Atonement summary, Sintesi del corso di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Atonement summary e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! A lot happens in Atonement. And then some of it doesn't, which can get the plot even more tangled. We start out at the Tallis family's very upper-class English home in 1935, a few years before World War II. The family is expecting a visit from their maternal cousins—the young twins Jackson and Pierrot, and 15-year-old Lola—all of whom have been temporarily cast adrift by their parents' divorce. The Tallis family is also expecting a visit from brother Leon and his friend, the chocolate magnate Paul Marshall. With five (count 'em, five) people arriving, the house is in something of an uproar—especially since father Jack Tallis is off in London at his government job, while mother Emily Tallis is largely incapacitated with a migraine. In the middle of all this burble and bustle, Robbie Turner, the son of the housekeeper, realizes that he's fallen hopelessly, passionately in love with his childhood friend Cecilia Tallis. Their courtship rituals result—as these things will—in a series of awkward sexual displays. Cecilia jumps into a fountain in her underwear. Robbie accidentally gives Cecilia a letter he meant to destroy in which he tells her exactly what he wants to do with her. Then they do some of those things, not nearly privately enough, in the family library. These embarrassing events are witnessed by Briony, Cecilia's imaginative 13-year-old sister. Spurred by confusion, and by her penchant for making up stories, she decides that Robbie is a "maniac" who is after her sister. This results in disaster when the twins run away after dinner, and everyone races out to search for them in the dark. Briony finds Lola, who has been sexually assaulted, and sees a figure running away into the darkness. Though she does not see his face, she is convinced that it was Robbie, and accuses him to the police. Robbie is taken to prison, despite the protests of Grace Turner (his mother) and Cecilia, who pledges her love and promises to wait for him. The novel now jumps several years to 1940. Robbie has been released from prison to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fighting in France against the Nazis. The war has gone horribly though, and so Robbie is trudging cross- country to the sea at Dunkirk, where he, his companions Mace and Nettle, and the rest of the British hope to be ferried across to England and safety. Robbie is wounded and increasingly delirious. He is sustained only by letters from Cecilia and his hopes for their future together. He finally collapses into sleep, waiting for the evacuation which is to begin the next day. The narrative shifts to Briony. She is riddled with guilt since realizing that it wasn't Robbie who raped Lola. In part to try to atone for what she has done, she refuses to go study at Cambridge. Instead, to her mother's shock, she becomes a training nurse in London, where she cares for some of the first British soldiers wounded in the war. On one of her days off from the hospital, Briony goes to visit her sister and offers to tell their parents and the court that her statement about Robbie was false. She discovers Robbie, who has survived the Dunkirk crossing, staying in her sister's apartment—scandal! (Or at least the landlady is scandalized, anyway.) Though it seems unlikely that Robbie's verdict can be overturned, she promises to retract her statement before an official witness, to tell their parents, and to write them a full account of what she did and why. She also tells them that Paul Marshall has married Lola, and that it was almost certainly he who raped her. Cecilia and Robbie do not forgive her, since she did ruin their lives and it's hard to get past that. But there is some sense of reconciliation. The final part of the book is told by Briony in first person. She is old now, and a famous author. She has just learned that she has vascular dementia, a condition which will lead her to senility and then death in a couple of years. We learn that the book—yup, Atonement—is her novel, and that she is waiting to publish it until Lord and Lady Marshall—Paul and Lola—are dead and cannot sue. She recognizes that she will not outlive Lola, and that the book will therefore not be released in her lifetime. She also reveals that the book is not entirely truthful, and that Robbie and Cecilia did not reunite but instead died separately during the war. And if that doesn't make you cry when you turn the last page, then your heart is a big old lump of rock. 3 PARTS: 1. Chapters 1-14 2. Chapter 15 3. Chapter 16 4. London, 1999 CHARACTERS: BRIONY Briony Tallis, thirteen-year-old dreamer and interferer, is a very useful character for you. That's because when your parents tell you to clean your room you can say, "Hey—you don't want me to be like Briony, do you? You want me to clean my room and then destroy my sister's life and bring sadness and woe to the entire family?? I didn't think so." Obviously, this will work better if you actually have a sister. Okay, it probably won't work all that well even then. But still—it's worth a try, right? Pass The Soap Even if she won't get you out of cleaning your own room, though, Briony definitely cleaned her own. One of the very first things we learn about her is that "She was one of those children possessed by a desire to have the world just so" (1.1.4). So much so, in fact, that in the entire upstairs of her family's enormous house, her bedroom is the "only tidy […] room" (1.1.4). Briony's passion for neatness is where her love for writing and creation comes from. In stories, you see, she can control everything—she gets to tie off all the loose ends and make sure everything fits. She's at first