Violence, Murder, Theft, Betrayal Flashcards
(5 cards)
How does McEwan use violence to reveal moral fragility and narrative suppression?
🎯 AO1:
Violence in Atonement is understated yet transformative. The rape of Lola is structurally central but described indirectly, revealing how violence is often suppressed or misinterpreted in both narrative and society.
🧠 AO2 – Technique:
Ellipsis and narrative silence: the assault happens “off-page”
Symbolic gestures: trembling hands, broken language
Disrupted chronology: the timeline withholds full truth
💬 Quote (pg. 151):
“Her hands were shaking. She felt an irrational dread. It was not the first time.”
🔗 AO4 – Connection to Ackroyd:
Like TMoRA, the key violent act is concealed by the narrator. Both novels use narrative gaps and misdirection to build suspense and delay moral clarity.
🧠 AO5 – Interpretation:
Some critics argue McEwan critiques the failure of language to capture trauma, while others see it as a reflection of narrative cowardice — violence is known, but not acknowledged.
Q: How does betrayal function as a literary crime in Atonement?
🎯 AO1:
Briony’s betrayal of Robbie is the novel’s core transgression. It is not a legal crime, but a devastating moral violation, shaped by her misreading of adult relationships and her desire for narrative control.
🧠 AO2 – Technique:
First-person framing in Part 3 reveals her attempt to rewrite the betrayal
Symbolism of the fountain scene: misinterpretation as narrative betrayal
Irony: Briony believes she is protecting Lola, but harms everyone
💬 Quote (pg. 311):
“The word ‘betrayal’ was too weak, but it was the one that came to her.”
🔗 AO4 – Connection to Ackroyd:
Both Briony and Sheppard betray those closest to them, then adopt the role of narrator to manage the story. In both, the betrayal is intensified by the character’s proximity and supposed reliability.
🧠 AO5 – Interpretation:
Briony’s betrayal is both personal and textual — she is not just lying, but rewriting others’ lives. Some critics argue her guilt is performative, others see it as sincere but inadequate penance.
Q: How is murder portrayed metaphorically rather than literally in Atonement?
🎯 AO1:
While no murder occurs in the legal sense, McEwan frames Briony’s lie as a murder of potential — she destroys Robbie and Cecilia’s chance of love and future, making the crime psychological and existential.
🧠 AO2 – Technique:
Retrospective narration reveals their deaths long after the crime
Death as motif: repeated imagery of loss, burial, waste
Narrative misdirection: reader believes in their survival until the end
💬 Quote (pg. 292):
“Robbie, Robbie Turner, who had been their love and their future.”
🔗 AO4 – Connection to Ackroyd:
Sheppard commits literal murder; Briony commits narrative murder. Both texts reveal the crime only after building trust, using the narrator as a source of betrayal.
🧠 AO5 – Interpretation:
The novel blurs boundaries between murder and misrepresentation. Briony is both destroyer and creator — her pen both kills and revives, but never redeems.
Q: How is theft used metaphorically to explore guilt and loss?
🎯 AO1:
Briony’s lie is a theft of freedom, love, and future — she takes what should never have been hers: the power to determine others’ fates. Theft becomes a symbol of authorial control and moral imbalance.
🧠 AO2 – Technique:
Lexical field of loss: “stolen,” “taken,” “gone”
Fragmented structure: reflects unrecoverable time
Confessional tone in later chapters underscores theft’s weight
💬 Quote (pg. 287):
“She had stolen what should have been his life.”
🔗 AO4 – Connection to Ackroyd:
In Ackroyd, Sheppard steals the truth from the reader. In Atonement, Briony steals justice and reality, and tries to return it through fiction — both are criminals posing as confessors.
🧠 AO5 – Interpretation:
Briony’s theft is not of objects, but of meaning. Critics debate whether her fiction offers restoration or further violation — can stolen time be rewritten, or only mourned?
Q: How does McEwan build suspense through withheld violence and quiet betrayal?
🎯 AO1:
Suspense is sustained by delayed revelation and emotional restraint. Violence lurks in the background — in the shadows of scenes, in silences — allowing the reader’s imagination to intensify the dread.
🧠 AO2 – Technique:
Fragmented chronology → the reader reconstructs events
Foreshadowing (e.g. Briony’s dreamlike certainty before the accusation)
Pacing: slow burn of guilt and unfolding of truth
💬 Quote (pg. 263):
“She had made the wrong choice… she could not make it right.”
🔗 AO4 – Connection to Ackroyd:
Both novels use withheld information to build suspense. Christie hides the murderer’s identity; McEwan hides the extent of the damage until the final reveal — both shocks redefine the entire narrative.
🧠 AO5 – Interpretation:
Suspense in both texts is driven not by action, but by psychological pressure — the slow realisation that trust has been misplaced.
