Crimes in Atonement

Q: Crime in *Atonement*: The Sexual Assault on Lola

The plot of *Atonement* is structured around two crimes which take place around the mid-point of the novel, towards the end of Part One: the sexual assault on Lola and Briony’s false accusation against Robbie.

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Crime in Atonement: The Sexual Assault on Lola

The plot of Atonement is structured around two crimes which take place around the mid-point of the novel, towards the end of Part One: the sexual assault on Lola and Briony’s false accusation against Robbie.

Lead up & consequences of crimes

The novel examines the lead-up to both crimes, recounting the events in the Tallis household that day from a range of different perspectives.
It then explores the consequences of both crimes in the years which follow.

Paul Marshall's crime

Paul Marshall’s crime is heinous: the rape of a 15-year-old girl.
However, the precise details of the crime are ambiguous as McEwan never provides a definitive account of what precisely happened by the island temple that night.

Briony's perspective on the assault

We witness the scene from Briony’s perspective, only too aware of how she has misinterpreted other key scenes that same day (i.e. the scene by the fountain, and Cecilia and Robbie making love in the library).
Briony later admits that she is an “unreliable witness”.

Ambiguity: darkness

The darkness that night is continually referenced in the narrative. It means that Briony can make out little more than “a figure” who quickly fades “into the darker background of the trees” (p164).
This ambiguity over who the attacker is creates the suspense which is typical of crime fiction, inviting the reader to question Briony’s assertion that she had seen Robbie and to speculate on the identity of other possible assailants.

Uncertainty: island temple location

Likewise, there is uncertainty over how Lola and Marshall came to be together by the island temple that night. At their wedding almost 5 years later, Briony describes the 15-year-old Lola as someone “who longed to throw off the last restraints of childhood” (p324).
You could argue that this suggests that Lola looked to Marshall for validation and may have even arranged to meet him at the spot where Briony finds them. While this would not excuse Marshall’s actions, it may perhaps explain why Lola is prepared to cover for him.

Crimes in Atonement - Briony's Crimes & War

Briony’s crime is clear – she falsely accuses Robbie of being Lola’s assailant. The war in northern France dominates Parts Two and Three of the novel and can be considered as another crime.

Reasons for Briony's story

The reasons behind Briony's decision to stand by her story are never fully resolved. Given Briony’s willingness to reshape reality in her fiction, readers may be suspicious of the explanation that she offers.

War: crime against humanity

The war could be considered a crime against humanity.
Robbie reflects on Europe being “a dead civilisation” (p217) and, as readers, we encounter a whole supporting cast of victims of the war in these two sections of the novel.

Briony's authorial crime?

Some people may also see Briony’s revelation (or confession?) that she is the ‘true’ author of the novel and that she has rewritten the past to ease her guilt and create a more uplifting ending as a crime against the reader, forcing us to reassess all that we have read.