enthralled with the idea of writing plays because "a universe reduced to what was said in it was tidiness indeed" (1.1.10). Eventually though, she realizes that putting on a play means dealing with other people's messes—literally in the case of her cousin Jackson, whose bed wetting interferes with rehearsals. Other People—Yuck It's not just other people's pee that puts Briony off, though—it's other people's thoughts as well. Briony likes the idea of a world controlled by her own thoughts and imagination. A world in which everybody has their own thoughts and imagination, though, is… well, it's a mess, with "two billion voices and everyone's thoughts striving in equal importance" (1.3.18) and it "offended her sense of order" (1.3.18). When Briony reads Robbie's letter to her sister, it's not so much his expression of sexual desire that horrifies her as the recognition that he has an imagination and self. When she says she "could never forgive Robbie his disgusting mind" (1.10.6), It's not clear which seems worse to her— his mind or how he's using it. Briony's accusation of rape against Robbie is also a product of her sense of order. She doesn't actually see Robbie assault her cousin, Lola, but "everything fitted; the terrible present fulfilled the recent past" (1.13.49). Briony has both a story and a reality. In the story, Robbie is a sex maniac with a disgusting mind; in reality, Lola is raped by a nondescript figure. When Briony combines the story with the reality, they come together pretty easily to form a tidy tale about Robbie's ruthless attack on Lola. No mess here, folks, just as Briony likes it. Even as a child, though, Briony realizes that a world in which she is the only person with a consciousness would have its downsides. It would be neat, but also "sinister and lonely, as well as unlikely" (1.3.18). When she sees Cecilia take off her clothes and dive into the fountain in front of Robbie, Briony is excited and inspired precisely because she has the sense that there are other people and other minds out there; she's not alone. Her first long story, based on her vision of Cecilia and Robbie at the fountain, is based on a "pure geometry," but also on "the defining uncertainty which reflected, she thought, a modern sensibility." With some triumph she concludes, "The age of clear answers was over" (3.23). Growing up, in other words, is to accept messiness. It's also something Briony's eager to do. A Bedpan For Nurse Tallis Or is it? Briony's job as a nurse isn't to accept mess, after all; it's to scour bedpans and clean and clean and clean until everything is more sparkling and ship-shape than her bedroom ever was. Learning to be a nurse is a "narrowing" (3.13). Briony doesn't expand her consciousness to include others, but instead erases her own interior life, turning from Briony Tallis into Nurse Tallis—no first name, nothing special. Wait… what was that last bit again? She's mad at him… so she takes her clothes off? Yeesh. Kids those days. In Love Probably most of you can figure out where this is going: Cecilia doesn't know what she's doing because she's got one very particular thing she's not telling herself. That thing, as you've probably guessed by now, is that she's head over heels in love with her childhood friend Robbie Turner. Hence the not leaving home for London, the moping around the house, the stripping off her clothes to jump in the fountain. Luckily, Robbie's behaving a little erratically as well, and he accidentally sends her a note that he meant to destroy because he mentions some of his X-rated fantasies concerning her. Cecilia responds not with horror, but by suddenly realizing that she's got those X-rated fantasies herself. "…how could I have been so ignorant about myself? And so stupid?" (1.11.61) she asks herself. We were kind of wondering the same thing. The answer's simple enough: love makes you stupid sometimes. And for what it's worth, once Cecilia figures everything out, she doesn't hesitate at all. One page the light bulb goes on, the next she's pulling Robbie into the library for a steamy make-out session and repeating after him "the three simple words that no amount of bad art or bad faith can ever quite cheapen" (1.11.66). Happiness ensues! And The Sad Bit Of course, happiness does not ensue. Instead, Cecilia has no sooner figured out what she wants to do with her life than that life is destroyed. Robbie is accused of raping Lola and dragged off to prison… and that's that. Her life begins and ends within a matter of hours. It's pretty tragic. The rest of Cecilia's story is a long epilogue. After the first section of the novel, we never get to hear Cecilia's thoughts again—we're never in her consciousness. We see her only through Robbie's memories of her letters or through Briony's eyes. We know she breaks with her family for their role in prosecuting Robbie. We know she becomes a nurse, and through Briony we see something of her confidence and her bitterness about this role. We know she never forgets Robbie, and we know that when he was taken away by the police she said, "I'll wait for you," and that she signed her letters the same way (2.180). Importantly, we also know that she follows through on her promise and waits. But we never really find out what that waiting feels like. It's as if Briony, who we learn is the writer of the novel, couldn't bear to peep inside her sister's head. She couldn't make herself see what exactly became of that girl who didn't know herself well and, once she finally did, promptly watched that self disappear. LOLA QUINCEY: Lola Quincey, the fifteen-year-old cousin of the Tallis children, wants to be grown up. She's a drama queen who paints her toenails and wears perfume with a "womanly tang" and steals the main role in Briony's play while acting like she's too