Briony: Another Stupid Teenager
Rebecca Albers
Throughout the entire novel, I had troubles deciding whether I sympathized with Briony, or wanted to repeatedly slap her in the face for being so naive and selfish. By the time I was finished, I truly felt bad for Briony and the mistakes she made as a foolish kid. After all, how stupid and naive were we at 13?
From 1935 until we begin to near the end of Briony’s life in 1999, it is clear she is simply a product of her upbringing. As she grows up and matures, she begins to realize how foolish she was as a child. Although one’s upbringing is not always the best defence, or even a defence at all, Briony is not entirely responsible for the one mistake that ends up haunting her for the 64 years following the horrible accusation made against Robbie. However, if Briony had not been a privileged spoiled brat, she would have no need spending her entire life searching for forgiveness.
In Part 1 of the novel, Briony is simply a product of the Victorian values of her parents. As a 13 year old girl, her primary influence would be a family. In Victorian times, sex was extremely taboo, and never talked about. Her mother does everything she can to hide the affair going How can the blame be placed entirely on Briony, when she was only a child not fully capable of developing her own thoughts and ideas? Everyone else around her did not question anything that Briony said, they just took her words to be the truth. She was a storyteller after all. Telling and writing stories is what she spent her free time doing. Later on, Briony admits that she was unsure that it was even Robbie that she saw with Lola that night. She states that she simply “Saw a man his height”(McEwan 327). She had no clear evidence to send another to prison for 4 years, yet that is just what she did. Nowadays, the shaky testimony of a 13 year old girl would never stand up in court without any other credible evidence another evidence. Briony ended up taking fully responsibility for the outcome, when she wasn't the only one who played had a role in sending Robbie to jail.
As the story progresses through time, we begin to see Briony struggle with her actions. Near the beginning of Part 3, she slowly begins to realize that what she did, and that there is little chance of ever coming back from what she did.
After the war is over, and Robbie and Cee are (possibly?) dead, Cee slowly begins to realize that the only person who still needs forgiveness is herself. The two people she hurt the most are dead. Briony spends the majority of her life trying to give Cee and Robbie the life and love that she mistakenly took away from them. She spends her entire life trying to come to terms with her actions.
As we later discover, the novel is Briony writing Parts 1 through 3 and trying to come to terms with her death. She realizes what a mistake she made. Since she realizes this, I believe Briony wrote herself as such a miserable, bratty kid to try and convey how sorry she is and what a big mistake she made. In the letter she receives after sending in her first draft, it is clear that much of the detail (if it even existed in the first place) was not included. CC gives her suggestions that later end up in the final draft. While Briony is coming to terms with what she does, she fails to include the truth in her story. She makes sure that she looks like this perfect little angel who could do no wrong. However, as time passes, Briony realizes that what she did was wrong. So we end up with the final story. Briony is perceived as this good for nothing brat, while the readers feel bad for Cee and Robbie’s destroyed love affair.
Briony was simply the product of her time. She couldn’t help her upbringing. When she finally realized she played a part in sending an innocent man to jail, she spends her entire life searching for her atonement.
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Heather raised an interesting point on Briony writing her character so she can live on forever after Paul Marshall, Lola and herself die off. She says that this is a way of punishing herself forever. If this is the case, I don’t know if Briony would be doing it just to punish herself. Even as Briony begins to see what she did was wrong, a part of the old Briony still remains. When the play is finally being performed, she says “I still feel myself to be exactly the same person I’ve always been”(McEwan 336). It can be seen both ways, she may want to punish herself, or she may be doing it to ensure the spotlight is always on her. The outlet and mission for Briony publishing her book, all depends on whether or not you view Briony as a villain or not.
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