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Relationships in Atonement (5th)

How does the narrator feel towards...

How does Briony feel towards...

How does Briony feel towards Lola?

How does Briony feel towards her mother?

How does the narrator feel towards Robbie?

How does the narrator feel towards Lola?

"She took the play from Lola and said in a voice that was constricted and more high-pitched than usual, "If you're Arabella, then I'll be the director, thank you very much, and I'll read the prologue." (p. 15) Briony feels jealous towards Lola because she is playing the main character, whom Briony wanted to play as. However, because she is family and because she wants to act mature, she allows her to play as Arabella. They are both trying to act mature, but it only causes them to appear less mature.

"Mrs. Tallis read the seven pages of The Trials of Arabella in her bedroom, at her dressing table, with the author's arm around her shoulder the whole while. Briony studied her mother's face for every trace of shifting emotion, and Emily Tallis obliged with looks of alarm, snickers of glee and, at the end, grateful smiles and wise, affirming nods...Briony was hardly to know it then, but this was the project's highest point of fulfillment" (pg 4)

By draping her arm around her mother's shoulder Briony expresses her comfort and reveals that she enjoys her mother's presence. However, Briony feels the need to "study" every change in her mother's expression to see sher likes the play which shows that Briony seeks the approval of her mother. So Briony loves her mother but feels as though she needs her approval.

"Lola had come to the nursery that morning in the guise of the adult she considered herself at heart to be....She was coolly responsive to Briony's suggestions, spoke her lines, which she seemed to have learned overnight, with sufficient expression, and was gently encouraging to her little brother, without encroaching at all on the director's authority" (32).

The narrator feels at ease with Lola wanting to be more mature because of the situation in her family. At this point in her life everything is a little chaotic, and Lola realizing this wants to feel as if she is in control of some aspect of her life by acting older than her age.

"He look into the water, then he looked back at her, and simply shook his head as he raised a hand to cover his mouth. By this gesture he assumed full responsibility, but at that moment, she hated him for the inadequacy of the response" (28).

During this scene at the fountain, the narrator describes Robbie in a way that makes Robbie come across as a reserved and passive character. This is seen in his calm reaction to the breaking of the vase compared to Cecilia's furious reaction. However, Robbie is also seen as a responsible and honorable character of good morals for taking full responsibility for the accident.

How does Briony feel towards Robbie?

How does Briony feel towards Leon?

"To steady herself, Lola put her hands on her hips. Her heart was beating painfully hard and she could not trust herself to speak, even though she knew she had to. She thought a game was being played which she did not understand" (56).

Up until this point the only interactions Lola has had with other characters include Briony, Pierrot, and Jackson; in each communication she's been the oldest. Now we see when her "heart was beating painfully hard" how uncomfortable she is when speaking to an adult. Before Lola did not have to try hard to be considered mature because she was the oldest, but now, through her mannerisms when talking to Paul Marshall, the narrator shows how she desperately wants to be considered an adult.

"Robbie Turner, only son of humble cleaning lady and of no known father, Robbie who had been subsidized by Briony's father through school and university...had the boldness of ambition to ask for Cecilia's hand" (pg.36). Briony simply sees Robbie as another character in one of her imaginative stories. She has been grown up with him around because he's the son of the cleaning lady and her father has paid for his education but she personally does not show evidence of a close relationship with him. She sees Robbie as the poor boy who will one day end up with Cecilia like in all typical love stories.

"Her play was not for her cousins, it was for her brother, to celebrate his return, provoke his admiration and guide him away from his careless succession of girlfriends, toward the right form of wife, the

one who would persuade him to return to the countryside, the one who would sweetly request Briony’s services as a bridesmaid." (pg 2)

Within the first few pages of the book we learn that Briony is going through great lengths to organize a play and in this passage we learn that she is doing this to impress/influence her brother. The fact she is going through all this trouble shows she looks up to her brother and cares about his opinions of her. The fact that she is using this play as a way to subliminally steer her brother in the right way romantically is sort of weird, and shows that her feelings towards him are confused and misguided.

"The simplest way to have impressed Leon would have been to write him a story and put it in his hands herself, and watch as he read it" (pg 35).

At this point we know that Briony's main motive for making the play is to impress and somehow inspire her older brother Leon, and up until now she has been tirelessly devising this elaborate play for him. However, with things not going as she expected from the start, Briony wants to convey her message to Leon in a simpler form, which shows how much she values his acknowledgment of her efforts and her fondness of his well being.

How does the narrator feel towards Emily Tallis?

How does the narrator feel towards Leon?

How does the narrator feel towards Paul Marshall?

