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Chapters Seven & Eight

Summary: Chapter Seven

At the island temple, which has long been in disrepair, Briony uses a branch to slash at nettles, pretending they are Lola, then the twins, and then the act of playwriting itself. Feeling satisfied that she has killed those nuisances enough, Briony decides that her childhood is the next thing she must destroy as she no longer has any use for it. While continuing her swipes at thirteen nettles, each representing a year of her life thus far, Briony imagines herself competing in the Olympics at such a sport. When she hears the carriage approaching the house, she pictures Leon being impressed by her new skill but refuses to turn toward him to show that the opinions of others no longer matter to her. Broken out of her daydream, Briony is frustrated to find herself not in a world of her own making. She returns to the bridge between the house and the island and decides to remain there until something momentous occurs to dissipate her feeling of insignificance.

Summary: Chapter Eight

After returning from the Tallis house to the bungalow, Robbie takes a bath and remembers Cecilia stripping to her underwear and climbing into the fountain. He thinks of how, despite knowing her since they were young, he has never truly appreciated her beauty before. As he thought Cecilia was embarrassed by him, Robbie never thought Cecilia would have paid him any mind. But, due to her exaggerated performance at the fountain, Robbie wonders if she is truly angry with him or was actually trying to make him see her beauty. After grappling with whether he should go to dinner at the Tallis house that night, Robbie goes to his typewriter to draft a letter to Cecilia. While sitting at his desk, he regards a picture of his parents, Grace and Ernest, on their honeymoon. Ernest, who was the Tallises’ gardener, left when Robbie was six years old, never to be heard from again. Robbie also sees the book he borrowed from the Tallises’ library a few days earlier, on the day he took off his socks and shoes to enter the house. That day was the first time he noticed how awkward he felt around Cecilia, and now he finds that his attraction to her has crept up quite suddenly.

Robbie begins to write a letter of apology to Cecilia, first jokingly blaming his awkwardness on the heat and then implying that the heat on its own is not to blame. After revising his statement a few times to get the tone just right, Robbie notices his open anatomy book and, before stopping to think about it, writes a graphic description of how he would like to make love to Cecilia. He immediately takes the paper out of the typewriter, knowing he cannot give that particular draft to Cecilia. He takes out another piece of paper and writes the letter by hand, including only the apology. Robbie reflects on how he was once asked about his parents by another student at Cambridge and explained his situation without embarrassment. Robbie figured the others must see him as ignorant to not think his family history matters, but he knows that growing up alongside Cecilia made him an equal in her eyes. While getting ready for dinner, Robbie begins to feel excited, both by the prospect of seeing Cecilia and by his future in medical school.

As Robbie walks to the house, he thinks of how bright his future looks and how much he can accomplish in his lifetime. When he approaches the bridge, he sees Briony standing on it, but she does not respond when he calls out to her. Robbie decides to give his letter to Briony to deliver to Cecilia so that Cecilia may read and reflect on it before seeing Robbie. Briony takes the letter and runs up to the house without speaking. After Briony leaves, Robbie lights a cigarette to delay his arrival. But once Briony is out of sight and earshot, Robbie realizes that the letter he put in the envelope was the typewritten one and the handwritten one he meant to deliver is still on his desk. Robbie calls out to Briony, but she is already entering the house.

Analysis: Chapters Seven & Eight

Chapter Seven shows Briony caught between the struggle of childhood and adulthood. Although she claims to be done with being a child, her actions—swiping at nettles while pretending they are the people she’s angry at—suggest that she is still very childlike. Similarly, the story she makes up for herself about swiping nettles in the Olympics is something of a childish daydream. The fact that she goes so far as to imagine Leon admiring her and decides to act nonchalant cements how childlike she still actually is. And, as she did with Cecilia and Robbie when she saw them in the fountain, she thinks of Leon as a character in her own story instead of as an individual person who might like his sister to greet him. Although Briony has logically realized that other people are equally as complex as she is, she still does not behave in a way that suggests that she truly believes the idea. Briony’s decision to wait on the bridge for something to happen shows how desperately she does want to be thrust into adulthood and how ignorant she remains of how the transition to adulthood actually happens.

Briony’s childishness and naivete are directly contrasted with Robbie’s newfound fascination with Cecilia. Even though Robbie was at the fountain with Cecilia, he, like Briony, has trouble interpreting what Cecilia’s actions meant. However, because he is aware of his own connection to Cecilia and has more knowledge of adult relationships than Briony, he understands that Cecilia was likely driven not purely by anger but by something deeper between them. In this way, Robbie’s perspective on the event is far more nuanced than Briony’s.

Chapter Eight provides more background on Robbie’s character and proves Briony’s theory right once again, that each individual is a complex being. Since he is the Tallises’ charlady’s son, Briony first sees Robbie as a potential rags-to-riches romantic suitor for her sister. However, Robbie’s lower social class does not bother him at all and is not an integral part of how he sees himself. Rather, he is confident in his own knowledge and abilities and excited for his future as a doctor. This attitude distinguishes him from Cecilia, who is currently without direction. Despite being abandoned by his father, Robbie and his mother have a close and happy relationship, unlike the Tallis children, who have both parents with neither filling the role they need. Although Briony has an idea in her head of what Robbie should be like, he proves himself to be much more complicated than that.

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