Epilogue
Summary
In this section—the final “chapter”, so to speak: London, 1999—the novel deviates from its previous third-person POV to first-person through the eyes of Briony. On her seventy-seventh birthday, she’s coming to terms with her recent diagnosis of vascular dementia, and more generally, her own mortality. Throughout the first half of the section, Briony is “fussing about with those little tasks of housekeeping” which are the final touches on the last draft of Atonement, the novel which—it’s revealed—is her own project of the last 59 years. Before being taken to the renovated Tallis home—which has been converted into a hotel—for her birthday reunion/celebration, she visits the Imperial War Museum, where she briefly sees Paul and Lola Marshall, and receives the last of a series of fact-checking notes from Corporal Nettle regarding her chapter about Robbie at Dunkirk.
At her birthday reception, which reunites three of the characters from the earlier events of the novel—Leon, Briony, and Pierrot—the children act out a surprise performance of The Trials of Arabella to perfection. Later, when Briony is back in her room after festivities have ended, she reveals that the entire ending of her novel—the fateful reunion of Cecilia and Robbie, and Briony’s own promise to recant—is entirely fantasy, and in actuality, both died before they could ever see each other again—Robbie at Bray Dunes, and Cecilia in a Blitz bombing raid. After reflecting on her own inability to achieve atonement, since she is the “God” of her novel, and thus has no higher power to appeal to, she decides that the effort itself, and its falsified ending, are her “stand against oblivion”.
Analysis
The themes presented most obviously in this chapter are Atonement/Guilt, Power of the Author, Social Class, and, to a lesser extent, Innocence/Naivety.
Briony reveals early in the chapter that she cannot publish her novel in the course of her lifetime; for legal purposes, she must wait for Paul Marshall and Lola to die before publishing, and she asserts upon seeing the pair that Lola will long outlive her. Of course, the underlying reason that she cannot publish while they are alive is because of their high social standing. “The Marshalls have been active about the courts since the late forties,” she explains on page 349, “defending their good names with a most expensive ferocity. They could ruin a publishing house with ease”. Similar to how Paul Marshall’s good social standing kept him far beyond suspicion regarding Lola’s rape, the good social standing of the Marshalls as a couple now prevents the truth of the story from being published. Social class trumps truth.
Later in the chapter, Briony is treated to a performance of The Trials of Arabella alongside Leon and Pierrot, as well as many other younger relatives. The performance, put on by young grandchildren and great-grandchildren, reflects both the innocence of its original cast—Lola, Jackson, Pierrot, Briony—and the enduring innocence of an entirely different generation. The new cast performs the play enthusiastically, and as Briony notes to them, “our production would have been no match for theirs” (348). Never mentioned is the darker side of the original production, which served inadvertently as the launchpad for the horrors of 59 years prior. The new cast delves into the play with no knowledge of its past, just as the original cast was oblivious to the devastation their aborted performance would lead to. Innocence endures.
Most notably, the chapter concludes with Briony connecting the former two themes, as she reasons that she can never achieve atonement solely because of her power as an author: “how can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her” (350). By asserting that the Power of the Author is a godlike power over the events of a story, Briony admits that “the attempt was all”; that is, she cannot achieve atonement.
- Much clearer in terms of the chapter's connection to the novel's themes, but you could go a bit farther in discussing the ending, especially in light of the huge amount of reading we did about McEwan's decisions here. And the summary's a little lacking on detail that might help the analysis make more sense. Otherwise, great.
In this section—the final “chapter”, so to speak: London, 1999—the novel deviates from its previous third-person POV to first-person through the eyes of Briony. On her seventy-seventh birthday, she’s coming to terms with her recent diagnosis of vascular dementia, and more generally, her own mortality. Throughout the first half of the section, Briony is “fussing about with those little tasks of housekeeping” which are the final touches on the last draft of Atonement, the novel which—it’s revealed—is her own project of the last 59 years. Before being taken to the renovated Tallis home—which has been converted into a hotel—for her birthday reunion/celebration, she visits the Imperial War Museum, where she briefly sees Paul and Lola Marshall, and receives the last of a series of fact-checking notes from Corporal Nettle regarding her chapter about Robbie at Dunkirk.
At her birthday reception, which reunites three of the characters from the earlier events of the novel—Leon, Briony, and Pierrot—the children act out a surprise performance of The Trials of Arabella to perfection. Later, when Briony is back in her room after festivities have ended, she reveals that the entire ending of her novel—the fateful reunion of Cecilia and Robbie, and Briony’s own promise to recant—is entirely fantasy, and in actuality, both died before they could ever see each other again—Robbie at Bray Dunes, and Cecilia in a Blitz bombing raid. After reflecting on her own inability to achieve atonement, since she is the “God” of her novel, and thus has no higher power to appeal to, she decides that the effort itself, and its falsified ending, are her “stand against oblivion”.
Analysis
The themes presented most obviously in this chapter are Atonement/Guilt, Power of the Author, Social Class, and, to a lesser extent, Innocence/Naivety.
Briony reveals early in the chapter that she cannot publish her novel in the course of her lifetime; for legal purposes, she must wait for Paul Marshall and Lola to die before publishing, and she asserts upon seeing the pair that Lola will long outlive her. Of course, the underlying reason that she cannot publish while they are alive is because of their high social standing. “The Marshalls have been active about the courts since the late forties,” she explains on page 349, “defending their good names with a most expensive ferocity. They could ruin a publishing house with ease”. Similar to how Paul Marshall’s good social standing kept him far beyond suspicion regarding Lola’s rape, the good social standing of the Marshalls as a couple now prevents the truth of the story from being published. Social class trumps truth.
Later in the chapter, Briony is treated to a performance of The Trials of Arabella alongside Leon and Pierrot, as well as many other younger relatives. The performance, put on by young grandchildren and great-grandchildren, reflects both the innocence of its original cast—Lola, Jackson, Pierrot, Briony—and the enduring innocence of an entirely different generation. The new cast performs the play enthusiastically, and as Briony notes to them, “our production would have been no match for theirs” (348). Never mentioned is the darker side of the original production, which served inadvertently as the launchpad for the horrors of 59 years prior. The new cast delves into the play with no knowledge of its past, just as the original cast was oblivious to the devastation their aborted performance would lead to. Innocence endures.
Most notably, the chapter concludes with Briony connecting the former two themes, as she reasons that she can never achieve atonement solely because of her power as an author: “how can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her” (350). By asserting that the Power of the Author is a godlike power over the events of a story, Briony admits that “the attempt was all”; that is, she cannot achieve atonement.
- Much clearer in terms of the chapter's connection to the novel's themes, but you could go a bit farther in discussing the ending, especially in light of the huge amount of reading we did about McEwan's decisions here. And the summary's a little lacking on detail that might help the analysis make more sense. Otherwise, great.