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Jan. 12th, 2008 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunshine_queenSo, I just saw Atonement again. Happily, Paige cried harder than I did, but I still shed a bucket of tears. It's
What of Cecilia?
I find it so interesting that in Briony's own story, she is selfish enough to ignore her sister. There is the accused, and the accuser, but not the one damaged along with the accused, and I really find it fascinating. We know that Cecilia is a nurse, a ward sister or whatever, and that she lives in Balham. And she writes to Robbie. That's it. She doesn't get her own section.
Why would Briony ignore her? I would argue that would be too painful to imagine her sister's suffering, but if she can imagine Robbie's (which has to be greater,) why not Cee's?
I think that's why I like Cecilia best. I get to wonder so much- how intense was her guilt, from her family and her class? How much did she hate herself for all the time she wasted with Robbie? Did she hate herself for not hiding the letter better? How did she find out about Robbie's death? Did Nettle write her, or was a dispatch sent to Mrs Turner, who then told Cecilia?
What also intrigues me is that one could argue that Robbie didn't have to die. If he hadn't been accused and recruited out of prison, if he had enlisted, he could have gone for officers' training. That means (I think) that he would've been evacuated sooner from Dunkirk, and therefore might have survived, or, he might never have been wounded at all. This I understand. But Cecilia- her death was entirely a fluke. A bomb hit the gas and water mains over the station; the station flooded. Cecilia drowned. She would've drowned if Robbie had been there, she would have drowned if Robbie had been alive and still at war, she would have drowned if Robbie was on his way home to her. The water pipe burst, and the tube was flooded. Cecilia died.
(It makes it all the sadder, really: Cecilia was as innocent in the situation as possible- Robbie was innocent, but he was sentenced, Cecilia only suffered because she loved him- and she died in an unpreventable way.)
It was... not fitting, but good, that it was a flood that killed her, since water played such a huge, awesome role in this story: the fountain, the lake, the ocean, the flooding, the effing beach they wanted to get to so badly. It's so horrible to think that they never saw each other after the tea room, and that he didn't get on with her. I think sometimes that Cecilia got off at the next stop to wait to see if he'd come on the next bus, but it makes it too depressing. They still never saw each other again. They didn't even have pictures of each other, and Robbie lighting a match to look at the postcard just slays me.
And I know that I'm a sucker when it comes to love stories, but, really? It's the most beautiful one ever, because it's so doomed and so horrible and so real that you just ache for them and what they never had.
So, anyway, those are some of my thoughts. I have so many more, but the amazingness of it all makes it all swirl around my head.
What of Cecilia?
I find it so interesting that in Briony's own story, she is selfish enough to ignore her sister. There is the accused, and the accuser, but not the one damaged along with the accused, and I really find it fascinating. We know that Cecilia is a nurse, a ward sister or whatever, and that she lives in Balham. And she writes to Robbie. That's it. She doesn't get her own section.
Why would Briony ignore her? I would argue that would be too painful to imagine her sister's suffering, but if she can imagine Robbie's (which has to be greater,) why not Cee's?
I think that's why I like Cecilia best. I get to wonder so much- how intense was her guilt, from her family and her class? How much did she hate herself for all the time she wasted with Robbie? Did she hate herself for not hiding the letter better? How did she find out about Robbie's death? Did Nettle write her, or was a dispatch sent to Mrs Turner, who then told Cecilia?
What also intrigues me is that one could argue that Robbie didn't have to die. If he hadn't been accused and recruited out of prison, if he had enlisted, he could have gone for officers' training. That means (I think) that he would've been evacuated sooner from Dunkirk, and therefore might have survived, or, he might never have been wounded at all. This I understand. But Cecilia- her death was entirely a fluke. A bomb hit the gas and water mains over the station; the station flooded. Cecilia drowned. She would've drowned if Robbie had been there, she would have drowned if Robbie had been alive and still at war, she would have drowned if Robbie was on his way home to her. The water pipe burst, and the tube was flooded. Cecilia died.
(It makes it all the sadder, really: Cecilia was as innocent in the situation as possible- Robbie was innocent, but he was sentenced, Cecilia only suffered because she loved him- and she died in an unpreventable way.)
It was... not fitting, but good, that it was a flood that killed her, since water played such a huge, awesome role in this story: the fountain, the lake, the ocean, the flooding, the effing beach they wanted to get to so badly. It's so horrible to think that they never saw each other after the tea room, and that he didn't get on with her. I think sometimes that Cecilia got off at the next stop to wait to see if he'd come on the next bus, but it makes it too depressing. They still never saw each other again. They didn't even have pictures of each other, and Robbie lighting a match to look at the postcard just slays me.
And I know that I'm a sucker when it comes to love stories, but, really? It's the most beautiful one ever, because it's so doomed and so horrible and so real that you just ache for them and what they never had.
So, anyway, those are some of my thoughts. I have so many more, but the amazingness of it all makes it all swirl around my head.
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Date: 2008-01-12 11:11 pm (UTC)My hubby insisted that all events other than the apology scene were accurate. I'm like, "did you HEAR the typewriter?" Which is not to say that they weren't emotionaly accurate; they may have been. But this is Briony's story, not Robbie and Cecilia's. They don't really have control over the details.
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Date: 2008-01-12 11:28 pm (UTC)Also, hee, I didn't even really notice the typewriter, which should have been such huge clue, so, you know, go me. But you're absolutely right: Robbie and Cecilia are what Briony created entirely, and she was allowed to add whatever embellishments she chose. Poor Robbie and Cecilia.