"Habitual fretting about her children, her husband, her sister, the help, had rubbed her senses raw; migraine, mother love, and over the years, many hours of lying still on her bed, had distilled from this sensitivity a sixth sense." (63)

The narrator presents the idea of Emily having a "tentacular awareness" throughout the house to describe her as an always worrying mother and wife. However, the narrator also feels that Emily is somewhat distant and removed from her family, as a result of her migraines forcing her to retreat to her room very often. Throughout this passage, the narrator feels that this awareness is Emily's connection to her family, as she isn't especially close to them but always worries for them and pays attention from her room.

Conclusion...

"He smiled, and since he had reached the gap first, he paused to hand her through, as thought it were a drawing room doorway, and as she passed she felt him touch her lightly on the forearm" (51).

This quote is referring to Paul Marshall and Cecilia. The narrator aims to make the reader not like or trust this man. This quote serves well in making us feel somewhat uncomfortable with him, especially since right beforehand he had been staring at Cecilia. That put together with him touching her arm do a good job in making the reader feel that Paul Marshall is a creepy man whom we should not trust.

How does Cecilia feel towards...

"The smallest shift in her gaze brought her Leon's face, but he was staring politely at his friend and seemed determined not to meet her eye. As children they used to torment each other with "the look" at the Sunday lunches... the one who caught the look was helpless, the one who bestowed it, immune. Mostly, the power was with Leon, whose look was mock-solemn, and consisted of drawing the corners of his mouth downward while rolling his eyes" (pg 47).

This is the first time the narrator includes background of Cecilia and Leon's relationship. The narrator is aiming to make the reader see Leon as having respectable older brother role, in that Leon and his sister have had a good relationship since they were younger. Even though Leon is seen as the oldest, he still plays this game with Cecilia of trying to make the other laugh, and is seen as a playful, charming individual.

How does Cecilia feel towards Paul Marshall?

How does Cecilia feel towards Robbie?

"The cozy jargon of Cecilia's Cambridge-the Halls, the Maid's Dancing, the Little-Go, and all the self-adoring slumming, the knickers drying before the electric fire and two to a hairbrush-made Emily Tallis a little cross, though not remotely jealous. She had been educated at home until the age of sixteen, and was sent to Switerland for two years which were shortened to one for economy, and she knew for a fact that the whole performance, women at the Varsity, was childish really, at best and innocent lark, like the girl's rowing eight, a little posturing alongside their brothers dressed up in the solemnity of social progress. They weren't even awarding girls proper degress". (61-62)

The narrator first shows Emily's opinion of her daughter Cecilia attending a university. Emily's education is described as an old fashioned way of schooling at which she was taught at home where she learned how to be a mother more than anything. Cecilia is at Cambridge learning anything but mothering and being a stay-at-home mom, which her mom sees as more important and the proper role of a woman since at that time periode school idea as unnecessary for women since they were not given the same awards as men.

"Mrs. Tallis read the seven pages of The Trials of Arabella in her bedroom, at her dressing table, with the author's arm around her shoulder the whole while. Briony studied her mother's face for every trace of shifting emotion, and Emily Tallis obliged with looks of alarm, snickers of glee, and, at the end, grateful smiles and wise, affirming nods." (4)

The narrator initially introduces Emily Tallis as a very caring and involved mother. By describing her calculated reactions to her daughter's work, readers see that Emily Tallis is a fully committed and kind mother. The narrator also includes descriptions of Briony in her mother's first reading of her work, as it allows the audience to see the bond between them. This shows that the narrator sees Mrs. Tallis as the ideal mother to Briony, one that loving, interactive, and present.

"Paul Marshall sat back in the arm chair, watching her closely over the steeple he made with his hands in front of his face. He crossed and uncrossed his legs. Then he took a deep breath. 'Bite it,' he said softly. 'You've got to bite it.' " (59)

In this quote, Paul Marshall, a much older man, is talking to Lola, a fifteen year old girl. By describing in great detail the way that Paul Marshall was looking at and talking to Lola, it is clear that the narrator does not want readers to like him. By the way Paul Marshall holds his hands in front of his face and crosses and uncrosses his legs while being in the presence of this teenage girl, it indicates that he could have inappropriate intentions, forcing readers to feel uncomfortable, creeped out, and not wanting to trust this character.

