Atonement Reading Log Chapter 4-7

Chapter Four Summary

Cecilia finally finishes putting the vase back together. Briony enters the room and Cecilia knows she is upset because she is pinching her lower lip because she is upset about the play. Cecilia is portrayed as a mother like figure towards Briony and so wants to comfort her by talking about her younger years. Briony used to have nightmares and Cecilia tended to her in the night. Cecilia then fills the vase with flowers and brings them to the room that Paul Marshall is staying in. she looks out the window to see Hardman, Leon and Paul approaching the house. She is irritated about the idea of Robbie welcoming them. Returning to her own room, she looks for her cigarettes and begins to smoke. Paul and Leon arrive whilst Danny Hardman carries their bags behind them. Leon and Cecilia hug. She admires the smell of his coat and the feel of a pen in his pocket. On the other hand, Paul Marshall is dull when he speaks and Cecilia mentally expresses her hate for men like him. Cecilia directs the guests to their rooms. She asked Danny if he likes Lola because he has been hanging around her a lot recently. Paul is placed into Auntie Venus’s old room. Unusually, Paul seems like a mysterious, self-involved character. Cecilia and Leon make fun of him in a childish manner. Cecilia begins to imagine how awful life would be like if she married him. Leon announces that he invited Robbie to the dinner which annoys Cecilia (a lot) he then makes fun of Cecilia about falling for a boy who is in a different social class to the family. In spite, Cecilia attempts to convince Leon to disinvite Robbie to dinner (because of the argument).

Character Descriptions

Cecilia

-         As well as Briony, she is upset about her lack of control over others. She is upset that Briony has feelings of her own – feelings too complicated for Cecilia to comfort her. As a women, she cannot escape the role of her looking after the children due to their absent mother. Chapter Four highlights how self-absorbed Cecilia is (as well as Paul Marshall). Neither of them seem to have any empathy for one another.

-         Cecilia is upset because Leon has ruined her ideal image of the dinner.

Character’s relationships with others

Cecilia

-         Cecilia is quite different to her younger sister. We learn that is unorganised in the way she lives.

-         Cecilia seems to have a dear maternal affection towards her younger sister.

-         When Briony had a nightmare, Cecilia would run to her room and look after her (instead of her mother). She often used the words ‘come back’ which carries a symbolic meaning throughout the novel.

-         Cecilia feels impatient and desperate for something exciting to happen to her. She also feels useless as a member of the Tallis family and wishes to feel needed. 

Setting description

‘South-facing window in the library’

‘Bare feet on the hallway’

P46 ‘Gleaming surfaces of the furniture seemed to ripple and breathe’

‘Grassy bank.. lakeshore trees that surrounded the Island Temple’

‘Cecilia led the visitors into the drawing room, through the French windows, past the roses towards the swimming pool, which was behind the stable block and was surrounded on four sides by a high thicket of bamboo, with a tunnel-like gap for an entrance. They walked through, bending their heads under low canes, and emerged onto a terrace of dazzling white stone from which the heat rose in a blast. In a deep shadow , set well back from the water’s edge, was a white-painted tin table with a pitcher of iced punch under a square of cheesecloth.’

    Cultural and Historical References

The upper class in 1935 were often very rich. The houses had many rooms with expensive furniture (which is why the Tallis' have many spare rooms). In 1935 people did not know the risks of smoking so they continued to do it in social situations.

Imagery and symbolism

The vase broken at the fountain is symbol of Robbie and Cecilia's love. They break the vase on the day they begin to come together but just like the vase, their love is broken apart before it even starts. The vase was originally given to Cecilia's Uncle Clem during World War I by a French town he had helped evacuate. It is not just valuable, but 'respected' for the lives Uncle Clem saved. McEwan replays the story a few times. First, we see it through Cecilia's point of view, then from Briony through her window. Later on in the novel, we see the story through Robbie's memory. Finally, we see how the vase gets 'broken' in 1940. As Betty carries it downstairs it comes apart in her hands. We know that it had already been broken and fixed by Cecilia. It was waiting to fall apart sometime just like Robbie and Cecilia's love story does when Briony reveals that they both died in the war.

