Briony Tallis: I Guess She's Alright

Lailanie Gao-Ayen

Mr. Breaton

ENG4U

23 May 2015

Briony Tallis: I Guess She’s Alright

You could argue that the lovely Briony Tallis in Ian McEwan’s, Atonement, is a selfish, spoiled thirteen year-old whose misinterpretations and actions make everyone despise her character, but looking at her character from a different angle, there are some things that prove to us she’s not as despicable as we think. Should we really blame her for what she's done? She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, in my opinion. We as humans tend to make mistakes all the time, but at some point in our life we try to make up for these mistakes, and I believe that Briony has some qualities that make her redeemable, despite her actions.

Sure, she may have accused Robbie for committing a heinous crime, which caused him to not pursue his dream of being a doctor and instead be locked up in some probably not so attractive cell, but she had the intention of protecting Cee, which is the normal thing that siblings do for each other. Briony did think that she knew exactly what was happening at the fountain, and this triggered her mind to go into protection mode for Cee, “And Cecilia, who she ought to protect…” (McEwan 114). It is shown in part one that Cee and Briony do have a loving sister-sister relationship, “Come back, her sister used to whisper when she woke her from a bad dream.” (72), considering their differences with Briony always being “lost to her writing fantasies” (19) and Cee being "restless to the point of irritability." (20). With Cee being protective of Briony, it was only fair that Briony try to even out the score. She's only thirteen, plus her mind is inexperienced, yet she tells herself that she's truly aware of any situation because of other situations, such as the letter scene. Even then, she couldn't have known what Robbie truly meant and that just confused her even more. It's evident that she was only trying to act like a mother figure to protect her cubs, since both the mother and father are not in the picture so much. Once she opened her mouth and said "It was him," the odd three times, she was already in so deep. She couldn't have changed her mind since lying about a crime such as rape would be terrible. She was only confused with her decision, so there's a part where we can feel some sympathy for her. We don't even know how she feels going through this situation, so can we really blame her for her wrongdoing?

We move forward in this book into the third and fourth part and realize that Briony, at this point, has realized the repercussions of her actions and is no longer the spoiled, selfish thirteen year old from part one, but someone who is willing to take the step towards atonement. She has spent the majority of her life after accusing Robbie trying to make things right. She knows that she's the cause for Cee disconnecting with her family, and becoming a nurse would somehow bring her closer to her. Cee was protective and caring for her when she was younger, so returning the favour as a nurse and showing compassion for her patients would remind her of how their relationship used to be. She even wrote several letters to Cee, which is a start, but then realizes “silence was Cecilia’s answer.” (266) It comes to the scene where she gains the courage to finally confront Cee about her actions, "What I did was terrible. I don't expect you to forgive me." (318) To own up to her mistakes just shows how much she wanted to make things right. She knows that not owning up to her mistakes has only made things worse in the long run, but realizing that she doesn't expect forgiveness shows how much she has grown. She thought that she was fully aware of the events surrounding her in part one, but indeed that wasn't the case at all, and this realization demonstrates how she is a lot more aware of the nature of life, and that makes her character more redeemable.

So at the end of the day, do we really hate Briony? Well, I believe that we can feel sympathy and give kudos to her. I think that she is redeemable in that she made the effort to atone for her mistakes instead of doing nothing at all. Let's put it this way. It's one thing to go through life knowing that you've ruined the lives of the people you care about and simply living through that guilt, and it's another to see what has become of the situation and trying to make it right, even though it might not work out. We see throughout the book that her guilt has only consumed her to a point where she realized that something needed to be done. We know atonement can never truly be achieved since it is "always an impossible task," (351), but her way of atoning was writing a happy ending that was lost among the lovers, and that should count for something.

Comment:

Shayna, I definitely agree with your post. It's absolutely true that even though we all think of Briony as some conceited and selfish person who ruined the lives of others, she's not entirely heartless. We can only feel some sympathy for her having to deal with a situation like this at such a young age where we can't even comprehend the aspects of life. It's evident that her character has developed a great amount, and even though the lovers may not have had the love that was intended, it's the effort that counts to atone for those mistakes, and sometimes we may not get the outcome we want, and that's what makes her the most human in this book. But imagine adult Briony, maybe around Cee's age, in the same situation. Would she be redeemable then since she's now older, mature and can better grasp the consequences of her actions? Or, now that she's older, she should've known better and can now not be forgiven? That's another discussion.