Chapter 8: Key Events

English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 2.8.1

Key Events in Chapter 8: Robbie's Letter to Cecilia

Robbie prepares for dinner at the Tallis house while brooding over the scene by the fountain earlier that day.

Robbie types a letter to Cecilia, apologising for his behaviour and admitting to feelings for her. But he spoils the ending by adding an obscenity.
He writes out a new letter and leaves for his engagement. On route, he gives the letter to Briony before realising, in horror, he has given her the obscene draft.

Robbie and Cecilia have known each other since they were both children and they attended the same university (Cambridge). Despite this, their relationship has grown more distant and complicated as they have grown older.

“Occasionally, they passed in the street and smiled. She always seemed to find it awkward – That’s our cleaning lady’s son, she might have been whispering to her friends as she walked on” (p79).
Later in the same paragraph, Robbie professes that he “doesn’t care” about the differences in social class which exist between him and Cecilia, but he is clearly aware that it “might” lie at the root of her feeling “awkward”.

There is the sense of two young adults struggling to interpret their emotions.
Robbie blames Cecilia for this awkwardness/tension. But his behaviour later in the chapter shows his own confusion and perhaps reveals his own barely suppressed desires.
The references to Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis) in this chapter are perhaps meant as hints that Robbie’s delivering the obscene version of the letter is due to his subconscious desire to make his feelings known to Cecilia.