Atonement: Crime AQA A-Level English

how is leon described in chapter nine?

'his equanimity was bottomless, as was his lack of ambition"

"pure gift of avoiding responsibility"

'his blandness was perfectly tolerable, even soothing'

how is leon described in chapter 13?

'true hero' 'took lola in his arms as though she was a small child'

give a key quote for leon in the epilogue

'leon heroically nursed his wife and then raised his boisterous children with a devotion that amazed us all'

how is the setting of the tallis house presented as gothic?

'morning sunlight, or any light, could not conceal the ugliness of the tallis home' 'baronial gothic' 'crumbling stuccoed temple' 'clumsy repairs made with unpainted cement'

how is the setting of the tallis house presented as secretive?

'iron bolts and locks' 'sounds were muffled... eliminated' 'there were no bodies in the pool'

how is the setting of the tallis house presented as artificial?

'artificial lake and island' (trition fountain) 'pressure was so feeble' 'half scale reproduction' from rome

how is the tallis house presented in the epilogue through the cyclical narrative?

'there was no need to be nostalgic- it was always an ugly place' building 'embraced more human happiness as a hotel'

how is the setting of briony's bedroom presented?

'straight backed dolls' 'secret door' 'removeable floorboard' 'shrine to her controlling demon' 'all facing one way - towards their owner'

how is the setting of cecilia's bedroom presented?

'wine stanins' 'burn holes' 'unclosed books, unfolded clothes, unmade bed, unemptied ashtrays'

how is the setting of robbie's bedroom presented?

'study was squashed' 'sloping ceilings' typewriter 'given to him by jack tallis' photo 'twelfth night on the college lawn... malvolio'

how is the setting of war presented as violent and dehumanising?

'it was a leg in a tree' (boy) 'lying face down beyond the pile of earth... fifteen or so'

(bar fight) 'hum of approval/cheer' 'any remaining sense of individual responsibility fell away'

how is the setting of the hospital in part 3 presented as restoring order for briony?

'he was oblivious to briony's presence' 'she knew her humble place in the ward' 'praise was unheard of'

how does the setting of the hospital in part 3 present the horrors of war?

'soldiers standing in groups, dazed and immobile' 'sticky sour odour of fresh blood' 'there was always someone worse'

how is paul marshall presented in chapter five?

'the tall man in the white suit' 'it was a cruel face but his manner was pleasant' (eyebrows)'thick and fused together and blew a dismissive, blubbery sound through his lips'

describe the references to paul marshall's sisters in chapter five

'his younger sisters had appeared...uncomfortably aroused' 'you remind me of my favourite sister'

how does paul marshall sexualise lola in chapter five?

tongue 'curled around the edges' 'watching her closely' 'crossed and uncrossed his legs' 'bite it, he said softly, youve got to bite it' ‘velvet choker’ ‘pre-raphealite princess’

how does emily describe paul marshall in chapter six?

'drone of a man's voice in the nursery' 'lola then, in the nursery with marshall' 'wealthy young entrepreneur might not be such a bad sort'

how does cecilia desribe paul marshall in chapter four?

'comically brooding' 'so nearly handsome, so hugely rich, so unfathomably stupid' 'mr marshall had pubic hair growing out of his ears'

give 2 key quotes for paul marshall in chapter 11

'i saw it myself- had to break it up' 'two inch scratch'

give 3 key quotes for paul marshall in chapter 14

'offered them cigarettes' 'leon and marshall were leaning over a map' 'for the inspectors benefit'

how is paul marshall described at the wedding in part 3?

'chocolate magnate '

give some key quotes for the description paul marshall in the epilogue

'lord and lady marshall' 'liver spots and purplish swags' 'cruelly handsome plurocrat'

how is paul marshall's guilt presented in the epilogue?

'good work for medical research... donated to the tate... funding of agricultural projects in sub saharan africa' 'perhaps he spent a lifetime making amends, or perhaps he swept on without a thought' 'active in the courts since the late fourties, defending their good names with the most expensive ferocity'

how is lola presented as having false maturity in chapter five?

'she didn't want to dirty her cashmere by lying on the floor' 'her arm was much thinner and lighter than his mother's' 'a game was being played she did not understand'

give some quotes for the story of lola's trousers in chapter five?

'spilled a strawberry drink down her frock' 'ballooned across her narrow hips'

how is lola presented as nurturing in chapter five?

'lola put her arm across his shoulder' 'ill thank you not to talk about them in front of the children'

how is lola presented as neglected in chapter five?