"Watching him during the first several minutes of his delivery, Cecilia felt a pleasant sinking sensation in her stomach as she contemplated how deliciously self-destructive it would be, almost erotic, to be married to a man so nearly handsome, so hugely rich, so unfathomably stupid." (47)

This sentence tells the reader that although Cecilia finds Paul Marshall to be attractive and rich, she would never actually marry him. She sees him as a dumb man who would "fill her with his big-faced children" (47) that were loud and had a desire for guns. Although she envisions what her life would be like with him, she would never really spend it that way. Ceclia sees through Paul's fake exterior. To her, Paul Marshall is a simple, shallow man that she has no actual interest for.

" Immediately she knew what he was about. Intolerable. He had come to the house and removed his shoes and socks-- well, she would show him then...Denying his help, any possibility of making amends, was his punishment. The unexpectedly freezing water that caused her to gasp was his punishment. She held her breath, and sank, leaving her hair fanned out across the surface. Drowning herself would be his punishment. (p.28-29)

- The quote above shows Cecilia's feelings towards Robby when the vase falls into the water. She hates Robby and wants to punish him but only in that moment (later in chapter 4 she realizes Robby is not the one she hates, Paul Marshall is). She wants him to feel bad about what he did, which isn't entirely his fault, because she is also held responsible. Cecilia punishing Robby is her way of making him feel guilty and have him chase after her which foreshadows the event in chapter 8.

How does Robbie feel towards...

How does Robbie feel towards Cecilia?

How does Robbie feel towards Briony?

"She kicked off her sandals, unbuttoned her blouse and removed it, unfastened her skirt and stepped out of it and went to the basin wall. He stood with hands on his hips and stared as she climbed into the water in her underwear" (28)

Robbie's reaction to Cecilia's exposure is an unusual reaction compared to that of an average boy. Whereas most boys would be boys, Robbie comes off as uninterested and annoyed. Their relationship seems almost brother/sister-like, however, this reaction leads me to think that even though he is acting this way, he still has feelings for Cecilia; he just tries very hard to mask them.

Robbie's feelings towards Briony as well as the Tallis family in general are revealed in chapter two when Cecilia points out, "He was putting distance between himself and the family that had been completely open to him and given him everything." (page 27). This tells us that Robbie subconsciously groups Briony together with the rest of Cecilia's family. It seems that the only member of the family that he has an actual relationship with is Cecilia, and Briony simply goes along with the rest of the family. Besides, she is a good number of years younger than both Cecilia and Robbie, so she would not have had time to interact with Robbie a lot. Also, Briony doesn't really pay much attention to Robbie either because up to this point he has just been a friend of Cecilia not a romantic interest, so now that she has noticed Cecilia and Robbie together, the two may interact more in the chapters to come and their feelings towards each other will become clear.

How does Cecilia feel towards Leon?

After Robbie defends himself from Cecilia's question of why he wanted to be a doctor, Cecilia ponders, "Her father had subsidized Robbie's education all his life. Had anyone ever objected? She had thought she was imagining it, but in fact she was right- there was something trying in Robbie's manner lately" which reveals that Robbie is grateful for Briony's family in general. Although there has not been a firm idea of how Robbie feels towards Briony, this quote suggests that he is only grateful and may feel as if the family looks down upon him (even though Briony may be too young at the time she may grow into believing that) at times because his father has been paying for his education his whole life.

"He stood there dumbly as she walked away from him, barefoot across the lawn, and he watched her darkened hair swing heavily across her shoulders, drenching her blouse. Then he turned and looked into the water in case there was a piece she had missed." (29)

After what seemed like an awkward run in between a love-struck girl and an uninterested young man, Robbie shows how he really feels about Cecilia. As Robbie watches the stubborn Cecilia strut away, he chooses to admire her now that she can no longer see him. Moments before when Cecilia had been half naked he choose to stand with a blank expression and resist the urge to show any reaction. Now, Robbie shows that this ignorance was only an act and proves to be completely aware of Cecilia's every feature. He even takes a moment to search the fountain for any pieces of the vase that she may have missed with the hope of finding a way to chase after her. This interaction shows that Robbie is interested in Cecilia, and he will get his chance to chase after her later in the novel.

"Since the children were sometimes seated between adults, giving the look at its dangers-- making faces at table could bring down disgrace and an early bedtime. The trick was to make the attempt while passing between, say, licking one's lips and smiling broadly, and at the same time trying to catch the other's eye" (48). Cecilia looks at her brother as a best friend, one who has been there through all of the boring dinners with her and not only endured the fanciness, but risked "disgrace" befalling her parents to try and make Leon laugh and he for her. Not only did they take the risk together, but the punishment as well, if one was sent to bed early both of them were. Throughout her childhood Leon was the partner in crime to have to make the formalities of their family endurable. A bond that has stayed through the years and has formed a relationship as a friend, a confidant, and a loved brother.

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