5.1.1

Pages 353-371: Key Events

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Key Events in the Epilogue: Briony Returns Home

A 77-year-old Briony, now a famous writer but suffering from vascular dementia, has concluded the novel that we are reading - Atonement.

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Imperial War Museum & Tallis home

  • Briony visits the Imperial War Museum and there sees Paul Marshall and Lola.
  • She then visits her childhood home (now a hotel) to watch a performance of her childhood play, The Trials of Arabella.
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Changes to the Tallis home

  • The Tallis house is now a hotel. It, and its grounds, have undergone many changes.
  • “The music was still playing as turned into the drive of Tilney’s Hotel” (p363).
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Allusion to Henry Tilney

  • The reference to “Tilney’s” is an allusion to Jane Austen’s novel, Northanger Abbey and, specifically, the character of Henry Tilney who speaks the lines quoted in the epigraph to Atonement: “Dear Miss Morland….”.
  • The Miss Morland to whom these words are addressed is Catherine Morland, the heroine of the novel who, like Briony, misinterprets the world around her due to her love of fiction and story-telling.
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Briony admits the truth

  • Briony reveals the truth of what happened to Cecilia and Robbie. In doing so, she justifies her decision to change historical events and create a fictional world in which Cecilia and Robbie survive.
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Briony's fictional account

  • “There was a crime. But there were also the lovers.” (p370).
    • Briony decides against the depressing “realism” of historical accuracy and provides a fictional account of Robbie’s and Cecilia’s love surviving in order to offer her readers a sense of “hope” and “satisfaction” (p371).

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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