Chapter 10: Key Events
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 2.10.1
Key Event in Chapter 10: Briony Reflects on the Letter
Briony feels “guilty” after reading Robbie’s letter but her imagination is fired by the thought of how she may be able to write about the adult world.
Briony finds Cecilia & Robbie
- Lola enters and shows her the bruises and scratch which she claimed were caused by her brothers.
- Briony tells Lola about the letter before going downstairs and intruding upon Robbie and Cecilia alone in the dark library.
- Briony misinterprets the scene, thinking Robbie has assaulted his sister.
Briony reflects on the letter
- Briony reflects on the obscene letter. She is forced to reassess her attitude towards Robbie in the light of his letter to Cecilia.
- “With the letter, something elemental, brutal, perhaps even criminal had been introduced, some principle of darkness, and even in her excitement over the possibilities, she did not doubt that her sister was in some way threatened and would need her help” (p113-4).
Briony assigns roles
- As Briony’s authorial instincts emerge, she begins to assign parts or roles to the main protagonists in this drama.
- Robbie is seen as a villain or “criminal”, something “brutal” and associated with “darkness”.
- Cecilia becomes the “threatened” victim and Briony gives herself a more heroic role as Cecilia’s rescuer.
- Despite the suggestion of danger and violence, Briony cannot hide her “excitement” at the prospect of this story unfolding.
Key Event in Chapter 10: Briony & Lola Discuss the Letter
Briony and Lola whip themselves up into a frenzy of accusation and denunciation over Robbie's letter.
Quotation: view of Robbie
- “A maniac. The word had refinement, and the weight of medical diagnosis. All these years she had known him and that was what he had been….” (p119).
Repetition of "maniac"
- The word “maniac” is repeated 4 times in a short period of time, creating the sense that Lola and Briony are trying to ‘force’ this damning interpretation of Robbie’s behaviour.
- Typically, Briony is impressed by the word itself for its apparent sophistication and precision.
Misdiagnosis: "years"
- However, the girls make a tragic misdiagnosis.
- The reference to the “years” Briony has known Robbie is an ironic echo of Cecilia’s moment of epiphany in the previous chapter where she lists the “day… weeks before… childhood… lifetime” that she has known Robbie.
Test yourself on Chapter 10: Key Events
How does Briony feel after reading Robbie's letter in Chapter 10?
What does Lola call Robbie in Chapter 10?