'the only room they felt they had a right to be in'

how is lola presented as a victim of paul marshall in chapter five?

'the tall man in the white suit standing in the doorway may have been there for many minutes' 'almost a young woman' 'they knew an adult had no business with sweets' 'bite it, he said, you've got to bite it' ' 'unblemished incisors'

how is lola presented by briony in chapters one,three and seven?

'lola's dominion was merciless' 'behind her older cousin's perfect manners was a destructive intent'

how is lola presented by emily in chapter six?

'that lola' 'tranquil and triumphant' ‘a feeling of resentment’ ‘old antagonism’ (to Lola) ‘lola… would not be held back’

how is lola's injury described in chapter ten?

'long scratch' ''chafing' 'pounced on me'

how is lola presented as marginalised in chapter 13?

'nothing much was ever required of lola' 'lola did not need to lie'

how is lola's wedding described in part 3?

'private ceremony' 'scene of a crime, a gothic cathedral' 'barely more than a child' 'the scratches and bruises were long healed' 'nor did the bride appear to be a victim' 'the sentence had already been served.'

give some key quotes for lola in the epilogue

'cruella de vil' 'still faithful, still as lean and fit as a racing dog' 'taller than her husband now' 'i might outlive paul marshall but lola would certainly outlive me' 'my cousin from the north would not tolerate an action of criminal conspiracy'

how is robbie presented as experiencing a class divide in chapter eight?

'that scene, or a tiny portion of it, was visible to robbie turner through a sealed skylight window'

how is robbie presented as an intellectual in chapter eight?

'he had his politics to protect him, and his scientifically based theories of class, and his own rather forced self certainty'

how is robbie presented as tragic in chapter eight?

'he thought of himself in 1962, at fifty'

how is robbie presented as sexual/romantic in chapter eight?

'she was not mere sweetness and he could not afford to condescend her' 'he had to have it. he wanted it to be worse' 'thought about the page at which his anatomy tended to fall open these days'

how is robbie presented as a hero/detective in chapter 11?

'two inch scratch, robbie noticed, from the corner of marshall's eye'

give key quotes for robbie in chapter 14

'appeared to be asleep' 'drew the man's hand across his chest for protection or warmth' 'did not appear ashamed' 'liars! liars!'

how is robbie presented as heroic in part 2?

'the full ignominy of the retreat- he was ashamed' 'he wasn't trying to impersonate an officer. he had lost his rifle and intended to survive' 'he didn't mention his injury'

how is robbie's dream life with cecilia described in part 2?

'his anxiety was not for the fighting he had to do, but the threat to their wiltshire dream' wanted 'an ordinary life, a family line'

how is robbie and cecilia's relationship presented in part 2?

'willing to stay sane for her' 'she was his reason for life and the reason why he must survive' 'mr knightly and emma, venus and adonis, turner and tallis' 'they had been making love for years by post'

how is robbie presented in the epilogue?

'mr nettle wrote to me about dunkirk' 'robbie turner died of septicaemia at bray dunes on 1 june 1940

how is briony presented as imaginative in chapter one?

"two day tempest of competition" "diary locked by clasp" "her narrative spell" "imagination itself was a source of secrets"

how is briony presented as childish in chapter one?

'everyone would adore her' 'well protected life, she had never really confronted anyone'

how is briony presented as controlling in chapter one?

her room 'was a shrine to her controlling demon' (arabella) 'her purity of spirit would never be in doubt, although she moved through a blemished world'

how is briony presented as superior in chapter one?

repetition of 'freckled' 'they could never understand her ambition'

how is briony presented as isolated in chapter one?

'effective status as an only child' 'well protected life'

how is briony presented melodramatic as in chapter two?

'behind her older cousin's perfect manners was a destructive intent' 'a proposal of marriage' 'she was unable to resist him'

how is briony presented as unreliable in chapter two?

(a play) 'neat, limited, and controllable form'. 'how easy it was to get everything wrong, completely wrong' 'self mythologising... self mocking or mock heroic tone'

how is briony presented as controlling in chapter two?

'the self contained world she had drawn with clear and perfect lines had been defaced with the scribble of other minds'

how does briony describe truth in chapter two?

'the truth had become as ghostly as invention' 'nothing left of that dumb show by the fountain beyond what survived in memory'

give some key quotes for briony in chapter 7

'stay there and wait until something significant happened to her' 'rose to her challenge and dispelled her insignificance' 'she was back in the world, not one that she could make but the one that had made her'

how does cecilia describe briony in chapter 4?

