Emily Tallis Flashcards
Neglectful
Emily Tallis is the focalizer in Chapter 6.
She is a very self-absorbed character, consumed by her fear of an oncoming migraine which she personifies as“a caged panther”. (p63)
“But though she sometimes longed to rise up and intervene, especially if she thought Briony was in need of her, the fear of pain kept her in place”(p66-7).
Emily is conscious that her frequent absences mean that she has perhaps failed her children. But tellingly, this is not enough to make her rise. She instead becomes distracted by a list of household chores which need her attention.
The chapter ends with Emily tentatively beginning “The hunt for her dark glasses” - metaphorically she wishes to stay in the dark.
Naivity/poor judgement
‘Poor darling Briony, the softest little thing, doing her all to entertain her hard-bitten wiry cousins with the play she had written from her heart.’ (pg65) - Dramatic irony. Briony is no longer the innocent child that Emily still sees her as.
Emily disastrously misinterprets what is happening around her: ‘There was a little squeal of laughter abruptly smothered. Lola then, in the nursery with Marshall… This wealthy young entrepreneur might not be such a bad sort, if he was prepared to pass the time of day entertaining children.’ (p69) - Dramatic irony. Marshall’s high status means Emily doesn’t suspect anything bad of him at all.
‘She lay in the darkness and knew everything’ p66 - dramatic irony
Emily’s disapproval of Cecilia
Emily Tallis disapproves of Cecilia’s studies, thinking that she should be concentrating on“a husband to find and motherhood to confront”(p.65).
This reflects Emily’s status as an upper-middle class, middle-aged woman of the time. Cecilia and Briony point to new identities for women in society with both attempting to find self-realisation through education or a career.
‘Illness had stopped her gicing her children all a mother should. Sensing this, they had always called her by her first name. Cecilia should lend a hand, but she was too wrapped up in herself too much the intellectual to bother with children…’ p66 - Ironic as Cecilia looks after Briony during nightmares.
