Chapter 1: Key Themes
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 2.1.2
Key Themes in Chapter 1
Chapter 1 focuses on characterising Briony. We are introduced to Briony's character through her being the focalizer of the narrative perspective. Chapter 1 is full of irony.
Narrative perspective
- The chapter is told from the perspective of a 3rd person omniscient narrator with Briony as the focalizer (the character from whose perspective we tend to see events).
- But the reader is kept at some distance from Briony. The narrative even invites us to laugh at Briony’s “fantasies” of herself as a writer and at her overblown, pretentious use of language.
Authorial intrusion: the play
- Through an authorial intrusion we learn that Briony’s play will not make it to performance: “Briony was hardly to know it then, but this was the project’s highest form of fulfilment”.
- This is the first example of McEwan breaking the chronological sequence of the novel’s narrative - in this case to foreshadow some disruption to Briony’s plans.
Irony: "no secrets"
- Some details in the opening chapter which appear insignificant on first reading take on deeper significance once the story becomes clearer.
- E.g. the descriptions of Briony as having “no secrets” and not having “it in her to be cruel” become charged with irony once future events are known.
Tragic irony in Briony's stories
- Likewise, that Briony’s stories are said to follow “the principles of justice” with “the morally dubious” being punished by death and the virtuous given the “reward” of marriage creates a sense of tragic irony for those aware of how Briony’s story at the end of Part One will result in a travesty of justice.
Briony as writer
- Briony’s creative instincts are associated with a desire to impose a sense of order on her surroundings but are also depicted as containing a moral purpose (e.g. to “guide” Leon towards the “right” wife) with good being rewarded and evil punished.
Test yourself on Chapter 1: Key Themes
Which of these are true of the narrative style of Chapter 1?