good to be in the play anyway (1.10.20). She has an invincible egocentrism that she inherits, apparently, from her mother—an "obliviousness to anything beyond her own business" (1.1.53) that enables a thoughtless cruelty. If she were your cousin and came over to your house and stole the lead role in your play, you probably wouldn't like her very much and we'd totally understand. And yet, Briony does like her, at least sometimes. Lola's parents are divorcing and she needs a friend. When she comes to Briony in distress supposedly following an attack from her twin brothers, the younger girl comforts Lola and shares a secret with her. And when Briony finds Lola after she has been assaulted, Briony feels tenderness toward her wounded cousin. In other words, Lola isn't just a bully—she's also a victim. Both times that Lola is attacked Paul Marshall is her assailant, and both times other people are blamed. The first time Lola blames her brother, and the second time she sits silently while Briony blames Robbie. We never really learn why Lola lies to protect Paul, though we do know a few things about the situation: She eventually marries Paul. With both bitterness and pity Briony notes, "what luck that was for Lola… to marry her rapist" (3.260). Paul and Lola stay married for many years and become well-known philanthropists and socialites. We can deduce that Lola is determined to protect Paul's reputation when we learn that she would sue Briony if she published her book revealing the truth during Lola's lifetime. Conversely, we know Lola was willing to see Robbie's life ruined, though he had done nothing. But why Lola does these things we're never told. If Briony has a gift for telling tales, Lola has a gift for not telling them. "I couldn't say for sure," she tells Briony after her rape, and she keeps right on not saying for the rest of her life (1.13.44). For Lola, growing up seems to mean keeping silent and, in that sense, she's the anti-Briony—the character who shows that not telling stories can be as cruel, and as painful, as telling them. PAUL MARSHALL: Paul Marshall, Leon Tallis's friend and successful businessman, is the chocolate guy. He's also a doofus and a bore. When he visits the Tallises' home, he babbles on about his Amo chocolate bars that are going to be bought by the government to be shipped to soldiers. He even seems to want there to be a war just so he can make some money. When the nine-year-olds, Pierrot and Jackson, suggest that there won't be any fighting, Paul's spiteful enough to refuse to give them candy bars. It's like he's nine himself. Cecilia, on meeting him for the first time, thinks "how deliciously self- destructive it would be, almost erotic, to be married to a man so nearly handsome, so hugely rich, so unfathomably stupid" (1.4.36). Paul's not just a doofus, though. He's also a villain. He assaults Lola—who is only fifteen. When she escapes him, he seeks her out again, and manages to rape her outside in the dark while the rest of the family is looking for the runaway twins. Quick reminder in case you'd forgotten: the twins are Lola's little brothers. And their parents are getting divorced. So not only does Paul Marshall rape Lola, but he does so while she's out looking for her missing baby brothers while visiting her aunt and uncle because her parents are getting divorced. He then sits back and lets Robbie take the blame. Paul Marshall is all kinds of yucky. Eventually, Paul marries Lola, and goes on to be hugely rich and respected. He gets his war, he gets his money, he gets the girl, he gets away with rape. If anyone wins the novel, it's him. The doofus triumphs. Sometimes life is like that. THE FAMILY: Emily Tallis Emily is Briony, Cecilia, and Leon's super delicate mother. She suffers from migraines and spends a lot of her time lying in her room, letting her mind drift. She also spends a certain amount of time feeling bad about not being able to do more. In her dreaminess and her guilt, she's quite a bit like her daughter, Briony. Emily loves Briony, and has mixed feelings about Cecilia, whose education and restlessness she seems to resent. Her relationship with Cecilia breaks down completely when Emily supports Robbie's prosecution. Jack Tallis Jack is Briony, Cecilia, and Leon's father. He's absent from home in the early part of the novel, partly because he's involved in the government which is preparing for war, partly because he's having an affair, and partly because it just seems like he wants to be. Leon Tallis Leon is Briony and Cecilia's older brother and an all around nice guy. "In Leon's life, or rather, in his account of his life, no one was mean-spirited, no one schemed or lied or betrayed" (1.9.66). This is, presumably, how he is able to be friends with that toad Paul Marshall. Unfortunately, the stories Leon tells himself about the loveliness of everyone aren't any truer than the stories Briony tells herself. And when they prove false, he's lost. He doesn't help Cecilia defend Robbie, causing her to break with him permanently. Jackson and Pierrot Quincey Jackson and Pierrot are Lola's nine-year-old twin brothers who join her in visiting the Tallis family. They're both somewhat traumatized by their parents' divorce and being away from home—Jackson so much so that he wets the bed. We meet Pierrot again, some sixty years later, after Jackson has died. He has become quite close with Briony. Charles Quincey Pierrot's grandson. He organizes Briony's 77th birthday party. Hermione Quincey Emily's sister; Lola, Jackson, and Pierrot's mother. She's dramatic and irritating and leaves her husband to pursue her bliss. Kind of an early hippie. She's not really in the story per se, but she still drives Emily crazy. We a little bit like her for it and a little bit think she sounds pretty awful.