324