Archetypes In Atonement

In literature, an archetype is a character, situation, or experience that represents the recurring patterns of human nature. Loss of innocence, a well used archetype, tends to focus on young individuals and shows how their innocence fades away, but is replaced by experience and gained knowledge through it. In Ian McEwan’s Atonement, McEwan shows the loss of innocence through Briony Tallis, Robbie Turner, and Lola Quincey. These three characters show how one’s mistake, tragedy, or experience can cause the loss of their innocence, but other character’s futures and innocence as well. Through this archetype, Ian McEwan’s Atonement shows how the loss of innocence plays a major role in each of their lives and how it changes their future, showing

how the loss of innocence allows each character to look back at one’s experience and learn from it, but can never regain the innocence they lost.
Lola Quincey is staying with the Tallis family with her twin brothers. Lola, only fifteen years old, had to step up and take care of her siblings because her parents were having issues with their marriage at the time. She had to have the responsibility of an adult and make sure the twins were behaving well, such as when she threatened them by telling them “you’ll be in this play or I’ll speak to The Parents” and reminded them to be “A-menable” (McEwan 12). Lola also felt the need to be in control of what occured around her, which was seen especially when Briony was putting on a play, The Trials of Arabella, and Lola immediately requested to be Arabella. This was considered to be the “only good thing that’s happened to me in months”, but it also emphasizes her need to have “dominion” over her life, especially since she is struggling with her parents possible divorce and how nothing seems to be going well in her life at the time (McEwan 14-15). This furthermore foreshadows the need to be in control of how she shows herself to others and how she wants to be at the center of everything she involves herself in. These actions and attempts to act older and more mature than she already is stems from her insecurities from being alone with her younger siblings, which is an act out of innocence because she is so young and doesn’t understand what it really takes to be in charge of two, young boys and even her own self. This later becomes her downfall when she became the victim to a tragic crime.
Briony Tallis, a young thirteen year old girl, lives with her family in a luxurious home. The novel immediately draws attention to her vast imagination and how she dives into the plays and stories she writes, which she is described as having “a strange mind and a facility with words” who could “perform so boldly” and make “big gestures” as she “cast her narrative spell” (McEwan 6). These characteristics make Briony unique, yet it shows how innocent she is. She lacks real world experience since she tends to stay in her own world, rather than reality. This is even seen when Lola wanted to play as Arabella, which was the first time Briony ever experienced being “confronted” in her “generally pleasant and well-protected life” (McEwan 15). When approached by a lack of order or if something doesn’t go her way, she becomes frustrated, which is typical of a young child. This shows that Briony, when met with an issue or an occurrence that is sudden, will be quick to make assumptions or a reckless decision. Her innocence and extensive imagination causes her to overanalyze what really occurs and causes her to assume the worst and theorize what actually happened. This innocence and naivety becomes her downfall later in the novel as she loses her innocence through a tragic assumption.
Robbie Turner, a young, university student, had a promising future. Jack Tallis, head of the Tallis family, was willing to pay for all his schooling, which included medical school. Yet, his future disappeared quickly. Robbie had had feelings for Cecilia, Briony’s older sister, for a long time. The main interaction that occurs between the two was out by the fountain of the Tallis residence. Cecilia was filling a vase with water, but he wanted to help. This led to the vase breaking, “split into two triangular pieces” that sunk to the bottom of the fountain (McEwan 28). This vase symbolizes the future destruction of the Tallis residence, which leads to the destruction of Robbie’s promising future, too. Yet, it is also a symbol of Robbie’s innocence, which becomes broken and can never be repaired later in the novel. After this occured, Briony becomes curious of their relationship after she watched them by the fountain. She, later that day, walks in on Robbie and Cecilia, whose “bare shoulders and thin arms” were revealed under Robbie’s “huge and wild” figure (McEwan 116). Through the mind of a young girl, Briony thought Robbie was hurting her. This gave Briony the opportunity to overanalyze the situation into something it was not, which later led to her accusing Robbie of a dreadful crime since the crime fit her new, found image of Robbie.
The archetype quickly descends into the novel when Paul Marshall, a wealthy, successful man, comes into the Tallis residence.

