Chapter 3
Summary
This chapter is told from the perspective of Briony as she struggles to put together a rehearsal of her play Trials of Arabella. This goal turns south when her cousin and actor Jackson wets the bed and must spend the morning cleaning his sheets to “subconsciously” repent. She continues on with her other cousins Lola and Jackson’s twin Pierrot, but Pierrot, distracted by the absence of his brother, has trouble acting his lines to Briony’s wishes. The older-than-Briony Lola, however, seems much too perfect and mature for Briony’s taste, and eventually, Lola’s personality seems more condescending than anything. To Briony’s relief, the Lola and Pierrot find distractions that take them from the nursery they are rehearsing in leaving Briony to contemplate the failure her play is turning out to be. Amongst thoughts of appearing immature compared to Lola, Briony finds herself pondering the nature of her mind controlling her actions, specifically the action of moving her finger. She questions the difference between her thoughts about moving her finger and her thoughts that actually make her move her finger, eventually leading her to question her train of thought and whether others are “as alive as she was,” (34). See important quotes section for more on this. After deciding that everyone is, then proceeding to dismiss it as something that won’t be remembered, she shifts back to stressing over the pressure that the play is causing her. She decides that instead of writing drama, her true passion is for stories as it is much easier to convey her meaning. She has no limits in a story and her words and (in her opinion) meanings go directly to the reader. While reflecting and looking out the window, she sees the scene that plays out in Chapter 2 between Robbie and Cecilia.
She originally views this as Robbie proposing to Cecilia, but as Robbie holds a commanding position and Cecilia begins to undress, she sees it as an act of force by Robbie. Soon she realizes she doesn’t understand any of it and chooses to watch with the rest of the scene described very documentarily. This brings her to the revelation that her understanding of the situation, compared with Robbie and Cecilia’s, is completely different and would make a newer, even better story than she’d ever written. She decided that the drama would come from the misunderstanding of each “equally alive” party, and the frustration with never being able to completely comprehend what anybody’s rationales are behind their actions. The chapter closes with her description of “writ[ing] her way through the whole history of literature” in her life, at this point, understanding “impartial psychological realism”.
Analysis
Themes: Perception/Misunderstanding, Power of the Author
Motifs: Writing
Symbols: The Trials of Arabella
Overall, this chapter works well to develop Briony’s writing. We see her explain why she prefers novels rather than plays, as well as seeing her epiphany and genesis of a new story, which she inevitably compares to her old stories and how they relate (i.e. stepping stones to bring her to this most important point).
Her realization about the way that perception works is also extremely important (it's recommended that the important quotations explained page is visited to read an explanation of the scene relating this) in both her writing, as well as in her actions later in the novel.
This chapter also works to continue tearing down Lola in Briony’s eyes and more importantly giving a reason why. This comes into play when Briony is comforting her after her “brothers attack her” (or Paul Marshall rapes her), as well as relating to her feelings for Lola at the end of the novel.
When she views the water scene, Briony makes a connection to a story she wrote about a lumberjack who proposes after saving a princess from drowning. This can be seen as a parallel to her experience with Robbie (related by him in Part 2), when she pretends to drown and then proclaims her love for him.
The decision for her to quit being a playwright is also found in this section as she renounces The Trials of Arabella. With the the play being a symbol for the difficulties in writing (i.e. not being able to convey her meaning clearly enough), it shows why her writing develops in the way that it does, with the her future book focusing on conveying meaning through different perspectives.
The most important element of this chapter is Briony’s revelation of her new style of writing, which eventually results in the creation of Atonement itself. In addition, Briony’s trouble understanding the minds of others comes into play again after she makes up her mind about the terror that Robbie has caused Cecilia, which stems from her perspective as a teenager, compared to Robbie’s and Cecilia’s better understanding of what is occurring. But then this understanding is again twisted at the end of the novel, when we find out it was Briony writing it the entire time. The fact that this is true and that she twisted what actually happened, makes the reader question the thoughts of everybody throughout the book now, making them unsure of what actually happened. This pushes her point that misunderstanding is what creates the “drama” in the story better than anything, as the all the reader knows (or thinks) to be true is just what Briony saw or has proof of and nothing else, seeing as she wasn’t there or in the mind of her subjects. With only this, we have very little to draw on and the story is framed entirely differently (as an example, Paul Marshall is no longer painted as a disturbing pedophile). This shows her realization of the power that the author has in the events of his or her story.
- The summary is excellent. In terms of the analysis, you talk about a lot of nice stuff here. I would just suggest that the discussion be more complete in terms of the "what" (you mention without explaining at times, and you point us to other places for information that should be presented here), and you could in some cases more fully explain why the "what" you're bringing up matters, in terms of the novel's central concerns.
