Paul Marshall's Relationship with Lola

English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 6.5.2

Marshall's 'Grooming' of Lola in Atonement

Marshall is depicted as ‘grooming’ Lola. Marshall is able to manipulate Lola through his use of compliments and the gift of chocolate.

His use of language towards her appears to be inappropriately sexualised: “Bite it”, he said softly. “You’ve got to bite it” (p62).

McEwan never makes the precise details of Marshall’s crime clear.
We do not know what happened between him and Lola in the nursery: the injuries sustained by Lola suggest that Marshall used excessive levels of force to restrain her and the “little squeal of laughter abruptly smothered” (p69) which Emily hears is frustratingly difficult to interpret. Likewise, we never learn if Marshall sexually assaults Lola against her will or if Lola had given consent.

However, Marshall’s guilt is not in question.
Marshall has sex with a minor, possibly through rape, and then allows an innocent man to be punished for a crime he did not commit.

Marshall appears to use his high social status to influence the police officers, offering them cigarettes “from a gold case” (p175), symbolic of his wealth and power, and then patting the senior officer on the shoulder as if “to send them on their way”.