Atonement

Briony is now 77 years old. On her 77th birthday, she makes “one last visit to the Imperial War Museum” in London (213). The previous day, a doctor revealed that she is suffering from vascular dementia and will soon begin to lose her memories. She arrives at the museum, and as she enters, she sees Lola and Paul. They are now a rich, famous couple known as the Marshalls. As well as their charity work, they are known to have sued a number of newspapers for libel. Briony thinks about their age. She knows that “publication equals litigation” (216); if she publishes her novel while they are still alive, they can sue her for libel. While they are old, they are healthy, and there is no indication that they will die soon. This places the publication of Briony’s novel in jeopardy. Briony has donated a number of letters and documents from her personal records to the museum. She submits another batch from Corporal Nettle, in which he describes events at Dunkirk. In exchange, she receives notes and suggestions from a historian at the museum on her novel.

After the diagnosis, Briony returns home. She thinks about her deceased husband, Thierry, as she prepares for a birthday party being held that evening in her honor. The event will take place at the old Tallis estate, which has been converted into a hotel. As her taxi approaches, Briony notes that “so much change” (219) has taken place on the estate since her childhood. She is glad that people are able to enjoy themselves at the hotel. The dinner guests include Leon, Pierrot, and her extended family. As the guests praise Briony and her work, the grandchildren perform her first play, The Trials of Arabella. The play reminds Briony of herself as a “busy, priggish, conceited little girl” (221).

After dinner, Briony returns to her room but cannot sleep. Her latest novel occupies her thoughts. She has been writing the book for nearly 60 years across “half a dozen different drafts” (222), but she finally feels as though she has found the right way to end the novel. She hopes that this novel will redress the injustice that she committed in 1935. Even though many of the characters are still alive, Briony has refused to change their names. Because of this decision, her publisher has warned her that Paul and Lola may sue. They have recommended that she wait to publish until after Paul and Lola die. Given her recent medical diagnosis and Paul and Lola’s apparent good health, Briony knows that she will not outlive them. The final version of the novel ends with the image of Cecilia and Robbie together in the apartment in London. This version of events is not true. Briony explains that Robbie died of his wounds in Dunkirk while awaiting evacuation while Cecilia was killed during the Blitz bombing raids on London during World War II. They were never able to reunite, as they do in Briony’s story. Instead, Briony’s reimagining is her effort to rewrite a tragic past in which she played a major role. She stares out the same window through which she once watched the police take Robbie away, “into the whiteness” (223). She hopes that, by writing the story in this way, she can create a world in which Robbie and Cecilia are able to be together.