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Date Posted: 21:19:08 01/23/08 Wed
Author: Rachel
Subject: Re: Briony's Atonement
In reply to: Sean Matson 's message, "Briony's Atonement" on 14:14:20 09/26/07 Wed

First of all, atonement is making amends for something you did wrong, or someone else making up for your mistakes.
Secondly, I don't think she did successfully atone, I believe it was just an attempt at atonement. Briony desperately wanted to make up for what she did, but she couldn't, it’s not possible, they both died. So, she did the only thing she knew how to do, she made up a story, the one they should have had, deserved to have. She was a writer, a fictional one at that, and she didn’t know how to do anything differently. From the very beginning writing is what we see her doing, its how she lives her life, its part of her reality. The problem is she brings that into others reality and messes things up because she can’t understand them, and so creates her own story of what is happening. But whether she actually atones or not, I believe she doesn’t and that she admits it, that by playing the role of “God” she can’t be atoned, she can’t forgive herself.
Her working as a nurse was Briony’s way of trying to get out of her habit of telling stories. She is trying to pay penitence for what she did to Robbie, and she hopes to one day take care of him personally, and maybe be forgiven by him. I think the war experience part is to explain that she does understand, at least a little bit, the horrible things that Robbie had to go through. By being able to understand the depth or her crime, only then can she be completely forgiven, or forgive herself.
But the main thing is, I think at the end she realizes that she can’t be atoned for what she did in reality, but she can in fiction, so she wrote their story. Briony lived in fiction, so it seemed right to her to fix her mistakes through fiction. Whether she actually atoned by doing this? I think that is up to the reader, whether or not the reader will forgive her after seeing the truth and all that she tired to do to make up for her mistakes.

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Replies:

  • Re: Briony's Atonement -- Autumn (infuriated), 17:31:02 01/25/08 Fri
  • Re: Briony's Atonement -- Kim, 11:40:48 02/10/08 Sun
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