10.2.4

Feminist Readings: Male & Female Sexuality

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Male Sexuality in Atonement: Paul Marshall

The plot of Atonement revolves around a sexual assault – Paul Marshall’s probable rape of the 15-year-old Lola Quincey.

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Marshall's grooming of Lola

  • Marshall is depicted as a predator, grooming the vulnerable teenager with attention, compliments and a chocolate Amo bar.
  • Through the figure of Marshall, male sexuality is portrayed as something dark and sinister.
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Marshall's arousal

  • In Chapter 5, we learn that Marshall awakes “uncomfortably aroused” (p60) after a dream involving all four of “his young sisters”, a revelation which suggests a disturbing sexual interest in children.
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Marshall's pleasure watching Lola

  • Marshall also takes an unhealthy pleasure in watching Lola eat the chocolate bar and uses language which is inappropriately sexualised and suggestive of violence: “You’ve got to bite it” (p62).
  • Throughout, Marshall is in control, directing Lola’s actions.

Male & Female Sexuality: Robbie & Library Scene

The characterisation of Robbie provides a more positive representation of male sexuality.

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Robbie's obscene note

  • Although Lola and Briony condemn Robbie as a “maniac” after reading his obscene note to Cecilia sees and Emily shuns him because the moment is told from Robbie’s perspective, the reader knows that there is nothing sinister about it.
  • Instead, we probably share Robbie’s “horror” at the realisation that he has given the obscene version to Briony.
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Briony's perspective: library scene

  • The scene in the library in which Robbie and Cecilia make love is viewed from two perspectives: Briony’s and then Robbie’s.
  • Briony interprets the act as “an attack, a hand-to-hand fight” (p123), with the choice of verbs conveying her impression of Robbie using his superior strength to force Cecilia into submission: “pushed… trapped her… gripping”.
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Awkwardness from Robbie's perspective

  • However, when the scene is re-told from Robbie’s perspective, we see the awkward tentativeness of their first touches and kisses (“There was some inexpert fumbling” p135) before the moment of shared “stillness” after “the moment itself” (p137).
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Cecilia in the library scene

  • It is implied that, before the encounter in the library, Cecilia is a virgin: “She had no experience at all” (p136).
  • However, Cecilia’s sexual desires are described in intimate detail. It is she who leads Robbie to the darkest corner in the library and, during their first moments of contact, it is Cecilia who is the most assertive: “she was pulling at his clothes… she bit him hard on his lower lip… she pulled his hair and pushed his face down against her breasts” (p135).
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Portrayal of female seuxality

  • Throughout the library scene, McEwan avoids the cliché of the male as dominant sexual partner and provides a sensitive portrayal of female sexuality.

Jump to other topics

1Introduction to Atonement

2Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part One

3Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Two

4Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Three

5Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Four

5.1Epilogue: London, 1999 - Pages 353-371

6Key Character Profiles

7Key Themes

8Writing Techniques

9Context

10Critical Debates

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