Domestic spaces

Domestic Space:Dining room (pg 125-128)

Characters relevant: The Tallis family with the exception of Jack Tallis, Robbie Turner, Paul Marshall, Lola, Pierrot and Jackson Quincey.

Key events relevant: -Marshall leaning back and saying to Robbie ' I say, are we still on for tennis tomorrow?' and Robbie answering 'I suppose we are'.
-Leon suggesting that England in a heat wave is good and his mother disagreeing.

Barriers and Connections: The dining room is a public space where the whole family and some guests have dinner together. Here Paul Marshall shouldn't have faced away from the hostess and started a private conversation, but he did so, breaking a social convention. Also, when he did this, Emily Tallis couldn't take any action as Marshall was a guest. Hence, here Marshall was somewhat liberated from the barriers and social conventions. Briony, who was more hostile to Robbie at that time than ever, acts rude to Robbie. She wasn't supposed to do this and a barrier was broken when she did so thus provoking a reprimanding from her mother.

Significance to the novel and themes: When Marshall asks Robbie about a tennis match the next day an Robbie answers 'yes' there is a bit of irony. This is because Robbie is arrested that very day for a crime that Marshall had commited thus preventing Robbie from having a tennis match with Marshall the next day.
Also, when Leon says ' "I love England in a heat wave. It's a different country. All the rules change." ' and goes on to say that ' "People are more at ease - a couple of days' sunshine and we become Italians. Last week in Charlotte Street they were eating dinner at pavement tables." ' his mother quickly disagrees and kind of discreetly command everyone to behave normally by saying ' "hot weather encouraged loose morals among young people. Fewer layers of clothing, a thousand more places to meet. Out of doors, out of control. Your grandmother especially was uneasy when it was summer. She would dream up a thousand reasons to keep my sisters and me in the house." ' This foreshadows the events that will take place later on when Marshall rapes Lola. This is because by 'out of control' Emily was suggesting that her mother wanted to prevents things like what happened to Lola from happening to Emily and her sisters.