ATONEMENT - PAGE 3/4 EXTRACT ANALYSIS

Atonement, a novel by Ian McEwan, is a novel set in Britain during the mid 1930’s in the Tallis’ household. The novels protagonist is Briony Tallis and the opening scene of the novel (page 3 and 4) is written with the purpose that the Author wishes to foreshadow (through Briony’s play “The Trials of Arabella”) and shed light on Briony’s character and the theme of melodrama. All this is conveyed through the Authors use of sentence types/functions and connotations.

Ian McEwan, an omniscient 3^rd person narrator, introduces us to Briony in the opening pages and we learn about her character through her own perceptions of herself and through Ian McEwan’s perception of her through authorial comments and Briony’s dialogues and behavior.
Briony sees herself as organized and independent, as she “designed the posters, programs and tickets” and she also perceives herself to be passionate as she “burrows in her bed” and has a “passion for secrets”, but also, we see her passion for romance, drama and melodrama through her artistic temperament as she was caused to “miss a breakfast and lunch” to complete her play. Although, her artistic temperament could be misinterpreted by the reader as Briony’s need to exaggerate. Furthermore, her tendencies to be romantic and melodramatic are shown through her Play that we are told about. She’s very moralistic because her story has Black And White morals and is Dramatic, with the use of the phrases “desperately sad, reckless passion”; she is also very romantic as she simply must include a “prince in disguise.” In addition to that, she is very well educated as we are apprised of her use of correct syntax, “the play – for which…”

However, the author’s intent is to portray her differently through his authorial comments. McEwan introduces us to Briony through phrases like “Controlling demon” and this is to illustrate Briony’s controlling traits, alongside that, there is the use of the phrase “Under strict instruction not to touch the wall”, hence Briony wants everything to be her way, this doesn’t indicate her independence, just her controlling traits. “Reckless passion and wicked count” are phrases used by the author to describe the characters that are Briony’s construction in her play, and hence, we can see that the Briony is not creative, just merely melodramatic and clichéd. Also noted by the readers, Briony is very manipulative and attention-seeking as she “put her arm around her mother’s shoulder, studying her face”, and therefore we can see that she seems to be the kind of person to use her mother’s maternal inclinations to gain acceptance and approval and as we can see at the end of the extract, Briony is in dire need of attention as SHE wants to be the one asked to be a bridesmaid, SHE wants to be in the limelight during her brother’s wedding. And because she is desperately under the impression that he must quit his succession of long girlfriends and must be “guided to the right kind of wife”, we can see Briony’s naïve mindset exposed. She may be very innocent, “she had no secrets” but she is very obsessive, “desire to have the world just so.” And because of her innocence and naivety, the author foreshadows the doom that is to come because of Briony’s youth, ignorance, moralistic views and desire for secrecy/importance/attention.
Thus, since we took note that Ian McEwan includes Multiple narration from himself as the omniscient, 3^rd person narrator, and from Briony, we can understand that through his characterization that when it comes to Briony, we must render her an unreliable narrator because of her childish traits and from that Ian McEwan effectively foreshadows. He does so through the use of introducing her at the very start of the novel, hence if we are apprised of her naivety and unreliability in the start of the novel, we can then tell that this protagonist will influence the course of the novel, and hence, foreshadowing is effectively done.

Not only does Ian McEwan foreshadow through the introduction of Briony and her traits, but through use of various connotative words such as “tempest”, perhaps he may be foreshadowing by telling us of the impending doom or the reality of Briony’s character and how it may change. Also, the authors opening scene is intended to foreshadow and this is, once again, impressionably done so through the introduction of Briony’s play, “The Trials of Arabella”, the tale is a tale of passion and is overly dramatic and childlike, and we can see that Briony’s thoughts are that she believes that one must reflect, redeem, get rewarded and that reckless passion and lust are wrong and that well-founded love is good. She believes that passion MUST be punished, one must reason and seek redemption, and therefore, we can see that in her head, she is very moralistic. And this may not be the case because sometimes passion May be good and love may be wrong, and not always will a good decision lead to a reward. However, as we see Briony’s head-strong belief in this moralistic view, we can see that there is impending doom as she will impose her influence on whatever situation she can.

Thus, we can clearly see that, through the use of connotative meanings and the introduction of Briony’s character that Ian McEwan effectively introduces is protagonist, and in doing so, impressionably foreshadows the impending doom that forms the course of the novel.