Atonement: some analysis questions!

Following Jane Austen's novels, we are now on Ian McEwan's "Atonement". After watching some short clips from the film, I will now answer (as usual) some questions analysing characters and themes of these deep love strory.

1. What sort of social and cultural setting does the Tallis House create? What emotions and impulses are being acted upon or repressed by its inhabitants?


2. A passion for order, a lively imagination, and a desire for attention seem to be Briony's strongest traits. In what ways is she still a child? Is her narcissism - her inability to see things from any point of view but her own - unusual in a thirteen-year-old?


3. Why does Briony stick to her "version of the story" with such unwavering commitment? Does she act entirely in error in a situation she is not old enough to understand, or does she act, in part, on an impulse of malice, revenge, or self-importance?


4. As she grows older, Briony develops the empathy to realise what she has done to Cecilia and Robbie. How and why do you think she does this?

Answers:

1- We can clearly apreciate from what we see on the film that the well known as "Tallis house" is a huge country-side house, where people who live there are a wealthy family, part of the higher society. Under this circumstances we see the impossible love between Robbie and Cecilia, because of social differences.

2- She is in almost all aspects still  child. The best example of this is the lively imagination, as mentioned on the question. She actually creates stories about what she sees, because, under my point of view, she prefers not to believe in what reality shows her; she prefers to create her own versions of reality, and that is why she is such a good writer. Is in here where her naecissism takes places, because of what I just explained: she prefers her story, her own reality.

3- I believe that she sticks to her version because, as I said before, she doesn't like what reality shows, and, in this case, the love between Cecilia and Robbie. She was jealous, because she wasn't the centre of attention any more. This si the same thing that happens to children when they have a younger sister; it is a very childish behaviour. Maybe she did this because she thought that what she was doing was correct, this as the result of a mixture between imagination and reality.

4-Everybody grows up. This is what happened to Briony, who, now being a grown up, realises that what she had done practicaly destroyed Robbie and Cecilia's life together. She is no longer a narcissist, so she is now open to new ideas and point of views. She accpets reality as it is.