Chapter 1: Key Events
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 2.1.1
Key Event in Chapter 1 - Briony Finishes the Play
In the summer of 1935, 13-year-old Briony Tallis has just finished writing a play to mark the occasion of her brother, Leon, returning home. However, Briony becomes frustrated with her cousins while they rehearse the play.
Introduction to Briony
- McEwan introduces Briony to the reader as a budding writer who has just finished her first play, The Trials of Arabella.
- Briony’s ambitions as a writer are signalled by the fact that there is a serious purpose to her work.
Quotation: Briony's play
- “Her play was not for her cousins, it was for her brother, to celebrate his return, provoke his admiration and guide him away from his careless succession of girlfriends, towards the right form of wife… “ (p4).
"Guide" and "right"
- Briony’s desire to “guide” Leon towards “the right form of wife” is the first suggestion of a controlling instinct within her.
- We see how Briony wishes others to conform to her sense of propriety or morality.
- This judgemental streak in her personality and her keen sense of what is “right” will have serious consequences in the novel.
"Tempest of composition"
- Briony’s serious purpose is also signalled by her writing the play in a “two-day tempest of composition” which has even caused her to skip meals.
- The storm imagery hints at the chaos Briony will cause later in the novel when her impulse to create stories leads to tragic consequences.
Key Event in Chapter 1 - Briony's Bedroom
McEwan describes Briony’s bedroom, contrasting it with that of Cecilia, her older sister.
Significance of Briony's bedroom
- The detailed description of Briony’s room allows McEwan to develop his characterisation of Briony, giving us further insights into her personality.
Quotation: Briony's bedroom
- “She was one of those children possessed by a desire to have the world just so. Whereas her big sister's room was a stew of unclosed books, unfolded clothes, unmade bed, unemptied ashtrays, Briony's was a shrine to her controlling demon: the model farm spread across a deep window ledge consisted of the usual animals, but all facing one way - towards their owner…” (p4-5).
Briony's controlling nature
- In emphasising Briony’s need for order (**“a desire to have the world just so”*), McEwan signals to the reader Briony’s impulse to impose control over her surroundings.
"Controlling demon"
- McEwan’s use of diabolic imagery (Briony is “possessed” by a “controlling demon”) may also foreshadow turbulence.
Importance of the farm animals
- The alignment of the farm animals so that they all face Briony suggests a need to be the centre of attention.
Test yourself on Chapter 1: Key Events
Which of these are true of Chapter 1 of Atonement?
What is Briony's play called?
What technique does McEwan use in this quotation?
“Two-day tempest of composition”What objects face Briony in her room?