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Chapters Thirteen & Fourteen

Summary: Chapter Thirteen

After deciding to send search parties out after the twins, Briony first checks the pool, where she assumes they would go. Briony imagines finding them drowned in the pool and how she could vividly describe the scene to anyone, as she could describe any sort of scene in writing. While running through the darkness, Briony thinks of how she must protect her sister from Robbie and how attaining the hatred of Robbie, an adult, has brought Briony closer to adulthood herself. Briony thinks of how after everything her family has given Robbie, it is disgusting that he would do something so vile. Briony realizes that for the first time she has met a real-life villain, whose prior friendliness makes him an even more complex and interesting character. She pictures Cecilia telling Leon about what Robbie did and the three siblings turning their parents against Robbie for good.

After checking that the twins are not in or around the pool, Briony assures herself that they, along with Cecilia, are safe. She reflects on how after the events of the day, her childhood has ended. While walking around the house, Briony sees her mother sitting in the drawing room through a window and thinks about her mother’s eventual death as well as the pity that would be bestowed on Briony at the funeral. Briony considers going to snuggle with her mother but continues her search instead. She decides to go to the island temple to see if the twins went there. Though frightened of the dark as she crosses the bridge, she knows that as she is no longer a child and she must forge ahead. As she approaches the temple, she sees a figure she does not recognize. When the figure begins moving and then breaking apart, she realizes it is two people. While the larger figure runs off, the smaller figure still on the ground calls out for Briony, and Briony realizes it is Lola.

Briony watches the larger figure disappearing in the dark before going to Lola. Lola seems disoriented, and Briony asks her to identify her attacker. When Lola is about to answer, Briony first asks whether it was Robbie, and then Briony states definitively that it was Robbie. Lola never explicitly confirms what Briony is saying but says that Briony saw the man and she did not as he covered Lola’s eyes during the assault. Briony’s perception of Robbie as a maniac, along with the broad figure she saw in the dark, leads her to believe with conviction that Robbie was the assaulter, even if she could not actually see the man. Over the next weeks, Briony will be asked if she saw Robbie. She wants to explain that while she did not see him with her eyes, her knowledge of the situation instructed her sight. She figures this explanation would be too complex for the authorities and also does not want to be seen as a silly little girl who made a mistake and so sticks with her story of seeing Robbie clearly. Eventually, Leon finds Lola and Briony and carries Lola back to the house while Briony tells him what she believes to be the truth.

Summary: Chapter Fourteen

After returning to the house, Lola is brought upstairs, and Briony is the first to speak to the police inspectors and constables when they arrive. She tells them that Robbie was the man who assaulted Lola. During the comings and goings of the doctor and other police officers, Robbie and the twins are still nowhere to be found, while Paul returns and is briefed on what happened. Cecilia remains at the outskirt of the conversations, refusing to speak or help. Briony eventually remembers another piece of evidence that will validate her story and goes to Cecilia’s room to find Robbie’s letter. She first shows it to Leon, who passes it to the police officers. They all remain impassive, to Briony’s surprise, as Emily takes the letter and reads it. When Cecilia, who had been lost in her own thoughts, realizes what is happening, she becomes angry and tries to take the letter back. Emily says Cecilia should have come to her with the letter and then Lola could have been spared. After Cecilia goes up to her room in anger and disbelief, the police take the letter as evidence.

Briony goes into the library with the police officers and her mother for her formal interview and tells them that she witnessed Robbie raping Cecilia in that very room. The rest of the people present, including Leon, Paul, Hardman, and Danny Hardman, are interviewed as well, though Cecilia refuses to be interviewed. In days to come, Cecilia would eventually agree to an interview and describe her encounter with Robbie as consensual, but the damage to Robbie’s reputation had already been done. Cecilia also suggests that the police look into Danny Hardman, but since he has an alibi, the police assume Cecilia is trying to protect her childhood friend.

Around five o’clock in the morning, those gathered see someone approaching the house, only to realize it is Robbie, with both of the twins in tow. Briony is outraged that Robbie seems to think he can earn forgiveness for assaulting Lola by finding the twins and returning them safely. Emily sends Briony to bed, but Briony cannot shake the fear that Robbie’s heroic act will make Briony look like a fool whose story could not be believed. At the sound of a car, Briony goes to the window and looks outside. She sees Robbie in handcuffs being led to the police car, which affirms for Briony her certainty that he is guilty. Before Robbie is put in the car, Briony sees Cecilia running out to him. As Cecilia talks to him, Robbie watches her intently, and Briony assumes Cecilia is chastising Robbie for his various assaults. As Cecilia grabs Robbie’s cuffed hands, Briony marvels at how easily her sister is able to forgive Robbie and then thinks of how experiencing this tragedy will bring her closer to Cecilia. Eventually, the inspector guides Robbie into the car. Cecilia watches as the police car drives away, and Briony can tell her sister is crying. Before the other police cars drive away, Robbie’s mother comes up the driveway and yells at the house that they are liars.

Analysis: Chapters Thirteen & Fourteen

In these chapters, Briony believes that her transformation into an adult is complete. However, her naive conviction that the events of one day could bring someone from childhood to adulthood shows just how far she has to go. The stories she works up in her head also show her immaturity and self-centeredness. When she thinks of her mother’s death, she imagines the attention she will receive rather than the grief she may feel. And when Robbie returns with the twins, she does not feel grateful for the twins’ safety or wonder if she was mistaken about Lola’s attacker. Rather, she feels furious that Robbie’s appearance may weaken her story and make her look like a fool. She continues to have this worry as she insists that Robbie was the man who attacked Lola, thinking that if she confesses that she did not actually see the man, she will be seen as childish. Briony’s obsession with not wanting to be seen as a child, to the point of giving false testimony, demonstrates just how childish she still is.

Briony’s insistence in the “reality” of the stories she tells herself also deepens the theme of the power of storytelling. Despite her earlier epiphanies, Briony still sees herself as the author of reality itself, in control of everything that happens. Her experiences with Robbie that day have all compounded to lead Briony to see him as the only possible rapist among the possible suspects. The prospect of Robbie emerging as a hero is something she could not imagine, and it rattles her until she realizes Robbie is being arrested. The fact that she is mollified by the handcuffs on Robbie shows that she needs confirmation from the outside world that he is the criminal she has accused him of being. Even when she sees Cecilia touching Robbie, she interprets the scene to fit her own vision, as Cecilia forgiving Robbie instead of sharing affectionate words with him. Briony’s need for control over how stories play out has led her to be responsible for the arrest of an innocent man.

From the reader’s perspective, there is a good deal of evidence pointing to Paul as being Lola’s actual rapist. His interest in her upon their first meeting, the scratch on his face, Lola’s injuries, and his late return to the house all raise suspicion, especially with the knowledge of Robbie’s kind nature and his genuine feelings for Cecilia. However, Robbie, of a lower social and economic status than Paul, seems a more likely suspect from the perspective of the Tallises and the police. This again shows how all the things that affect a person’s perspective can easily lead them away from discovering the truth.

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