                                                                                           

Chapter Five Summary

The chapter is from Paul Marshall's point of view, but it starts with Lola, Pierrot and Jackson wondering why Briony left in the middle of rehearsal. The twins start complaining about the Tallis’s home and how they want to go home. They also talk about their parent’s divorce. Lola gets annoyed for mentioning the word ‘divorce’ and she threatens them that she will tell on them. Paul Marshall enters and mentions that he has seen their parents in the paper. This proves that a divorce would have been extremely dramatic at the time. Paul experience with drinks, Leon and Cecilia made him a little drowsy so he lay on his bed and closed his eyes. He had a dream about his four younger sisters (in a sexual way). When he woke up, he was aroused at the sound of the twins and Lola alone talking in the nursey. Paul sees the twins as ‘just children’ and Lola as a beautiful young, women. He compliments her on her trousers and shoes that she bought when she visited London to see a play with her mother. Due to Paul’s dream, his character takes on a creepy, perverted tone. He offers chocolate to Lola and the twins. The twins criticize giving soldiers chocolate which annoys Paul Marshall. Instead he only gives Lola the symbol of the chocolate. It symbolises a prize and it also has a lot of sexual imagery. The reader sees Paul in a perverted light because he watches and admires her closely as she eats the chocolate, telling her she has to ‘bite it. Betty, the cook, calls Jackson and Pierrot to get ready for bed.

Character Descriptions

Lola

-         Lola is presented entirely different to Briony – almost like a young women who must fill the role of Hermione (her absent mother). Lola also demands that her brothers do not mention the word ‘divorce’ possibly due to its social impact.

-         Paul mentioning the parents appearing in the paper suggests that Lola may even be more mature than Paul (despite their age gap) because she knows how to behave in front of the young twins.

Character’s relationships with others

-         McEwan presents Paul as a mysterious sinister character. The way he interacts with Lola seems inappropriate and uncomfortably sexual because of her age.

Setting description

Lola – ‘she went out into the corridor and along to the end where there was an open door to an unused bedroom. From here she had a view of the driveway and the lake across which lay a column of shimmering phosphorescence, white hot from the fierce late afternoon heat.’

Lola was in ‘her tiny bedroom, arranging her hair in front of a hand mirror propped against the window-sill’

‘A little later the three found themselves back in the nursery which, apart from the bedrooms, was the only room they felt they had a right to be in. The scuffed blue brick was where they had left it, and everything was as before’

Cultural and Historical References

Divorce in 1935 was considered unacceptable and out of societies norm. The fact that it was displayed in the newspaper shows the great significance in 1935 society. 

Imagery and symbolism


Paul Marshall is not very considerate to the children about the divorce and jokes with the children about it. McEwan presents him as a sinister character (seeing as his likes talking to the children and dreaming about his sisters). His unusual behaviour foreshadows Lola's rape further on in the novel. The chocolate has sexual connotations of desire and lust. 

Chapter Six Summary

Chapter six bases around Emily Tallis and her bedroom. She feels a migraine beginning and retreats to her dark room to recover. McEwan uses a lot of animalistic imagery to describe her pain. She begins to think about her son, Leon and how he has no ambition, before starting an internal rant about Cecilia’s unmarried state. Emily then shifts her attention to her youngest child, Briony. She shows a lot more affection towards Briony as she expresses her desire to protect her from failure and her cousin Lola. Lola then reminds Emily of her sister Hermione (Lola’s mother). Lying quietly, Emily can hear throughout the house in a supernatural sense. She believes that she know everything that is surrounding her. Then she heard Cecilia arranging the flowers, the arrival of Leon and Marshall. Her migraine begins to fade as she contemplates whether to hostess the family and guests for dinner.

Character description

Emily

-         McEwan portrays Emily as a very selfish character. She not only is an absent mother but she only seems to love her children in hope for something back. She spends a lot of time in her room suffering from migraines, which makes the reader feel empathy for her, or alternatively irritation because she is not looking after her children or guests. As a character, Emily Tallis is portrayed as useless in times of need. When her youngest ten year old daughter runs out into the garden out of upset, Emily stays in her room. In chapter six, Emily discusses how she dislikes her Cecilia smoking yet she does not do anything to stop her. Cecilia is expected to take on a mother’s role and look after her sister instead of Emily and she does not seem to get any appreciation from Emily for it. We also learn in chapter six that Briony was an unexpected child. This could add to the idea of Emily isolating herself from her children – she is not maternal.

