From the first page of this book, Briony Tallis annoyed me. Briony didn’t live in the real world. Her life was essentially scripted. She was obsessed with writing these stories, about the girl and boy who fall in love and live happily ever after. Her infatuation with the perfect ending took over her life. In order for her to move past the mistakes she made, she rewrote her past. Wether this was the correct thing to do or not, she did make improvements in her character.
Briony loves to be in everyone’s business. She proved she can mettle in Part One, when she walks in on Cee and Robbie in the library, and then framing Robbie for Lola’s rape. This is the crime that sets up Briony on the quest of forgiveness. To me, there is nothing Briony could really do to make things go back to the way they were before. She really messed things up, and everyone involved in the situation knows that. What I think is commendable of Briony, is she tried to make herself better, even if she couldn’t fix the larger problem.
After learning from her father about the wedding of Paul Marshall and Lola, Briony decides to attend the affair. While at the wedding, she is reminded of the horrible incident from her youth, saying,
“She felt the memories, the needling details, like a rash, like dirt on her skin: Lola coming to her room in tears, her chafed and bruised wrists, and the scratches on Lola’s shoulder and down Marshall’s face; Lola’s silence in the darkness at the lakeside as she let her earnest, ridiculous, oh so prim younger cousin, who couldn’t tell real life from the stories in her head, deliver the attacker into safety” (McEwan, p. 306).
Briony’s worked hard to move past her mistakes of her youth, and remembering all these memories could trigger her to fall back into her old patterns. But, when the priest asks for any objections to the marriage, Briony stays still;
“Aunt Hermione would be rubbing her hands. That Paul Marshall, Lola Quincey, and she, Briony Tallis, had conspired with silence and falsehoods to send an innocent man to jail? But the words that had convicted him had been her very own, read out loud on her behalf in the Assize Court. The sentence had already been served. The debt was paid. The verdict stood” (p. 307).
This is Briony finally learning her place. She can’t intervene in everyone’s problems. Even though you so badly want to stand up, to say what you think is right, things aren’t always in your control. You have to let people make their own mistakes. Briony proved she’s learned her lesson in this moment.
This reminds me of an episode of my favourite reality tv show, The Hills. Heidi, Lauren’s ex-best friend, is marrying Spencer, Lauren’s nemesis. Lauren and Heidi stopped being friends because Heidi started dating Spencer, but Lauren decides to attend the wedding to put the bad blood behind her. Sometimes, a small act like this speaks louder than words.
So, Briony may or may not of actually lived out this transformation. But, she understands what she did was wrong, and would change it if she could. I think that’s positive character development in the case of whiny-Briony.
Comment on Erin’s Blog Post:
While I think it is commendable that Briony is so passionate about the forgiveness of the people she hurt, is it worth suffering her whole life for? Briony is completely aware that her family won’t forgive her, let alone speak to her. If she isn’t living with them, and not in any contact, isn’t there a point when one would want to move on? She could be living a life full of love from others, but instead she is plagued by this guilt of one mistake. What she should do is learn from this mistake and not repeat it in new relationships. Just because the family you are born into turns against you, does not mean you can’t build a new family of friends.
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