Pages 315-327: Key Events
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 4.4.1
Key Events in Pages 315-327: Lola & Marshall’s Wedding
On a Saturday morning off work, Briony travels to a church near to Clapham Common tube station where Paul Marshall and Lola Quincey are marrying in a private ceremony.
Briony at the wedding
- Briony turns up to the wedding of Marshall and Lola and sits at the end of a pew at the back of the church.
- At the sight of Lola and Marshall, Briony relives the events of the night Lola was sexually assaulted almost 5 years previously.
Quotation: Briony's memories
- “She felt the memories, the needling details, like a rash, like dirt on her skin…” (p324).
Briony's feelings at the wedding
- The “needling details” suggest Briony’s discomfort at the memory of her “crime” but the imagery of a “rash” and of “dirt” recalls Marshall’s attacks on Lola in Part One.
- This, in turn, suggests Briony is also a victim of Marshall, amplified by Briony’s reference to her emotional “scratches and bruises” being long healed (p325).
- The paragraph ends with the blunt statement that Lola was marrying her “rapist” (p324), revealing the true villain to the reader.
Test yourself on Pages 315-327: Key Events
Who does Briony say Lola is marrying at the wedding ceremony?