Briony: a Disliked Character
Annie King
By the end of the novel, the reader understands that the first three parts of Atonement were Briony’s written, and altered, version of what actually happened. On the “real” Briony’s day off, we know that she walked back to her hospital, ashamed, because she was not able to face her sister. In Briony’s written version, she did go and talk to not only her sister, but also Robbie. When Briony went to her sister’s apartment, 43 Dudley Villas, she did not write that both Cee and Robbie forgave her completely and without question. Briony could have written her story however she wanted; Cee and Robbie could have welcomed her back, writing to the family themselves and explaining the confusion, asking to start over. The rest of the Tallis family might have agreed and there would have been a happy ending for everyone, including herself. Instead, Briony was not forgiven by Cee and Robbie. Neither Cee nor Robbie acknowledged Briony’s apologies nor did they thank her for telling the truth, even though it was late. Robbie simply says to “Just do all the things [they’ve] asked” (McEwan, 329). In an act of selflessness, she gives herself the unhappy ending, but Cee and Robbie, those who she wronged in the first place, “end well, standing side by side on a South London pavement” (McEwan 350).
In the final part of book, Briony says “I’ve regarded it as my duty to disguise nothing-the names, the places, the exact circumstances-I put it all in there as a matter of historical record” (McEwan, 349). She wants to tell the complete truth, confess what she did wrong and stop hiding it. She does not wish to change details as to make her seem like more of a protagonist and more likeable. The only thing stopping her from unveiling the truth is the legal matter that she cannot publish the true story while the real people are still living, as opposed to herself second guessing whether or not telling the truth now would just complicate things.
Much like in Philip Pullman’s book series His Dark Materials, the reader despises Mrs. Coulter, but then learns that maybe, just maybe, it is possible that she does have likeable qualities. In the first two books of this series, Mrs. Coulter is seen as one of the main villains. She always seems to be behind everything that goes wrong. However, a few of her actions that pop up now and then in the stories are seen as downright generous and nice. By the third book, she has made a complete circle and the reader begins to feel sympathy for her when things go horribly wrong. Briony is seen as easy to hate and the reason that Robbie’s life was ruined. While it is true that she did commit the crime of lying, by the end of the book, I believe that most readers felt sympathy for her. The reader realizes that Briony has to have all the guilt pressing down on her shoulders because it was her fault that Robbie and Cee did not live a happy life together.
To comment on Erin’s blog entry, I do agree that one reason we should not hate Briony is the fact that she was a young child when she saw what happened by the fountain. As she grew up, she matured and learned that what she did was very wrong. I believe that the part of the book that showed she had truly matured was when she sat beside Luc as he died. She did not continue trying to correct him when he acted as though they had known each other for a long time, and she did not jump away, disgusted, when she saw his injury. She realized that “he was a lovely boy who was a long way from his family and he was about to die” (292). She let him believe that he was in the company of someone he loved and who loved him as well. This shows that Briony has matured and grown away from her selfish tendencies that were so characteristically hers as a child.
Just because I can, here is a photo of River and I working through this novel together.
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