Atonement Chapters Five & Six Summary & Analysis

Chapters Five & Six

Summary: Chapter Five

While in the middle of a rehearsal, Briony walks out on Lola and the twins with no explanation. They wait for her to return until the twins grow bored. Lola wanders out of the nursery and into an empty bedroom. Looking out the window, Lola sees Briony standing in the temple on the island and realizes she is not coming back. Lola then notices a man’s suitcase in the room and leaves. With nothing to do, as the twins did not want to go in the pool while Cecilia, Leon, and Paul are there, the boys play while Lola arranges her hair. Eventually, Jackson and Pierrot begin sobbing due to homesickness. Lola comforts them by saying they will go home soon, but Jackson argues that due to the divorce, they have no real home. Lola is horrified to hear Jackson use the word divorce, as it has never been uttered in front of the twins before. She chastises him and tells him to never use the word again.

After the boys have calmed, Paul Marshall comes into the room and introduces himself. As Paul sits down, Lola notices that he has a cruel-looking face but a pleasant manner, a combination that she finds attractive. Paul mentions that he has read about their parents in the papers, which surprises the twins. Lola challenges Paul to say what he has read about them, and when he prevaricates, she warns him not to mention their parents in front of the twins again. Paul notices that Lola is closer to a young woman than a girl and compliments her on her clothes. When Pierrot says he is hungry, Paul pulls out one of his family’s chocolate bars, an Amo. Paul explains that sugar casing keeps the chocolate safe in any conditions, even war. The twins say their father insists there will not be a war, but Paul warns otherwise. When the twins question why adults would want chocolate, Paul gives the chocolate bar to Lola instead and encourages her to bite it while he watches.

Summary: Chapter Six

Emily Tallis has retreated to her dark bedroom after lunch knowing that a migraine is imminent and hoping to recover before dinner that night. She thinks of how she wishes Leon would have taken a position from his father in the civil service instead of working for a bank. As Emily hopes Leon will bring home a friend that Cecilia could marry, her worries turn to Cecilia, whom she feels will not be a good prospect for any potential husband due to her introversion, quirky Cambridge friends, and penchant for cigarettes. Emily’s thoughts turn to her youngest child, Briony, whom Emily worries cannot handle failure. Emily compares her niece Lola to Lola’s mother, Emily’s sister, Hermione, whom Emily believes creates personal drama to gain attention. Emily thinks of how all this worrying she has done about her family has led to her migraines, which in turn prevent her from doing all the work a mother should and have led her own children to coddle her.

As Emily lies on the bed, she hears all the events of the afternoon taking place. While hearing Betty tend to the twins’ needs, Emily thinks of how Briony is no longer a baby who needs taking care of, but still a child whose mind is constantly at work inventing stories and creating new problems. Emily mourns that she will never have a baby again as she is now forty-seven. While hearing the twins in the bath, she thinks of how selfish her sister is to abandon her children with the excuse of a nervous breakdown. As her migraine begins to abate, Emily hears Paul talking to Lola in the nursery and thinks Paul might be a good prospect for Cecilia if he is good with children. Thinking of all there is left to do before dinner, Emily gets out of bed and looks for her sunglasses.

Analysis: Chapters Five & Six

In these chapters, the theme of childhood versus adulthood is explored first with Lola. Although Lola is only two years older than Briony, her relative sophistication makes her seem much older, at least in Briony’s eyes, and implies that Lola hopes to be seen as an adult rather than a child. She both comforts and admonishes her brothers, taking on more of a mother-like role than sister, showing that her maturity may stem from having to take on more responsibilities than simply wanting to belittle Briony. When she meets Paul Marshall, who is nine years her senior, she reprimands him as if she were his equal. This, along with her fashionable clothes, leads Paul to see her as more of an adult than a child. Although this is the impression Lola wants to make, especially since she finds herself attracted to Paul, the scene between them forebodes the danger of a child trying to embrace adulthood far too quickly.

The motif of familial relationships is also developed further, both between Lola and her brothers and between Emily and her children and sister. Although Emily, as the mother, takes on the role of worrier, she can do nothing to actually help her children, as these anxieties have only made her ill. Emily’s illness has led Cecilia to act as a mother figure not only to Briony but to Emily as well, just as Lola’s parents’ divorce has forced Lola into a mother-like role to the twins. Both the Tallises and the Quinceys show that, as Briony has realized, people are complex and cannot be put into the singular roles of parent, child, or sibling, and that relationships change as a result of these shifting responsibilities.

The nature of perspective is again explored as Emily lies in bed, listening to events that have already been described in the novel. As Emily is occupied with Cecilia finding a husband, hearing Paul talk with Lola and the twins only makes her think of how Paul would be a good father. This perspective blinds Emily to the idea that Paul could potentially be a danger to the children. Although Emily does not know Lola very well, she cannot help but compare her to Emily’s sister, Hermione, whom she resents, foreshadowing that she may be predisposed to ignore Lola if she were in need. Based on Emily’s childhood rivalry with her sister, she cannot bring herself to believe that Hermione has actually had a nervous breakdown and instead assumes that her sister is simply seeking attention. Even as someone who is bedbound, simply listening to the goings-on in the house, Emily’s thoughts demonstrate how far off one’s perspective can be from true reality.

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