Character’s relationships with others

-         It is clear that Emily does not have a good relationship with her children due to her acting as an absent mother. She spends most of her time alone in her room which leaves the Tallis’ household servants and Cecilia to act as mother figures. Jack Tallis is also an absent father, taking a lot of time away from the house to ‘work’. We have not yet encountered Jack in the novel but we learn that he is having an affair in chapter six (which Emily knows and does nothing about).

-         Towards the end of the chapter, when Briony runs off in a tantrum, her mother lets her get on with it, whilst she continues to ‘suffer’ in self-pity in her lonely dark bedroom.

Setting description

Chapter six is based in Emily’s bedroom. We learn that the room is often dark to help with Emily’s migraines so McEwan uses a lot of gloomy descriptive language to describe the room.

McEwan also uses a lot of gothic imagery to describe the house itself, he is attempting to associate the house to Emily’s migraines. As Emily is described as having supernatural senses, the house could be responding to her feelings and migraines or perhaps, the other way round.

Cultural historical references

During 1935, there was an increase in the amount of 'women's legislation' passed by Parliament. It also saw Britain's first female MPs. Many organisations began to represent women's interests – The National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (The NUWSS in 1919), women's trade unions and the Women's Institute.

Imagery and symbolism

There is a lot of animalistic imagery and symbolism in chapter six. McEwan uses a lot of animalistic imagery to describe the pain of the migraines. Her migraines would ‘moved as a caged panther might’. A ‘panther’ has extremely powerful and protective presence. They are believed to have a fierce and aggressive nature. In a tribal logic, a panther is an animal totem of sun and vibrancy. A totem is a natural object or animal which is believed to have a spiritual significance. These ideas could represent the violent, ‘knifing pains’ of the migraine or alternatively, Emily’s feelings isolation, which could be because of the spiritual idea of something watching over her and constructing a feeling of imprisonment in her own bedroom.

Chapter Seven

In the centre of the Tallis family’s lake, there is an island temple. From afar, the lake seems beautiful and well kept, but it is actually in disrepair. Briony looks at the temple as she hits the lakeside nettles in frustration. She gives some of the nettles the role of Lola and the twins and then she strikes them down with tree branch. She then pretends that some of the nettles are her past selves, and continues to strike them down.

Leon passes behind Briony, but she does not even look at him. She instead, continues to hit and destroy the nettles, which sting her legs. Pretending that she is a world champion at the great sport of nettle slashing she strikes the ditch of nettles imagining her power. She walks back towards the bridge to stay in the driveway.

     

Simpler Version –

Briony is outside by the island temple slashing nettles. She has decided that she is the greatest nettle slasher of all time and pretends that she in the Olympics. She also pretends that the nettles are Lola and the twins are the nettles and uses her violent side to smash them down. The story becomes very involved in Briony’s creative imagination. Briony hears Leon pass by but she does not greet him (which is out of character). She stops daydreaming and begins to feel disappointed by her own insignificance.

Character descriptions

Briony

-         Briony is disappointed with how the play is turning out. She takes her frustration out on the stinging nettles.

-         Self-mythologizing – Briony creates a personal narrative that places her at the centre of it all in hope to make herself the hero, regardless of how it affects others (foreshadowing upcoming events).

-         She is presented as having an extremely violent side (imagining injuring her cousins!?)

Character’s relationship with others

-         Briony is both an introvert and an extrovert. In chapter seven, McEwan explores her introvert side. Distancing herself from the rest of the family and guests to hit and destroy nettles gives the reader an impression of isolation.

-         In previous chapters, McEwan presented Briony as very fond and loving towards her older brother Leon. However, when he passes behind her in chapter seven she does not even react. This could be due to her embarrassment about the play not succeeding or because she feels hurt and upset and is desiring her own space to think.

Setting’s Description

The setting of chapter seven is by the Tallis house lake. Briony is slashing the nettles that surround the lakeside whilst she overlooks the island temple in the centre of the lake.

Cultural and historical references

They normally grow in places that are not taken care of Briony’s slashing and destroying of the nettles could represent the act of war – destroying and ruining lives. Nettles are weeds and get in the way.

Imagery and Symbolism

Her destruction of the nettles is a symbol for her juvenile approach to writing. She creates a world that she can dominate completely and then applies control to fulfil her desire of power.