'this would not be the first time she had saved briony from self destruction' 'there was an element of autonomy in the younger girl's unhappiness'

how does emily describe briony in chapter 6?

'poor darling briony, the softest little thing' 'to protect her against failure, against that lola' 'some unspoken, self imposed problem'

how is briony presented as fantastical in chapter ten?

'what fairytale ever held so much by the way of contradiction?' 'her excitement oer the possibilities' 'the story of a man who everyone had liked' 'the incarnation of evil'

how does briony play detective in chapter ten?

'it was wrong to open other people's letters but it was right, essential for her to know everything' 'all this would have to be reconsidered' 'perhaps even criminal had been introduced' 'the weight of a medical diagnosis' 'if the police made an arrest, she, briony, might be made to appear in court'

how is briony presented as self absorbed in chapter ten?

allows crime to happen: 'she should be sociable with mr marshall and ask him about sweets' (twins) 'put it in the envelope'

'the herione always had her doubts and finally was able to reveal he was in the incarnation of evil'

how does briony describe the library scene in chapter ten?

'an attack, a hand to hand fight' 'so huge and wild' vs 'bare shoulders and thin arms'

how is briony presented as false detective in chapter 11?

"please leave him alone' 'attacked, betrayed, by the one she longed to protect'

give some key quotes for briony in chapter 13

'maniac' 'villains were not announced.. did not come cloaked in black with ugly expressions' 'strange elation' ' it was him, wasn't it' 'she marched into the labyrinth of her own construction and was too young, too awestruck, too keen to please' 'a wilful erasing protected her well into her teens'

how does briony present the setting as criminal in chapter 13?

'no bodies in the pool' 'she had no torch'

how is briony presented in chapter 14?

guilty: 'a rosary fingered for a lifetime'. false detective: 'christmas morning sensation of being about to give a present' 'this show of being a good shepherd' 'her vital role fuelled her certainty'

give some key quotes for briony in part 2

'so purposeful and malign' 'never wavering, never doubted' 'nourished it with fantasy and embellished it in her stories' 'might have been enough to sustain her all this time'

how does briony present the hospital in part 3? how is it part of her atonement?

'she was prone to errors of deportment' 'praise was unheard of' 'briony's humiliation in front of the class has been instructive' 'why could briony not visit, even for a day, when everyone would adore to see her'

how does briony talk about lola and paul marshall in part 3?

'briony was more than implicated in this union. she made it possible' 'she would never undo the damage' 'it was not the backbone of a story she lacked. it was backbone'

how does briony describe the horrors of war in part 3?

'she understood how the war might compound her crime' (her fault) 'couldn't it also be the wars?' soldiers 'oblivious to briony' 'bunches of red grapes/overripe bananas'. (a person) 'easily torn, not easily mended'

give some key quotes for luc in part 3

'my memory has been poor' 'its not tallis, you can call me briony' 'do you love me/yes, no other reply was possible'

how does briony describe robbie and cecilia in part 3?

hospital 'might be robbie'

'traitor to her sisters cause' 'interrogation' 'pure nightingale'

'whats stopping you? you had 5 years'

how does briony describe her writing in part 3?

an important writer in disguise

give some key quotes from cyril connelly's letter to briony

'her fundamental lack of grasp of the situation is nicely caught' 'ming vase' (messien) 'if the watching girl did not actually realise the vase had broken' 'how it might affect the lives of the two adults' 'expose them somehow to the young woman's parents' 'you need the backbone of a story' 'as a basis for another draft'

epilogue: how does briony talk about her atonement?

'i will not be able to publish in my lifetime' 'how can a novelist achieve atonement, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also god?' 'the attempt was all' 'i gave them happiness, but i was not so self-serving as to let them forgive me'

epilogue: how does briony talk about writing?

(editor) 'publication equals litigation' 'if i really cared so much about the facts, i should have written a different kind of book' 'the trials of arabella began' 'my fifty nine year assignment' 'what are novelists for?'

epilogue: how does briony reveal the crime against the reader?

'i've always liked to make a tidy ending' 'i count myself an unreliable witness' 'all preceding drafts were pitiless' 'cowardly briony limped back to the hospital' 'what sense of hope or satisfaction could a reader draw from such an account'

epilogue: how does briony talk about memory and truth?

'like policemen in search team, we go on our hands and knees and crawl our way to the truth' 'i have vascular dementia' 'i put it all here as a matter of historical record' 'my forensic memoir' 'we will only exist as my inventions' 'but now i must sleep'

how is cecilia presented as romantic and sexual in chapter two?

