An Impossible Atonement

In Professor Brian Finney’s essay “Briony’s Stand Against Oblivion: Ian McEwan’s Atonement,” he suggests that any attempt at atonement is “bound to fail,” and so the most one can do to repent their mistakes is to “imagine the feelings of others.” In many cases, visualizing oneself in the position of another can play a large role when seeking forgiveness. However, in Briony’s case, her attempt to use corrective fiction to make amends for the mistakes of her childhood is not enough for her to achieve full atonement.

Even into her old age, Briony is not able to come to terms with or to accept responsibility for her dishonorable actions and their repercussions, which is one reason that her attempt to atone is not sufficient. When she is thirteen years old, she falsely accuses a family friend, Robbie Turner, of raping her cousin, Lola Quincey. Consequently, Robbie’s life is brought to an end, as he is sent to jail, required to join the military, and eventually dies during World War II. Throughout the novel, Briony attempts to evade the blame for her crime, and at the end of the novel, she wonders, “Did everything have to be her fault? […] Couldn’t it also be the war’s?” (321). These thoughts show that Briony is not prepared to accept the blame and the guilt of her crime and its repercussions. Her hesitation shows that she cannot have a genuine atonement because she is not willing to take responsibility for the actions she wishes to atone. Even though she ultimately cannot, Briony does use writing to attempt to make sincere amends.

Another reason that Briony cannot fully atone is that before her novel can be published, every person involved must be dead; thus, no one will know of her desire for forgiveness. Her main act of atonemen...

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...ine the feelings of others, although this attempt will undoubtedly fail, is correct. In Briony’s situation, the most she can do to try to make amends with Cecelia and Robbie, who are both dead, is to imagine their lives as they could have been if Briony had not committed her crime. By creating a work of corrective fiction, she is utilizing her best option to try to atone. Unfortunately, these efforts can never be successful because she does not take full responsibility for the crime, she cannot apologize directly to the victims, and she changes the outcome of the story to lessen the burden that falls on herself. As a result, Briony’s work of corrective fiction cannot serve as satisfactory atonement for her crime.

Works Cited

Finney, Brian. “Briony’s Stand Against Oblivion: Ian McEwan’s Atonement,” 2002. Web.

McEwan, Ian. Atonement. New York: Anchor, 2003. Print.