Victims in Atonement

Question 1

Robbie is a victim of Briony’s lies (1)

Answer 1

‘seal the crime, frame it with the victim’s curse, close his fate with the magic of naming’ p165

Question 2

Robbie is presented as guilty of rape by Briony (4)

Answer 2

“I thought he was a monster” Lola p119

“something manic and glazed in his look” according to Briony p151

Briony thinks of Robbie as a “maniac” p166

“Mr Turner was a dangerous man” p181

Question 3

Robbie is presented as guilty in the fountain scene, through his relationship with Cecilia (4)

Answer 3

“as though issuing a command that Cecilia dared not obey” p38

“what strange power did he have over her? Blackmail? Threats?” p38

“he looked so huge and wild” p123 in library scene

“her forearm which was raised in protest, or in self-defence” p123

Question 4

Robbie is falsely imprisoned, making him a victim (3)

Answer 4

‘Robbie between them. And handcuffed! She saw how his arms were forced in front of him… The disgrace of it horrified her. It was further confirmation of his guilt, and the beginning of his punishment. It had the look of eternal damnation’ p184

‘He could smell the concrete floor, and the piss in the bucket, and the gloss paint on the walls, and hear the snores of the men along the row’ p202

‘The stupidity and claustrophobia. The hand squeezing on his throat.’ P202

Question 5

Robbie is forced to fight in WWII (1)

Answer 5

‘At the mention of dying, a surge of feeling engulfed him, pushing him beyond anger into an extremity of bewilderment and disgust.’ P343

Question 6

Robbie is a victim of war (1)

Answer 6

‘Robbie Turner died of septicaemia at Bray Dunes on 1 June 1940’ p370

Question 7

Robbie becomes a criminal (3)

Answer 7

‘He felt hostile to everyone around him. His feelings had shrunk to the small hard point of his own survival’ p217

‘Turner grabbed the man by his tie and was ready to smack his stupid face with an open right hand’ p217

‘In the lucid freedom of his dream state, Turner intended to shoot the officer through the chest. It would be better for everybody’ p247

Question 8

Cecilia is a victim of Briony’s lies (2)

Answer 8

‘Her older daughter shrank into private misery’ p175

‘When they wrecked your life they wrecked mine’ p209

Question 9

Cecilia is a victim of war (1)

Answer 9

‘Cecilia was killed in the September of the same year by the bomb that destroyed Balham Underground station’ p370

Question 10

Cecilia and Robbie’s relationship is cut short (7)

Answer 10

‘They said they loved each other… and knew their future was together’ p207

‘His anxiety was not for the fighting he might have to do, but the threat to their Wiltshire dream’ p208

‘He could become again the man who had once crossed a Surrey park at dusk in his best suit, swaggering on the promise of life; p227

‘When she said ‘I’ll wait for you. Come back.’ She meant it. Time would show she meant it.’ P265

‘If this girl has so fully misunderstood or been wholly baffled by the strange little scene that has unfolded before her, how might it affect the lives of the two adults? Might she come between them in some disastrous fashion?’ p313

‘Who would want to believe that they never met again, never fulfilled their love?’ p371

‘Briony will be as much of a fantasy as the lovers who shared a bed in Balham and enraged their landlady’ p371

Question 11

Lola is a victim of divorce (1)

Answer 11

‘refugees from a bitter domestic civil war’ p8

Question 12

Lola is a victim of rape (4)

Answer 12

‘Lola’s face was so white and rigid, like a clay mask’ p 154

‘Lola was sitting forward, with her arms crossed around her chest, hugging herself and rocking slightly. The voice was faint and distorted, as though impeded by something like a bubble’ p165

‘The body was bony and unyielding… Lola hugged herself and rocked’ p 165

‘Weak submissive voice’ p165

Question 13

Lola is a typical victim (2)

Answer 13

‘Lola.. was able to retreat behind an air of wounded confusion, and as a treasured patient, recovering victim, lost child, let herself be bathed in the concern and guilt of the adults in her life’ p168

