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As a thirteen-year-old girl, Briony has two passions that could be independent of one another but instead fuse together: a need for control and a love of storytelling. As a child with siblings more than ten years older than she is and parents who are not overly involved in her activities, Briony is used to having control over her own insulated life. Writing fulfills this need for control, as she can create entire worlds of which she is the puppet master. However, the arrival of her cousins, who do not perform Briony’s play The Trials of Arabella in the way she had imagined, disrupts the sense of control Briony feels she has. This leads her to give up playwriting in exchange for stories, which do not rely on actors, and to form her own story about reality that will lead to disastrous consequences.

Briony’s accusation of Robbie is driven not only by storytelling but by her desire to grow up or, rather, her illusion that she already is grown up. This desire is intensified with the arrival of Lola, two years Briony’s senior. As a precocious child, Briony sees herself as smarter than most people around her. This leads Briony to believe that the interactions she witnesses between Cecilia and Robbie are sinister, as she cannot yet understand them. Briony’s childishness is made even more clear by how little she questions her own assumptions and views about the world. Briony does eventually mature and, understanding how grave her mistake was in accusing Robbie of a rape he never committed, spends her life trying to atone for it, first as a nurse and later by telling Cecilia and Robbie’s story. However, despite her attempts to rectify her tragic mistake, Briony understands and accepts that she can never be forgiven.

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