Pages 269-277: Key Themes
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 4.1.2
Key Theme in Pages 269-277: London, 1940
We are introduced to a different narrative voice. Events are now focalized through a more mature Briony. While she is still only 18-years-old, her voice is not as over-dramatic as it was at times during Part One.
Briony's perspective on work
- There are hints throughout this section that the routines involved in Briony's training, while demanding, are a welcome escape from feelings of guilt or doubt.
- Briony seems to be relieved that the intensity of her work “delivered [her] from introspection” (p276).
Characterisation of Sister Drummond
- The trainees “all lived in fear” of Sister Drummond.
- Briony’s narrative gives us a detailed description of her appearance including her “menacing” smile.
- Sister Drummond oversees a very strict regime based on regulations, routine and obedience which is described as “military” on p276, inviting comparison with the experiences of prison and war described in Part two.
"Motherly" aspects of Drummond
- Despite her fearsome reputation, there are hints of “motherly” aspects to Sister Drummond’s personality, and we, through Briony, will come to understand her more fully as Part Three develops.
Hospital setting
- The narrative is almost entirely set in the hospital where everyone is bracing themselves for what is to come.
- There is “disquiet” and “dread” among the student nurses and the unusual simile on p270 (“Empty beds spread across the ward… like deaths in the night”) seems to foreshadow events in the near future.
Test yourself on Pages 269-277: Key Themes
Complete the quotations about Sister Drummong.
What side of Sister Drummond's personality does the narrative hint at?