Chapter 13: Key Themes

Chapter 13 focuses on the nature of Briony's **"crime"**.

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Key Themes in Chapter 13

We hear events from Briony's perspective. The chronology of events is manipulated in Chapter 13.

Crucially, Chapter 13 is seen from Briony’s perspective as we move towards her discovery of Lola and the “figure”.

This chapter sees several disruptions to the chronological sequence of events.
The chapter begins with a shift forward in time with the tantalising opening, “Within the half-hour Briony would commit her crime” (p.156), which immediately creates suspense.
The chapter then goes back in time to recount the details of Briony’s search and discovery.

Chronological time continues to be manipulated throughout the chapter.
After Briony’s discovery of Lola and their piecing together of the crime, there is another shift forward in time to “the weeks and months to come” (p.167) where Briony would stick to her version of the events she had witnessed.

We have to remember that it is an older Briony who is narrating this chapter and that she may be manipulating our response towards her “crime” by such a lengthy explanation (or justification?) for her actions after her discovery of Lola.
We return to the ‘present’ when Leon and Cecilia find Briony and Lola.

In Chapter 13, Briony narrates events in the style of a fiction writer.

Briony responds to events in this chapter as she imagines a writer of fiction must.
She is almost exhilarated by the thought that “fairy stories were behind her” and that she has been given privileged access to a new and thrilling world “beyond the nursery”: “…in the space of a few hours she had witnessed mysteries, seen an unspeakable word, interrupted brutal behaviour…” (p160).

Briony has learned that “villains were not announced with hisses… they did not come cloaked in black, with ugly expressions…” (p158).
Robbie is now, in Briony’s eyes, a “maniac” or “brute”.

Briony’s judgement that she has seen Robbie steal off after assaulting Lola is described as being an artistic decision which conveniently fits the story she is piecing together in her imagination: “She had no doubt. She could describe him… Everything connected. It was her own discovery. It was her story…” (p164-6).
Briony convinces herself that Robbie is the assailant because this makes sense to her as a story: “The truth was in the symmetry… The truth instructed her eyes” (p169).

Chapter 13 focuses on the nature of Briony's "crime".

The chapter begins with a reference to Briony’s “crime” and the narrative invites us to judge the extent to which Briony is culpable for falsely accusing Robbie of the sexual assault on Lola. Briony is only 13-years-old and in an excitable state of mind after all of the events that day.

However, the narrative makes it clear that Briony leads Lola into naming Robbie as the assailant.
Briony first uses his name in the form of a question (“It was Robbie, wasn’t it?”) before the question soon becomes an assertion, or as the narrative describes it, a “statement of fact… “It was Robbie”” (p.166).
Briony seems to be applying pressure on Lola to accuse Robbie who she has already decided is the right villain for this story.

When Lola admits to some uncertainty and that she couldn’t tell “for sure”, Briony responds with a blunt declaration which seems to almost verge on a threat: “Well I can. And I will” (p167).
There is also something sinister in the statement that “Briony was there to help her at every stage” (p168) as if Briony has become something of a suffocating presence.

The narrative offers further mitigation (a defence) for Briony’s behaviour e.g. her feeling like a “bride-to-be” as the new centre of attention and the fact that she is “anxious to please” the adults investigating the assault.

We also learn of Briony’s regret at her decision: “She would never be able to console herself…” (p170).
All of this may make us react more sympathetically to Briony but we must remember that, as the older Briony has narrated this chapter, she may be trying to manipulate her readers into judging her younger self more kindly.