2.3.2
Chapter 3: Key Themes
Key Themes in Chapter 3
Key Themes in Chapter 3
Events are focalized through Briony and she has written the narrative of Chapter 3.
Briony's narrative viewpoint
Briony's narrative viewpoint
- Events are focalized through Briony.
- We see her frustrations with her cousins and, when the rehearsal breaks down, we follow Briony rather than Lola or the twins.
- We also witness how Briony reacts to the scene at the fountain below. Her initial certainty about what she has seen being is gradually shaken by her confusion around Cecilia’s actions.
Complexity of Briony's narrative
Complexity of Briony's narrative
- The narrative we are reading is actually written by ‘Briony’.
- This adds a layer of complexity.
- The reader who may be unsure of how to respond to the narrative. A reader may feel sympathy for Briony while at the same time be perfectly aware that their emotional response is being manipulated by the narrative voice.
Briony's self-reflection
Briony's self-reflection
- This older Briony (the ‘actual’ narrator of the events in Part One) reflects on how her vocation as a writer began at that moment.
- She admits to an awareness of “her self-mythologising”, recognising a tendency to distort the truth when drawing on personal experience for her fiction.
- The effect is again unsettling for a reader – how far can they ‘trust’ what they are reading?
Briony's epiphany
Briony's epiphany
- The scene by the fountain sparks an epiphany (a moment of realisation) in Briony. She realises that a key task for a writer of mature fiction is to understand different psychologies and to present “different minds”.
- However, while this is a breakthrough for her as a writer, she is still too young to understand the complexity of adult behaviours and emotions.
1Introduction to Atonement
1.1Introduction & Background to Atonement
1.2Focus of Your Exam: Crime Texts
2Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part One
2.6Chapter 6
2.10Chapter 10
2.11Chapter 11
2.12Chapter 12
2.13Chapter 13
2.14Chapter 14
3Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Two
3.1Pages 191-201: To the Farmhouse
3.2Pages 202-213: The Night in the Barn
3.3Pages 214-226: The Attack
3.4Pages 226-234: Robbie's Reflections
3.5Pages 234-246: To the Bridge over the Canal
3.6Pages 246-254: Arrival at Dunkirk
3.7Pages 254-265: To the Cellar
4Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Three
4.1Pages 269-277: London, 1940
4.2Pages 277-286: Briony as Writer
4.3Pages 287-315: Victims of War
4.4Pages 315-327: Lola & Paul Marshall’s Wedding
4.5Pages 328-349: The Visit
5Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Four
5.1Epilogue: London, 1999 - Pages 353-371
6Key Character Profiles
6.1Briony Tallis
6.2Robbie Turner
6.3Cecilia Tallis
6.5Paul Marshall
6.6Emily Tallis
7Key Themes
7.1Introduction to Crime Texts
7.2Crimes in Atonement
7.3Criminals in Atonement
7.4Victims in Atonement
7.5Detection in Atonement
7.6Settings in Atonement
7.7Guilt & Punishment in Atonement
8Writing Techniques
9Context
9.1Historical Context
9.2Social Context
9.3Literary Context
10Critical Debates
10.1Marxist Literary Criticism
Jump to other topics
1Introduction to Atonement
1.1Introduction & Background to Atonement
1.2Focus of Your Exam: Crime Texts
2Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part One
2.6Chapter 6
2.10Chapter 10
2.11Chapter 11
2.12Chapter 12
2.13Chapter 13
2.14Chapter 14
3Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Two
3.1Pages 191-201: To the Farmhouse
3.2Pages 202-213: The Night in the Barn
3.3Pages 214-226: The Attack
3.4Pages 226-234: Robbie's Reflections
3.5Pages 234-246: To the Bridge over the Canal
3.6Pages 246-254: Arrival at Dunkirk
3.7Pages 254-265: To the Cellar
4Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Three
4.1Pages 269-277: London, 1940
4.2Pages 277-286: Briony as Writer
4.3Pages 287-315: Victims of War
4.4Pages 315-327: Lola & Paul Marshall’s Wedding
4.5Pages 328-349: The Visit
5Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Four
5.1Epilogue: London, 1999 - Pages 353-371
6Key Character Profiles
6.1Briony Tallis
6.2Robbie Turner
6.3Cecilia Tallis
6.5Paul Marshall
6.6Emily Tallis
7Key Themes
7.1Introduction to Crime Texts
7.2Crimes in Atonement
7.3Criminals in Atonement
7.4Victims in Atonement
7.5Detection in Atonement
7.6Settings in Atonement
7.7Guilt & Punishment in Atonement
8Writing Techniques
9Context
9.1Historical Context
9.2Social Context
9.3Literary Context
10Critical Debates
10.1Marxist Literary Criticism
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