Adam Nartiss

Adam Nartiss

Mr. Breaton

ENG4U

May 25, 2015

Briony: Not Such an Asshole After all

Throughout Ian McEwan’s Atonement we get to see Briony’s character develop throughout the novel. In part 1, we immediately jump to the conclusion that Briony is a horrible person for how she acts and doing what she did to Robbie. But as we progress through the book it is evident that Briony displays to use some Characteristics that show that she is not such a despicable person.

First off, Briony shows us she has good characteristics by trying to edit her story and make it into what should have happened, she does this a couple times in the novel. First, Briony gets her work edited by Cyril Connolly, then she gets advice from Corporal Nettle about the war terminology that she uses. It seems that Briony is trying to fix things in the story that she is writing but not in a way that is proper to society, proper history, terminology etc. But in a way that shows Robbie and Cee what she is feeling if she had a chance to redo her life, this is how she would do it . We see this after she reads Corporal Nettle letters to her, Briony says “If I really cared about the facts, I should have written a different book. But my work was done.”(McEwan 340) Briony has been working on this story for 50+ years and she could care less about the terminology that they used back in the war, in a way it is like Briony is saying that she knows she messed up, and since she can’t make it right in real life, she presents what she wanted to happen through literature.

Another reason why Briony is in fact a good person is that she shows remorse for what she has done and tries to fix the harm that she has caused Robbie. We see this when Briony is finally done writing her book and she says “I know i cannot publish until they are dead.”(McEwan 349) Even though Robbie and Cee are dead and she can’t punish Paul Marshall for raping Lola, Briony still wants to do what is right and publish the book that tells the actual truth of what happened in Briony’s youth. This shows that Briony has good morals, it doesn’t matter who Briony says raped Lola in her story but to her it is the right thing to finally admit publicly that it was Paul Marshall, further bringing out her good and truthful characteristics.

Another way that Briony shows that she is likeable is through her decision to become a nurse even after she had a spot at cambridge which was her dream to go there and become a writer so that she could atone for what she has done to Cee and Robbie. In the early parts of the novel Briony was extremely passionate about writing and it was her dream to go to Cambridge University. Briony follows her sisters footsteps in becoming a nurse, as she sees this as chance to atone for what she had done by aiding people directly as a nurse. Briony also emotionally helped people, as she is talking to a man who is on the doorstep of death, she gives in emotionally and carries on the conversation letting him believe that she is the dying French soldier's fiancee. She and the soldier exchange "I love you's" as he passes away, proving that Briony is immersed into her life as a nurse to atone for the sins of her past.

Briony is portrayed as the girl who ruined the lives of Cee and Robbie and though she is, if we look deeper into the plot we see that she made these decisions out of anger towards Robbie as a 10 year old girl and she tries to atone for it the rest of her life. She spends her life trying to get forgiveness from those whom she had hurt which is why Briony truly shows how she is a likable character.

Shayna, I completely agree about what you said about Briony admitting her mistake that she made as a child and attempting to make it up the rest of her life, when I was thinking about this I started to feel sorry for Briony, she makes one stupid mistake as a child and is hated by Cee and Robbie for the rest of her life, as well as having to feel the guilt of setting a rapist in Paul Marshall free and causing Robbie to go to jail.