Chapter 4: Key Events
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 2.4.1
Key Events in Chapter 4: Cecilia Comforts & Paul Marshall
Briony’s older brother, Leon Tallis, arrives with his friend, Paul Marshall.
Cecilia comforting Briony
- Cecilia wishes to comfort Briony who is upset about her play.
- From Cecilia’s perspective, we see Briony as the younger sister, frustrated by her struggle to emerge from childhood.
Quotation: Briony as "baby"
- ”She wanted to comfort her sister, for Cecilia had always loved to cuddle the baby of the family” (p44).
- The description of Briony as a “baby” underlines Briony’s immaturity despite Cecilia’s own recognition that her younger sister is “changing”.
- In wanting to help her sister, Cecilia is looking for a “release” from her own turbulent emotions and to help restore a “sense of control” over her own life.
Introduction to Paul Marshall
- We are introduced to Paul Marshall.
- Marshall is mocked by Cecilia who finds him pompous and arrogant. But readers may also be unsettled by his behaviour.
- “He smiled, and since he had reached the gap first, he paused to hand her through… and as she passed she felt him touch her lightly on her forearm. Or it may have been a leaf” (p54).
Ambiguity about Paul's touch
- McEwan creates ambiguity from Cecilia’s uncertainty about whether Marshall has touched her or not.
- The suggestion that he may have deliberately touched her creates a slightly sinister aspect to his personality.
- This foreshadows Marshall’s later behaviour towards Lola.
- That McEwan chooses to end the chapter here only adds to its significance.
Test yourself on Chapter 4: Key Events
What is Briony upset about in Chapter 4?