Feminist Readings: Male & Female Sexuality

English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 10.2.4

Male Sexuality in Atonement: Paul Marshall

The plot of Atonement revolves around a sexual assault – Paul Marshall’s probable rape of the 15-year-old Lola Quincey.

Marshall is depicted as a predator, grooming the vulnerable teenager with attention, compliments and a chocolate Amo bar.
Through the figure of Marshall, male sexuality is portrayed as something dark and sinister.

In Chapter 5, we learn that Marshall awakes “uncomfortably aroused” (p60) after a dream involving all four of “his young sisters”, a revelation which suggests a disturbing sexual interest in children.

Marshall also takes an unhealthy pleasure in watching Lola eat the chocolate bar and uses language which is inappropriately sexualised and suggestive of violence: “You’ve got to bite it” (p62).
Throughout, Marshall is in control, directing Lola’s actions.

The characterisation of Robbie provides a more positive representation of male sexuality.

Although Lola and Briony condemn Robbie as a “maniac” after reading his obscene note to Cecilia sees and Emily shuns him because the moment is told from Robbie’s perspective, the reader knows that there is nothing sinister about it.
Instead, we probably share Robbie’s “horror” at the realisation that he has given the obscene version to Briony.

The scene in the library in which Robbie and Cecilia make love is viewed from two perspectives: Briony’s and then Robbie’s.
Briony interprets the act as “an attack, a hand-to-hand fight” (p123), with the choice of verbs conveying her impression of Robbie using his superior strength to force Cecilia into submission: “pushed… trapped her… gripping”.

However, when the scene is re-told from Robbie’s perspective, we see the awkward tentativeness of their first touches and kisses (“There was some inexpert fumbling” p135) before the moment of shared “stillness” after “the moment itself” (p137).

It is implied that, before the encounter in the library, Cecilia is a virgin: “She had no experience at all” (p136).
However, Cecilia’s sexual desires are described in intimate detail. It is she who leads Robbie to the darkest corner in the library and, during their first moments of contact, it is Cecilia who is the most assertive: “she was pulling at his clothes… she bit him hard on his lower lip… she pulled his hair and pushed his face down against her breasts” (p135).

Throughout the library scene, McEwan avoids the cliché of the male as dominant sexual partner and provides a sensitive portrayal of female sexuality.

What does Marshall say to Lola when she is eating the chocolate bar?
Who does Marshall dream about, waking up “uncomfortably aroused” (p60)?
How is Cecilia described before the library scene?
What is Robbie's reaction to realising he's given Briony the obscene version of the note for Cecilia?