‘And he was bound to go for the most vulnerable – a spindly girl’ p168

Question 14

Lola is presented as adult-like (4)

Answer 14

‘In the guise of the adult she considered herself at heart to be’ p34

‘tokens of maturity’ p34

‘The girl was almost a young woman, poised and imperious, quite the little Pre-Raphaelite princess with her bangles and tresses, her painted nails and velvet choker’ p60

‘The older girl, always one step ahead of her’

Question 15

Lola is infantilised during the wedding (3)

Answer 15

‘Lola – barely more than a child, prised open and taken – to marry her rapist’ p324

‘Her hair was gathered into a single childish plait’ p324

‘Poor vain and vulnerable Lola with the pearl-studded choker and the rose-water scent, who longed to throw off the last restraints of childhood…’ p324

Question 16

Lola marries her attacker, making her a complex victim (2)

Answer 16

‘Nor did the bride appear to be a victim… More than that, surely; a chocolate magnate, the creator of Amo.’ P325

‘The last brick was set in place as the vicar… pronounced them husband and wife together’ p326

Question 17

Lola is presented as a criminal in ‘London, 1999’ (1)

Answer 17

‘There was a touch of the stage villain here – the gaunt figure, the black coat, the lurid lips. A cigarette holder, a lapdog tucked under one arm and she could have been Cruella de Vil’ p358

Question 18

Briony is the victim of neglect and poor parenting (1)

Answer 18

‘Within the half hour Briony would commit her crime’ p156

‘illness had stopped her giving her children all a mother should’ p66

Question 19

Briony is a victim of her own imagination (5)

Answer 19

‘She had no doubt. She could describe him. There was nothing she could not describe.’ P 165

‘In the later years she regretted not being more factual, not providing herself with a store of raw material. It would have been useful to know what happened, what it looked like, who was there, what was said’ p280.

‘Did she think she could… drown her guilt in a stream – three streams – of consciousness?’ p320

‘Lola’s silence in the darkness at the lakeside as she let her earnest, ridiculous, oh so prim younger cousin, who couldn’t tell real life from the stories in her head deliver the attacker into safety’ p 324

‘Like policemen in a search team, we go on our hands and knees and crawl our way towards the truth’ p359

Question 20

Briony is a victim of her own guilt and self-hatred (2)

Answer 20

‘How guilt refined the methods of self-torture, threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to be fingered for a lifetime’ p173

‘She would never undo the damage. She was unforgivable.’ P285

Question 21

Briony’s torturous guilt is exemplified in her imagined interaction between herself, Robbie, and Cecilia. (2)

Answer 21

‘I’m torn between breaking your stupid neck here and… throwing you down the stairs.’ Robbie p341

‘She had thought about this conversation many times, like a child anticipating a beating. Now it was happening at last… She knew his words would hurt her later’ p341

Question 22

Briony is a victim of her youth (3)

Answer 22

‘If only she, Briony, had been less innocent, less stupid’ p168

‘her fundamental lack of grasp of the situation is nicely caught’ p312

‘If this girl has so fully misunderstood or been wholly baffled by the strange little scene that has unfolded before her, how might it affect the lives of the two adults? Might she come between them in some disastrous fashion?’ p313

Question 23

Briony is a victim of the legal system (2)

Answer 23

‘Publication equals litigation’ p359

‘She was the superior older girl, one step ahead of me… I will not be able to publish in my lifetime’ p359

Question 24

Briony is a victim of the war (6)

Answer 24

‘Hung like exotic fruits’ p295

‘A memory came to her from childhood, of seeing at an afternoon birthday party the famous tablecloth trick.’ P296

‘The leg was black and soft, like an overripe banana’ p296

‘They could not have begun to describe their time in the wards, or how it had changed them’ p311.

‘Her secret torment and the public upheaval of war had always seemed separate worlds, but now she understood how the war might compound her crime.’ P288

‘She thought too how one of these men might be Robbie….’ P298

Question 25

Briony is a typical victim (2)

Answer 25

‘Cecilia had always loved to cuddle the baby of the family’ p44

‘poor darling Briony, the softest little thing’ p 65