Theme Of Ambiguity In Atonement

In the beginning of the novel, Briony was “… [O]ne of those children possessed by a desire to have the world just so” orderly and as filled with private secrets as she was (McEwan 4). She believed in creation and recreation; for example, when she witnessed Cecilia and Robbie by the water fountain, she had a “temptation for her to be magical and dramatic and to regard what she had witnessed as a tableau mounted for her alone” (McEwan 37). To Briony, “The truth had become as ghostly as invention” (McEwan 39). This quote demonstrates the foundation of Briony’s original thought process, which was that every “show” is finite, which gives her the freedom to write about the incident through not only her eyes, but other people’s eyes as well, like Cecilia and Robbie (McEwan 39).

This article analyzes the way Austen portrays women in her novels. Kruger mentions that Jane Austen’s work is often deprived by the

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is frequently described as a novel about reading—reading novels and reading people—while Pride and Prejudice is said to be a story about love, about two people overcoming their own pride and prejudices to realize their feelings for each other. If Pride and Prejudice is indeed about how two stubborn youth have misjudged each other, then why is it that this novel is so infrequently viewed to be connected to Austen’s original novel about misjudgment and reading one’s fellows, Northanger Abbey? As one of Austen’s first novels, Northanger Abbey is often viewed as a “prototype” to her later novels, but it is most often compared to Persuasion (Brown 50). However, if read discerningly, one can see in Pride and

Atonement, by Ian McEwan, explores the theme of love through a variety of techniques such as symbolism, metaphors and repetition delve into various aspects of love, such as misspent, newfound and unavailable love. Uniquely, McEwan intertwines these techniques with foreshadowing and imagery to convey complex emotions such as love, guilt and jealousy. Additionally, the theme of reality and the imagination is established through repetition and Cecilia’s characterisation.

The shared theme is grudges only hurt this involved; forgiveness can save those from a lifetime consumed with anger because they both contain hatred toward somebody or something, but in the end somebody is forgiven. For example in The Interlopers the narrator quotes. "We have quarreled like devils all our lives over this stupid strip of forest...I-I will ask you to be my friend." This proves that in the end grudges are pointless. In "Forgiveness is Devine" the author asserts "Forgiveness frees you- it frees you to live without the weight of that anger and resentment." This explains that you should learn to forgive to live a fulfilling life. In life on should never hold a grudge, if one forgives it will give one relief and the other person including.

From the moment Atonement begins it becomes clear that Briony, at age thirteen, is aware of the power writing has. To her, writing can make “ the childhood of a spoiled prince can be framed within half a page, a moonlit dash through sleepy villages was one rhythmically emphatic sentence, falling in love could be achieved in a single word--a glance”

truths” plays a crucial role in developing the storyline and plot structure of the novel.

Forgiveness and redemption make up considerable parts of humans lives, as everyone makes mistakes. For some of these mistakes, we need to atone ourselves, and gain forgiveness of either ourselves or another individual. Many times, people make big decisions based receiving forgiveness for the past mistakes they have made. The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseni, also conveys this, where forgiveness and atonement are major themes. Forgiveness and atonement are significant themes throughout the Kite Runner because they causes major events in the story, illustrated by characters such as Amir and Baba, who makes important decisions driven by the possibility of atonement and forgiveness.

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey establishes the inner feeling of a woman based on her own personal experience which provides a vivid glance into her perspective. Correspondingly, it reinstates Gothic novels as an reflection marginalized by the experiences of women living in the upper class. For contemporary modern day, Northanger Abbey functions as a warning, depicting the danger of amorous and sexual exploitation from the opportunistic characters within a social environment. These dangers are a realistic theme even in today's society marking potential threat for women. Mostly importantly, it serves as a device that's depicts the social separation between the companionship of woman and the inhuman acknowledgement of women as objects, which fosters the necessarily development for both men and

