Robbie Flashcards
‘Everything he did was designed to distance her’ 3,27
Ironic
Marginalised
‘Her father had subsidised Robbie’s education all his life. Had anyone ever objected?’ 3:27
‘They had fallen out of touch at Cambridge. It had been too difficult to do anything else.’ 3,26
“Occasionally, they passed in the street and smiled. She always seemed to find it awkward – That’s our cleaning lady’s son, she might have been whispering to her friends as she walked on”(ch8p79).
Later in the same paragraph, Robbie professes that “he didn’t care”about the differences in social class which exist between him and Cecilia, but he is clearly aware that it“might”lie at the root of her feeling“awkward”.
Chapter 8
Robbie is the focaliser in chapter 8 and McEwan alludes to romantic and contempory poets to established Robbie’s educated and cultured tone, unusual for an individual in his social position.
There is the sense of two young adults struggling to interpret their emotions. Robbie blames Cecilia for this awkwardness/tension. But his behaviour later in the chapter shows his own confusion and perhaps reveals his own barely suppressed desires. The references to Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis) in this chapter are perhaps meant as hints that Robbie’s delivering the obscene version of the letter is due to his subconscious desire to make his feelings known to Cecilia.
Foreshadowing & ymbolism:
Robbie as Malvolio - We learn that Robbie has previously played the part of Malvolio in Shakespeare’sTwelfth Night, a failure in love who suffers public humiliation and is imprisoned. The parallels with Robbie’s life will soon become clear - foreshadowing.
Narrative shift and dark Irony:
On pages 90-92, as Robbie walks to the Tallis house, the narrative perspective shifts to the future. The shift in time perspective creates a dark sense of irony as Robbie’s fortunes are about to change dramatically for the worse: ‘In the years to come he would often think back to this time, when he walked along the footpath… He could not have contained his optimism - he was happy and therefore bound to succeed. One word contained everything he felt, and explained why he was to dwell on this moment later. Freedom.’ p20
‘He thought of himself in 1962, at 50, when he would be old, but not quite old enough to be useless, and of the weathered, knowing doctor he would be by then, with the secret stories, the tragedies and successes stacked behind him.’ p92
McEwan uses the narrative shift to serve as a reminder of Robbie’s potential, of what he life should’ve been, emphasising the tragedy of Briony’s crime.
‘He was without social unease - inappropraitely so, in the view of many.’ ch8,p86
While Robbie thinks of himself as someone“without social unease”thanks to a“childhood moving freely between the bungalow and the main house”(ch8p86), he is still conscious of his lower-class status, and worries that this is why Cecilia acts awkward.