'there was something between them' 'she was speaking to him in code' 'drowning herself would be his punishment'

how is cecilia presented as subversive in chapter two?

'natural chaotic look' 'her desire for a cigarette deepened'

how is cecilia presented as a victim of her gender in chapter two?

(a job prospect) 'a dull one certainly but she would have her independence' 'wasting her says in the stews of her untidied room, lying on her bed in a haze of smoke' 'mocked for her poor degree'

how is cecilia presented as trapped in chapter two?

'artificial lake' (fountain) 'pressure was so feeble' 'unchanging calm' 'homebound boredom'

how is cecilia presented as protective in chapter four?

'come back' 'would not have been the first time she has recused briony from self destruction' 'kind words and caresses would've restored a sense of control'

how is cecilia presented as sexual in chapter four?

'how deliciously self destructive'...'to be married to a man so nearly handsome, so hugely rich, so unfathomably stupid' 'mr marshall has pubic hair growing out of his ears'

how does emily present cecilia in chapter six?

'still had a husband to find and motherhood to confront' 'she would be wanting to impress leon's friend and that in itself might not be a bad thing' 'too much the intellectual to bother with children'

how does briony present cecilia in chapter 3?

'was being cecilia just as vivid an affair of being briony?'

how is cecilia presented as trapped in chapter nine?

(in the mirror) 'her future self, at eighty five, in widows weeds' 'ludicrous, limp, sexless things' 'she was not able to resist the power of their habitual expectations'

how is cecilia presented as motherly in chapter nine?

'no one in the tallis household were looking after the quincey twins' 'began restoring order' 'tidied jackson's hair with a comb' 'the success of the evening would be in cecilia's care'

how does cecilia describe the letter in chapter nine? how does she play detecive with the letter?

'it was clear to her now. why it had taken so long for her to choose a dress'

detective: 'the act of folding it away brought to her an obvious realisation: it could not have been sent unsealed'

who does cecilia accuse in chapter 14?

'it was danny hardman they should be talking to'

give some key quotes for cecilia in part 2

'had not spoken to her parents, brother, or sister since november 1935' (briony) 'silly, hysterical' 'she was such a fantasist, as we know to our cost' 'taking on nursing as a sort of penance'

(leon) 'grinning spineless idiot'

give some key quotes for cecilia in the epilogue

'my spontaneous, fortuitous sister and her medical prince survive to love' 'cecilia was killed in september of that year by the bomb that destroyed balham undeground' 'robbie and cecilia, still alive, still in love, sitting side by side in the library, smiling at the trials of arabella?

how is emily presented as a villain in chapter six?

'they were not her own' 'how could hermione have a nervous breakdown' 'silly ignorant ladies' (lola) 'precocious and scheming' 'if she was as much like her mother, she would be tranquil and truimphant' 'she sat in the dark and knew everything'

how is emily presented as a woman in the 1930s in chapter six?

'she would be wanting to impress leon's friend and that in itself might not be a bad thing' 'soon she would be 47' 'the nerve of the girl to be disappointed with it'

how is emily presented in chapter six as a mother (and as a victim?)

'poor darling briony' 'that lola' 'onto her lap for a moment of babyish helplessness' 'if she were not so ill, she would go up now and supervise or help'

how does cecilia describe emily in chapter two?

'her mother, when she wasn't nurturing her migraines, seemed distant, even unfriendly' 'emily tallis wanted to only share tiny frets about the household'

how does cecilia describe emily in chapter nine?

'the dilemma was familiar enough: how to keep the peace and not humiliate her mother'

how is emily depicted as a criminal in chapter 12?

'scratch on her face was undeniable' (robbie) 'manic' 'borders of insanity' 'mr marshall put everyone at ease' 'minutes accumulated like banked snow'

how is emily presented as a victim in chapter 12?

(jack) 'she did not wish to be told. (hermione) 'stealer of scenes' (leon) 'she let herself be guided'

give 2 key quotes for emily in chapter 14

'untypically rose to the occasion' 'it would never have occurred to her to trouble her mother'

how are jack and emily presented by robbie in part 2?

'pursued his persecution with a strange ferocity' 'jack turned away, vanished into his ministry the moment he was needed'

how are jack and emily presented by briony in part 3?

'emily's letters were mainly about the evacuees' 'one of the mothers had disgraced herself in a village pub' 'he was trying to tell her that he knew the truth'