Atonement

“It was for her brother, to celebrate his return, provoke his admiration and guide him away from his careless succession of girlfriends, toward the right form of wife, the one who would persuade him to return to the countryside, the one who would sweetly request Briony’s services as a bridesmaid.”

At her young age, Briony views her writing as a way to assert her authority. She writes a play to win praise and to subtly convince her brother to stop living a lifestyle that she dislikes. Briony does not understand Leon’s world, but she feels that she is in a position to judge it, nevertheless. Her misguided attempt to influence her brother’s life is an early hint of how her stories will tragically change Robbie’s life forever.

“She was not playing Arabella because she wrote the play, she was taking the part because no other possibility had crossed her mind, because that was how Leon was to see her, because she was Arabella.”

Briony is old enough to feel like an adult, but she lacks the empathy and understanding that comes with real maturity. As such, she cannot imagine a world outside her own mind. Her shocked reaction to anyone other than Briony being the protagonist in the play is an ironic comment on her own life, in which she views herself as the protagonist and fails to comprehend the needs, lives, and agency of others.

“He might be thinking she was talking to him in code, suggestively conveying her taste for the full-blooded and sensual.”

Many of the characters lack the ability to convey their feelings to one another. The Tallis family represses their emotions and allows issues to fester internally, rather than give them voice. Robbie, who has essentially grown up in the Tallis home, struggles to convey his feelings to Cecilia, who in turn struggles to do the same to him.