Briony Tallis Atonement

In Atonement, Briony Tallis’ whole life is based on her attempt to atone for destroying the life that her sister, Cecelia, could have had with Robbie Turner. This places an emphasis on McEwan’s theme that there are some choices made in life that cannot be revoked or forgiven even when the guilty lives a lifetime of regret. Because of the death of Robbie and Cecilia, it is unclear as to whether Briony would have succeeded in her plight to be forgiven by the two. In the first section of the book, we see the crime that is committed by Briony Tallis. It is not the false accusation that is the true crime, but what came after. The separation of Robbie and Cecilia is something that Briony wanted to seek forgiveness for, due to the loss of their

Briony’s first attempt at atonement seems to be purely out of her own guilt. The main source of recompense in her youth is presented in the form of becoming a nurse instead of going to school for writing. It seems as though she believes that becoming a nurse will absolve her of the crime of her past, but she gets caught up in her thoughts too frequently. While she appears to enjoy caring for the patients, it is as though Briony feels that as she helps the men, she helps Robbie. “She thought too how one of these men might be Robbie” (281). McEwan shows that Briony will not be able to be forgiven for her crimes through the similarities between Robbie and the patients. She has no true compassion for them, nor for the situation she has put Robbie in, and therefore, she can’t repent. It is as if she is persuading herself that she is helping him

As a trait that she has possessed her whole life, as seen through the early pages of the novel, it is a strong mannerism and something that she clearly cannot give up so easily, despite what trouble it may bring her. The first instance of this is described meticulously in the form of a ridiculed Briony. While the narrator plays it off as something that should have been a form of atonement for the girl, it becomes apparent that it is just another form of Briony’s self-importance. In this situation, she must wear a “uniform that eroded identity” and leave her given name behind, taking up the title born by all nurses. Briony describes it as a required “stripping away of identity” and yet she still manages to cling to something that bears her individuality above it all (259). Her writings and journals depict fantasies and aspirations of heroism, much like her daydreams about Robbie, and they are a form of expression and self-preservation. Briony even goes onto describe them as something that “preserves her dignity” (264). Yet the dignity she speaks of seems to parallel the selfish, controlling desires and mannerisms that caused the entire issue in the first place. Various descriptions of her journals and writings infer that Briony believes she is entitled to writing out people and