“She knew what was required of her. Not simply a letter, but a

new draft, an atonement, and she was ready to begin.”

by Kandalintseva Darya

Author O Ian McEwan - English novelist and screenwriter, was born on 21 June 1948 in Aldershot, England. He studied at the University of Sussex, where he received a BA degree in English Literature in 1970. He received his MA degree in English Literature at the University of East Anglia. His first published work was a collection of short stories. His novel Atonement (2001), received considerable acclaim; Time magazine named it the best novel of the year.

O In 2008, ”The Times” featured him on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

“Atonement” – novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness, mistakes that

ruin lives.Novel is divided into 4 parts and set in three time periods:O 1935 England; O wartime England

and France; O present-day

England.

Part 1 takes place a few years before World War II.

Lola and Paul Marshall

Briony Tallis

Briony Tallis, a 13-year-old English girl with a talent for writing, lives at her family's country estate with her parents. Her older sister Cecilia recently returned from University of Cambridge with Robbie Turner, the son of the Tallis family housekeeper and a childhood friend of Cecilia. The family is expecting a visit from their maternal cousins—the young twins Jackson and Pierrot, and 15-year-old Lola. The Tallis family is also expecting a visit from brother Leon and his friend, the chocolate magnate Paul Marshall.

Cecilia Tallis and Robbie Turner

In the middle of all this burble and bustle, Robbie realizes that he's fallen hopelessly, passionately in love with his childhood friend Cecilia Tallis. One day when he is trying to help her they accidently broke a relic vase. And later he writes a letter to Cecilia with an apology but by mistake sends her a wrong letter that he intended to destroy where he wrote about his feelings. Curious Briony reads this letter and later in the evening she sees Robbie and Cecilia together in the library. with her imaginative mind she misunderstands the situation and 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 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 and Robbie is taken to prison.

Part 2 By the time that World War II has started, Robbie has spent several years in prison. He is then released on the condition of enlistment in the army to fight in the war. Cecilia has trained and become a nurse. She has cut off all contact with her family because of the part they took in sending Robbie to jail. Only his memories of Cecilia keep him alive, his only aim is seeing her again.

Part 3The narrative shifts to Briony. She feels guilty since realizing that maniac wasn't Robbie. 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 also tells them that Paul Marshall has married Lola, so it turns out to be him who attacked her that night.

London 1999

The fourth section, titled “London 1999“, is written from Briony's perspective. She is a successful novelist at the age of 77 and dying of dementia. Here we find out she is the author of this book that she wrote to find atonement. Although Cecilia and Robbie are reunited in Briony's novel, they were not in reality. Robbie Turner died of infection — caused by his injury at war, and Cecilia was killed by the bomb in a London train station.

Briony Tallis

Briony is the main character of the book. In essence, she is the author and the story is told through her eyes. When the story begins, Briony is 13 years old. Early on her life, Briony discovers her passion writing, she is a girl with an extended and vivid imagination.

“She was one of those children possessed by a desire to have

the world just so.”Bearing witness to a sequence of events between her older sister and the son of their charlady, Briony misinterprets the motives and intentions of adult behavior. This causes her to trigger a series of events that will have long-lasting and incredibly damaging results for the parties involved.

Cecilia Tallis Cecilia Tallis could be considered the second heroine of "Atonement." She is Briony's older sister by ten years, and suffers in love by the misguided crime of her young sister.Cecilia is quite different than her younger sibling. The opening chapters describe her state of living as untidy, taking time to illustrate the unorganized and scattered way in which she lives. Cecilia feel impatient and desperate for something exciting to happen to her. She also feels useless as a member of the Tallis family. She is restless and wants to feel needed, but is not. She moves to London to become a nurse and we only hear from her through her love letters to Robbie Turner while he is fighting the war off in France.

“I’m honestly happy with my new life and my new friends. I feel I can breathe now. Most of

all, I have you to live for.”

Robbie Turner Robbie is the main male character of the novel. He is the young man who grew up with Leon, Briony and Cecilia, he knows the family well. He attended Cambridge University with Cecilia and when they come home on break, they fall in love. Robbie is sent to jail when Briony falsely accuses him. When Britain enters the war in 1939, Robbie has an opportunity to emancipate himself by fighting in France. This he does.The next time we pick him up is in Cecilia's flat in 1940 when Briony visits, seeking her "atonement." Robbie is furious with the young lady for the crime she committed and refuses to forgive her, instead instructing her on a series of legal action that will help clear his name.

“His business was simple. Find Cecilia and love her, marry her,

and live without shame.”

Paul Marshall Paul is Leon Tallis's London friend. Leon brings Paul back to the home for the weekend dinner he has planned with his family. Paul comes off as smug and pretentious to the rest of the Tallis crowd. He appears to almost 'wish' a war because it will provide him with so much opportunity as a business man. His wishes come true, and as a result, Paul Marshall makes millions.There are some very subtle suggestions that Paul Marshall is the one who’s guilty. Briony notices some heavy bruising on Lola's arms and some scratches on Paul's face.Paul gets rich selling chocolate during the war and goes on to marry Lola. Later adorned Lord Marshall, the last we see of Paul is as a very old, very debilitated, very wealthy man.

“Perhaps he’s spent a lifetime making amends. Or perhaps he

just swept onward without a thought, to live the life that was

always his.”

Quotes O “She was one of those children possessed

by a desire to have the world just so.”O “His only thought was that she was even

more beautiful than his fantasies of her.”O “Yes, she was just a child. But not every

child sends a man to prison with a lie.”O “She liked to write out what she imagined

to be their rambling thoughts. She was under no obligation to the truth, she had promised no one a chronicle. This was the only place she could be free.”

O “Her secret torment and the public upheaval of war had always seemed separate worlds, but now she understood how the war might compound her crime. The only conceivable solution would be for the past never to have happened.”

O “She knew what was required of her. Not simply a letter, but a new draft, an atonement, and she was ready to begin.”