Feminist Readings: Marriage & Family

English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 10.2.3

Marriage & Power in Atonement

In Briony’s childhood stories, marriage is the ultimate “reward” for her heroes and heroines.

But you could argue that, other than in these fairy tales, there is no positive representation of a marriage in Atonement.
Emily Tallis is left alone at home, aware that her husband is having an affair.
The Quincey parents are undergoing a divorce which is the subject of newspaper gossip.
The Marshalls’ marriage is described as a “mausoleum”.

There seems to be a clear imbalance of power in the Tallis’ marriage with Jack Tallis free to conduct an affair and spend “so many consecutive nights in London” (p149).
Emily knows that her marriage is a “sham” but does not contemplate divorce, attempting to find consolation in “the house, the park, above all, the children” (p148).
But we already know that her family have become accustomed to her frequent and prolonged retreats to her room and that she is distant from each of her children.

Despite this, Emily expects her oldest daughter to follow a similar path to hers. She considers Cecilia’s university studies as “childish” (p65) and thinks that she should instead be concentrating on finding a “husband” and contemplating “motherhood” (p65).
Emily does not consider any other route to happiness for her daughter, despite her sense that her own life has been a disappointment.

Emily’s daughters have different ideas of how they can find self-fulfilment, reflecting more modern ideas of a woman’s place in society.
Cecilia and Briony point to new possibilities and identities for women with both attempting to find self-realisation through education or a career.

The only woman who is empowered by marriage in the novel is Lola Quincey who, as Briony bitterly observes, has the “luck… to marry her rapist” (p324) and will eventually become Lady Marshall.
When she attends the Marshalls’ wedding, Briony notes that Lola does not appear to be a “victim” (p325) and imagines Lola’s mother as “rubbing her hands” (p325) at her daughter sharing Marshall’s wealth.
The implication is clear: this is a marriage of convenience for both Lola and Paul Marshall.