He took an immediate interest in Lola, watching her closely. When first meeting her, he offers her an Amo Bar and observes her as her “tongue” turned “green” because of the green sugar coating, but then “yielded to her unblemished incisors” as she bit harder into the bitter dark chocolate (McEwan 29). The Amo Bar is a symbol of Marshall’s success and power, yet also portrays how deceiving his character is. The outside of the chocolate is a candy casing, so it appears sweet on the outside, but bitter on the inside due to the dark chocolate, just like Paul Marshall. Also, the usage of the word “unblemished” showed how pure Lola is and foreshadows that she will soon become blemished by Paul Marshall’s future actions. This immediate interest on Lola becomes her tragedy as the night unfolds. The Tallis family realizes the twins have run off in the night, so they begin to search. Briony, while looking, noticed a figure “fade into the darker background” and saw the “dark patch on the ground” was a person slowly calling her name (McEwan 154). It was Lola, rocking back and forth from the trauma she experienced from being raped. Briony, met again with an issue or an occurrence that is sudden, quickly feels the need to create order in what had happened and realized it would be “her story” that was “writing itself around her” (McEwan 156). She accuses Robbie and Lola nods in agreement. Briony takes this opportunity as “she stumbles upon Lola” and “her rapist in the dark and decides to play the avenging angel for both her sister and her wronged cousin” (Quarrie). It is in this way that she more feels she will achieve more “legitimacy” in her writing as she “avenges Robbie’s unwelcomed advances” against her sister and cousin

(Quarrie).
Briony’s innocence and naivety in this situation causes Robbie to suffer and lose his innocence. Robbie, after being convicted of rape, was taken away as a “prisoner” by the two inspectors who came to the Tallis residence (McEwan 174). Even though innocent, he is forced into prison for a crime he never committed, which taints his image and can never be repaired, along with his innocence. After prison, Robbie finds himself fighting in World War II. When in war, “there were horrors”, such as dead bodies in streets (McEwan 179). The war, along with prison, was traumatizing for Robbie. Robbie would have never been able to escape the conviction of his past, but also the images of war that would haunt him forever. His loss of innocence was forcefully taken away by a young child, who is innocent herself in her actions. Briony’s actions against Robbie “radically alters the trajectory of his life” (Pastoor). Even after the reader learns the story is mostly created by Briony, Briony has even more impact on his life throughout the novel by making him “do things, makes him fall in love, makes him retreat to Dunkirk”, and “makes him live”, even though he actually dies in the war (Pastoor). Briony affects Robbie’s life before and after his death as a way to cope with her mistake, but it can never really repair her actions and his life becomes a tool for her to cope with her own loss of innocence.
Lola suffered from being raped, which causes the forceful loss of her innocence. Lola, after being raped, ended up marrying Paul Marshall. Lola, “barely more than a child, prized open and taken”, had her parents “consent” and did not appear to be the “victim” (McEwan 306). While the novel never states why Lola did so, I believe she married him because it was an opportunity. Paul Marshall was wealthy and a socialite, so this would lead to her attaining a better image than to be tainted by being the victim and losing the chances of marrying anyone in her society. Their agreement, rather than marriage, allows Paul’s actions to stay hidden and for Lola to gain a better image and wealth, which she strived for even as a child. Yet, McEwan uses Lola for an even greater purpose. He shows what happens when you don’t speak up and try to prevent losing your innocence. Lola, rather than fighting for her innocence and fighting for Robbie’s innocence since he never committed the crime, becomes trapped in a marriage with her rapist, with “the scratches and bruises” “long healed” (McEwan 306). Because she is trapped, Lola can never tell the truth because it is crucial not to since they both have reputations to uphold. Lola just accepted her fate and loss of innocence, but can look back and only see her experience and gained knowledge through it, even if it is tragic.
Briony, who did speak up, dealt with guilt for the rest of her life, even though she realizes that there is nothing she could do to reach atonement. The novel goes through Briony’s life and shows her decisions, which is tainted because of her innocence and over analyzation from her mistake of accusing Robbie. She becomes a nurse instead of going to Cambridge. Her being a nurse was a way to “strip away of her identity” and allowed her to not think of the crime she committed (McEwan 259). The act of becoming a nurse was the “ultimate act of self-abnegation” (Pastoor). Losing her innocence in her childhood through her crime caused her to try to distract herself and cope through the consistent work as a nurse. In the end of the novel, the reader then realizes that the novel itself is Briony’s writing. She rewrites the story as a coping mechanism. The writing allows her to give Robbie and Cecilia the ending she thought they deserved. Briony, though, does realize she can never atone for her actions and all she could do was allow the “lovers” to “survive and flourish” and “gave them happiness” (McEwan 350-351). In learning this, the reader discovers that Briony “recreates the characters, giving them thoughts and feelings and experiences that are entirely the product of her own imagination” (Pastoor). So, her atonement is just her creating a new ending for the two lovers to cope with her tragic, innocent, and naive mistake that alters the lives of everyone around her. Her loss of innocence affects her for the rest of her life, but she can never repair it.
Through McEwan’s writing, this archetype is shown through Lola Quincey, Robbie Turner, and Briony Tallis to give light to the recurring patterns of human nature when it comes to innocence and how it can be lost so easily. It shows that innocence is so quick to disappear and can affect the rest of the character’s lives and futures, along with the character’s lives and futures as well. Because they lost their innocence so young, their futures were changed drastically and altered their dreams of achieving so much more and not feel trapped in a prison, a marriage, and even through the act of writing. Through these characters, the reader will learn to protect their innocence to hopefully have a more promising future than end up in tragedy.