Pages 353-371: Key Themes
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 5.1.2
Perspective & Time in the Epilogue
Briony at last writes in her own voice. That Briony is at the early stages of dementia only adds to her possible “unreliability” as a witness or narrator. She herself admits her mind is “closing down”.
Timing: 59 years later
- Briony writes about the events which have happened earlier “today”, a shift forward of 59 years from the events described in Parts Two and Three. Briony has discovered that she is suffering from vascular dementia just the day previously.
Important events
- We learn about some important events that have happened in the intervening time.
- We learn about Leon nursing his wife until her death and of the admirable way in which he raised his children afterwards.
- Briony mentions her parents’ divorce and her father’s remarriage and reflects on Emily’s funeral over 25 years earlier.
- We also learn of Briony’s husband, Thierry, who has also died.
- The twins appear to have led happy family lives, with grandchildren and great-grandchildren mentioned.
Key Themes in the Epilogue: Truth & Fiction
Briony has just completed the novel we have been reading and is satisfied that her “drafts are in order”.
"Tidy finish"
- Briony's observation that she “always liked to make a tidy finish” (p353) will take on greater significance when we later learn of how Briony has reshaped the past, particularly concerning Cecilia and Robbie.
Briony's work in 3 hospitals
- As she recounts her travels across town that day, Briony reveals that, during the events described in Part 3 of the novel, she actually worked in 3 hospitals, not one, describing this as “the least of my crimes against veracity” (p356), acknowledging that she has manipulated the truth in other, more significant, ways.
Briony's discussions of Lola
- Lola thinks of the Marshalls and then sees them.
- This could be a coincidence or could be evidence of Briony trying to wrap things up too neatly at the end of her novel. Briony again describes herself as “an unreliable witness” while discussing Lola (p358) and the reference to her looking like “Cruella de Vil” may be a subtle hint that Briony realises she is portraying Lola as too much like a cartoon villain.
Fear of Lola's legal action
- As Lola will outlive her, she will not be able to publish her novel in her own lifetime for fear of legal action from Lola.
Briony's letters with Nettle
- Briony describes the letters she exchanged with Nettle, Robbie’s companion in Dunkirk, revealing how she was able to create Part Two of the novel.
- Briony saves her big revelation until the final paragraphs. She tells us that Robbie died in Dunkirk and that Cecilia died in September that year when the Balham Underground station was bombed. Briony did not visit Cecilia. Briony justifies her changes to herself (and her readers), asking “How could that constitute an ending?” (p371)
Possible alternative ending
- On the final page, Briony teases us with a possible alternative ending, of Robbie and Cecilia side by side in the library smiling at the performance of her play: “It’s not impossible”.
Test yourself on Pages 353-371: Key Themes
What happens Parts Three and Four of Atonement?
What does Briony say of her finished novel in Part Four?
Which of these is NOT one of Briony's revelations at the end of Part Four?
What does Briony say to justify her decision to write Part Three?