This is shown in the fountain scene, and again in the library scene, and is in part to show how Briony’s imagination and interpretation can run wild and how pridefully stubborn Briony is about her understanding of things. As stated before, Briony puts a lot of stock into her imagination and logic, and this causes her to place herself on a pedestal and jump to conclusions about what she sees. A series of events (beginning with the fountain scene, the letter from Robert to Cecilia, the library scene and then the forest scene) leads Briony to believe Robert is a “sex-maniac” and therefore guilty of the rape. In the forest scene, when Lola is raped by an unknown perpetrator, Briony coerces her cousin into believing that Robert was the guilty one. Thinking herself infallible in her reasoning, Briony adamantly accuses Robert of the crime. Even though she couldn’t be sure, Briony makes use of the incriminating letter Robert sent to Cecilia earlier as a proof of her claims and lies to the

Though at first glance, Emma appears to be a generic romantic novel about virtue and ladyhood, Austen actually challenges what the meaning of “ladyhood” is to the reader. We view Emma’s follies, trials, and triumphs through the eyes of the omnipotent narrator who first describes Emma as a stereotypical, wealthy young lady who is “handsome, clever…with…a happy disposition” (1). Through the use of irony, Austen employs a series of situations in which Emma, a “lady” of high standing within her community, challenges conventional thinking of what it means to be a young woman in the early nineteenth century, particularly her ideas concerning marriage and

In addition, Olson tries to demonstrate how the new Calvinism has taken to the extreme some views of the TULIP. His concerns are based on two doctrines from this acrostic U and L. From the doctrine of unconditional election, he debates that God does not predestine people to go to hell or better known as double predestination. Olson agrees that God foreknows everything, although, he rejects the concept that God saves some and sends others to eternal condemnation. However, the doctrine of limited atonement is the one that Olson shows most disagreement in his book, he even points out that there are some Calvinists that do not believe at all on this doctrine. There are some who call themselves four points Calvinists who believes in total depravity,

Atonement’s chief narrative feature is McEwan’s use of an embedded author—Briony Tallis—whose text is nearly coterminous with the novel itself. This technique is of course not a new one: Sterne’s Sentimental Journey and MacKenzie’s Man of Feeling are both framed as the written accounts of their protagonists. McEwan’s trick in Atonement, though, is presumably that we are to be ignorant of the presence of this embedded author until very close to the end of the book. The chief effect of this is that we are forced to retroactively reconsider our epistemological position vis-à-vis the novel’s characters and its events, a

Briony tells stories because it allows her to construct a greater truth of reality by imposing order to her narrative. As Briony controls her narrative, it enables her to choose events that portray her version of reality, contrary to what actually happened. Her intentions in manipulating her narrative is exemplified at the beginning of Atonement, “she was one of those children possessed to have the world just so.” The simple phrase ‘just so’ proves Briony’s intentions of carefully constructing how she portrays herself when she falsely accuses Robbie of raping her cousin. Briony’s intentions of falsifying reality indicates that her narrative is unreliable and creates an unified hatred towards Robbie, despite the fact that he did not commit his

In his essay “Who Killed Robbie and Cecilia? Reading and Misreading Ian McEwan's Atonement” Martin Jacobi argues the role of misreading in Ian McEwan’s Atonement and the consequences of misreading and reading with preconception. Misreading is the incorrect or misinterpretation of a reading. In McEwan’s Atonement misreading is a key concept that allows Ian McEwan to persuade readers into believing situations and conclusions that are not confirmed. Jacobi’s main argument examples focuses on the misreading and interpretation of two main characters’ deaths, Robbie and Cecilia. The misreading in Atonement causes readers to believe they are dead even though it is not confirmed. Jacobi further argues that along with misreading reading with preconceptions also leads to misinterpretation, that when we read we have preconceptions about the novel which leads to assumptions about what will occur. (Jacobi 71) While Jacobi argues the negative of having preconceptions about a novel, having knowledge and information about a novel and the author can be beneficial when trying to understand the novel and the why in the novel. Knowing information about when the novel is set, what was happening during this time can be useful for understanding as well as useful for avoiding misreadings. Although I agree with Jacobi’s argument that misreading and reading with preconceptions can lead to misinterpretation and wrong conclusions, I do believe that having