This chapter is told from the perspective of Briony as she struggles to put together a rehearsal of her play Trials of Arabella. This goal turns south when her cousin and actor Jackson wets the bed and must spend the morning cleaning his sheets to “subconsciously” repent. She continues on with her other cousins Lola and Jackson’s twin Pierrot, but Pierrot, distracted by the absence of his brother, has trouble acting his lines to Briony’s wishes. The older-than-Briony Lola, however, seems much too perfect and mature for Briony’s taste, and eventually, Lola’s personality seems more condescending than anything. To Briony’s relief, the Lola and Pierrot find distractions that take them from the nursery they are rehearsing in leaving Briony to contemplate the failure her play is turning out to be. Amongst thoughts of appearing immature compared to Lola, Briony finds herself pondering the nature of her mind controlling her actions, specifically the action of moving her finger. She questions the difference between her thoughts about moving her finger and her thoughts that actually make her move her finger, eventually leading her to question her train of thought and whether others are “as alive as she was,” (34). See important quotes section for more on this. After deciding that everyone is, then proceeding to dismiss it as something that won’t be remembered, she shifts back to stressing over the pressure that the play is causing her. She decides that instead of writing drama, her true passion is for stories as it is much easier to convey her meaning. She has no limits in a story and her words and (in her opinion) meanings go directly to the reader. While reflecting and looking out the window, she sees the scene that plays out in Chapter 2 between Robbie and Cecilia.
She originally views this as Robbie proposing to Cecilia, but as Robbie holds a commanding position and Cecilia begins to undress, she sees it as an act of force by Robbie. Soon she realizes she doesn’t understand any of it and chooses to watch with the rest of the scene described very documentarily. This brings her to the revelation that her understanding of the situation, compared with Robbie and Cecilia’s, is completely different and would make a newer, even better story than she’d ever written. She decided that the drama would come from the misunderstanding of each “equally alive” party, and the frustration with never being able to completely comprehend what anybody’s rationales are behind their actions. The chapter closes with her description of “writ[ing] her way through the whole history of literature” in her life, at this point, understanding “impartial psychological realism”.
Analysis
Themes: Perception/Misunderstanding, Power of the Author
Motifs: Writing
Symbols: The Trials of Arabella
Overall, this chapter works well to develop Briony’s writing. We see her explain why she prefers novels rather than plays, as well as seeing her epiphany and genesis of a new story, which she inevitably compares to her old stories and how they relate (i.e. stepping stones to bring her to this most important point).
Her realization about the way that perception works is also extremely important (it's recommended that the important quotations explained page is visited to read an explanation of the scene relating this) in both her writing, as well as in her actions later in the novel.
This chapter also works to continue tearing down Lola in Briony’s eyes and more importantly giving a reason why. This comes into play when Briony is comforting her after her “brothers attack her” (or Paul Marshall rapes her), as well as relating to her feelings for Lola at the end of the novel.
When she views the water scene, Briony makes a connection to a story she wrote about a lumberjack who proposes after saving a princess from drowning. This can be seen as a parallel to her experience with Robbie (related by him in Part 2), when she pretends to drown and then proclaims her love for him.
The decision for her to quit being a playwright is also found in this section as she renounces The Trials of Arabella. With the the play being a symbol for the difficulties in writing (i.e. not being able to convey her meaning clearly enough), it shows why her writing develops in the way that it does, with the her future book focusing on conveying meaning through different perspectives.
The most important element of this chapter is Briony’s revelation of her new style of writing, which eventually results in the creation of Atonement itself. In addition, Briony’s trouble understanding the minds of others comes into play again after she makes up her mind about the terror that Robbie has caused Cecilia, which stems from her perspective as a teenager, compared to Robbie’s and Cecilia’s better understanding of what is occurring. But then this understanding is again twisted at the end of the novel, when we find out it was Briony writing it the entire time. The fact that this is true and that she twisted what actually happened, makes the reader question the thoughts of everybody throughout the book now, making them unsure of what actually happened. This pushes her point that misunderstanding is what creates the “drama” in the story better than anything, as the all the reader knows (or thinks) to be true is just what Briony saw or has proof of and nothing else, seeing as she wasn’t there or in the mind of her subjects. With only this, we have very little to draw on and the story is framed entirely differently (as an example, Paul Marshall is no longer painted as a disturbing pedophile). This shows her realization of the power that the author has in the events of his or her story.
- The summary is excellent. In terms of the analysis, you talk about a lot of nice stuff here. I would just suggest that the discussion be more complete in terms of the "what" (you mention without explaining at times, and you point us to other places for information that should be presented here), and you could in some cases more fully explain why the "what" you're bringing up matters, in terms of the novel's central concerns.