Essay on Atonement by Ian McEwan

Agnes’s spiritual ‘atonement’, helping to ‘guide her home’ is regularly influenced by the state of the weather and natural occurrences on the landscape. Agnes is offered two experiences of redemption in the novel. One being predominately religious, aided by reverend Toti and the other being sense of belonging and acceptance to a family. In this heavily Christian society, Agnes is given a ‘spiritual advisor,’ who takes on the responsibility to ‘save her.’ As Agnes’ begins to confide in Toti and learn to rely on him the weather gradually becomes increasingly ‘miserable’ rendering it difficult for the two to meet. At the climax of the novel, ‘travelling to Kornsa in this unfit weather’ has resulted in Toti’s ‘fever’ leaving Agnes ‘scared’ and deprived of her confidant. Despite Toti representing her divine redemption, the two form an alliance stemming from predominately companionship, demonstrated when Toti ‘forgot’ his New Testament at home when going to meet Agnes. Additionally, Agnes is emotionally redeemed when experiencing a sense of belonging at Korsna. Amidst the natural process of childbirth occurring in the landscape Agnes aids the ‘newborn’ by recognizing it is in ‘breach.’ This

In the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, the story is told through multiple points of view. Each member of the Price family is noticeably different, and each have their own inner demons. As each character is unlike, the way they handle their guilt, and search for forgiveness are also different. Some characters like Orleanna Price are forgiven by the end of the novel, and others, such as Nathan Price are not as fortunate. In this story the biggest

Atwood individualises the character of Serena Joy, as her high status in the society demands power and the domination over the inferior members of the Commander’s household, such as Offred – a handmaid. This shows that Serena Joy has a sense of control, using this privilege to become “a woman who might bend the rules”; this is similar to the

People face difficult and life altering challenges every day. Some of the bad times are more complex and affect more people than other types can. A challenge can start out as a family trying to help the less fortunate, but then take a turn for the worse. Even if it wasn't a specific person’s fault, he or she still feels guilty. In The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, the author uses symbolism and allusions to prove the theme everyone has and deals with guilt differently.

Guilt is a very strong and uncomfortable feeling that often results from one’s own actions. This strong emotion is one of the theme ideas in William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel guilt, but they react in different ways. Guilt hardens Macbeth, but cause Lady Macbeth to commit suicide. As Macbeth shrives to success guilt overcome’s Macbeth where he can no longer think straight. Initially Macbeth planned was to kill Duncan but it wasn’t enough he also had to kill Banquo and Macduff’s family. On the other hand Lady Macbeth had to call upon the weird sister to unsexed her so she had no true feeling towards anything as if she was a man. However, the true guilt of the murder

O’Connor takes her main characters through an epiphany in which therefore helps the characters to become aware of their own ignorance. The characters eventually gained knowledge or better yet became self-aware of their attitudes towards others through some form of an unexpected tragedy. O’Connor wants her readers to see how no matter how much you try to cover or justify your ignorant ways whether it be through grace, judgment is still imminent. “In A Good Man is Hard to Find”, O’Connor reveals in this story both grace, redemption and pride. The

Throughout the novel, Charlie started to question his 'morality vs ethics' and his 'responsibilities and culpability' which created 'atonement' within the book which will be discussed in this essay.

“There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love (Bryant H. McGill).” The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, is set in Salem, Massachusetts. The play occurs at the time of The Salem Witch Trials, which took place from 1692 until 1693. Nineteen people were sentenced to death for failing to admit to witchcraft, with many more being accused. Two of the main characters in the play accused of witchcraft are John and Elizabeth Proctor. As the play progresses, the reader sees their relationship evolve; from cold in the beginning, to supportive in the middle, to a caring, forgiving relationship in the end.

In today’s society, people often times misinterpret things we hear or we tend to make assumptions about several things such as who said what and worrying about whether or not it was true. It later becomes a major problem when these misperceptions get out of hand and are used to penalize someone for something they really didn’t do. These people often times can be kids. Teens specifically tend to have open ears and observe everything. They crave gossip and secrets and they aren’t able to contain themselves and keep it to themselves. Obviously it is possible that they don’t understand what they hear most times, but can easily make it up or give false information. False accusations lead to difficult situations sometimes critical and can hurt

In the novel Atonement, McEwan juxtaposes the unique but conflicting ways that his characters perceive and understand their world. McEwan intentionally

Whilst in conversation with Lola, Briony’s cousin, Briony tells her of all the events involving Robbie so far, this conveys once more that Briony is a meddling child as she is telling false accusations to people who are not involved in the situation. We can also evidence once more of Briony attention seeking as she had a ‘desire to share a secret and show the older girl that she too had worldly experiences’. Lola further urges Briony’s imagination and makes her belief that Robbie is a ‘maniac’ and could ‘attack anyone’. Following this we can see that not only is Briony immature but she is also ignorant of what is happening and would still rather belief the story that she is building. We can see this when Briony reflects on the memories she had of Robbie as child when he would ‘carry her on his back’ and when he ‘taught her one summer how to tread water and breast stroke’, and instead she perceives these innocent acts to be dangerous as Briony said he ‘pretended to be a beast’ and that ‘she had been alone with him many times at the swimming hole’. These acts would make Robbie seem untrustworthy to a child because beasts are a common factor in children’s nightmares and the thought of a man being

Ian McEwan shows that guilt can stay with an individual for a lifetime. Briony knows the night of the rape that she had not seen the perpetrator clearly. In her mind, she has, but the truth

Though McEwan leaves the question open in the end; does Briony achieve atonement by writing her book, I believe she will never achieve atonemnt from her struggle because of several things based on the book.

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.

Eventually, Dimmesdale confesses to his sins and asks for people to “forgive thee,” believing the death by “triumphant ignominy” brings mercy and preventing the loss of his existence (Hawthorne 161). For individuals with a moral conscious, the punishment of their actions relieves the guilt of allowing others to receive their sufferings. By claiming their accountability, they restore their sense of purpose and existence, they believe that they found themselves. Individuals should relinquish the patriarchy and masculine hegemony and aim for total equality, for the effects of the patriarchy proves detrimental to all with a sense of morality. Critic Stroner extends Hawthorne’s argument that individuals leave with a “comforting truth” that Dimmesdale would rid himself of the guilty conscious prior to his death (Stroner). When individuals receive the justice of rewards or punishment they deserve, those individuals prevents the forsakenness of their souls, they comfort others with preservation of their morality. Relinquishing the hypocrisy of their actions of hegemonic masculinity against their sense of morality, individuals have the ability to forgive themselves for both the original sin and the sin of secretive oppression. By ending the neglect of responsibility, all individuals would have the ability to carry equal burden of societal sin rather than