4.5.1
Pages 328-349: Key Events
Key Events in Pages 328-349: The Visit
Key Events in Pages 328-349: The Visit
Briony travels to Balham in London to visit her sister. Cecilia is cold towards her and Robbie reacts angrily.
Briony reveals the truth
Briony reveals the truth
- Briony tells them that Paul Marshall was the man who raped Lola and agrees to swear an oath and tell her family the true version of events.
Briony's nerves
Briony's nerves
- On the way to visit her sister, Briony feels nervous and decides to have breakfast in a café.
- The visit to Cecilia will be the first time they have met since Cecilia broke off contact from her family years earlier.
Quotation: Briony's distance
Quotation: Briony's distance
- “She left the café, and as she walked along the Common, she felt the distance widen between her and another self, no less real, who was walking back towards the hospital” (p329).
Briony's two selves
Briony's two selves
- Briony feels a curious sense of detachment from herself but there is a deeper significance to the image employed here of her having two selves.
- We later learn that Briony, in fact, has second thoughts about visiting her sister and decides to head back to the hospital. The account which we are about to read of Briony’s visit to her sister’s house did not happen. The ’real’ Briony walks back to the hospital; only the fictional Briony carries on to visit Cecilia.
Key Events in Pages 328-349: The Visit
Key Events in Pages 328-349: The Visit
Part Three ends with Briony’s resolve to write a new draft of her story.
BT London 1999
BT London 1999
- The initial and date at the end provide a moment of revelation for the reader.
- “She knew what was required of her. Not simply a letter, but a new draft, an atonement, and she was ready to begin.
BT
London 1999” (p349).
Briony's act of atonement
Briony's act of atonement
- The closing words of Part Three, and in particular the date and initials, reveal that what we have just finished reading has been written by Briony as a “new draft” of her story and that this is her “act of atonement" for the wrongs she has done.
- The realisation that Part Three has been written by an older Briony immediately makes us question what we have just read.
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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