Briony In The Movie Atonement

1032 Words5 Pages
Movies are always the translation of the original novel, it will transcript the meaning of the novel. In the movie “Atonement” by Joe Wright, it fails to send the message compare to the masterpiece of the novel. Although Joe Wright’s film faithfully captures the naïve and childish of Briony, it fails to capture the complete personality of briony that leas to her guilt. In the novel, Briony is described as a self-centered character, and she immerses in her own world. On page 21, Briony’s sister Cecilia describes Briony is falling into her writing fantasies; Cecilia says “ what had seemed a passing fad was now and enveloping obsessions” (Mcewan 21). Briony now is immersed in her writing fantasies, and she thinks everything around her is…show more content…
On page 115, after Briony reads the wrong letter Robbie sent to Cecilia, she says “Surely it was not childish to say there had to be a story; and this was the story of a man whom everybody liked, but about whom the heroine always had her doubts, and finally she was able to reveal that he was the in carnation of evil” (Mcewan 115). After Briony reads the letter, she immediately runs back to her room, and writes down what she thinks. Now, because she is immersed in her own story world; she thinks this is a great chance for her to enter the adult world and become a real author. Briony starts to judge people by her own point of view; the content of the letter surely is not reasonable for a reader at her age, but it is a mistake made by Robbie, and in the further story when Cecilia reads the letter, she finds out that Robbie is sending his love to her. However, Briony misunderstands the meaning of the letter by its content and her 13 year old thought; thus she assigns the evil role to Robbie, and starts to think Robbie is a bad guy in real life too due to her enthusiasm toward writing. Thus, in the further story Robbie is falsely accused for raping Lola, and the person who tells the lie is Briony. On page 173, Briony reviews her mistake, and she says “How guilt refined the methods of self-torture, threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to…show more content…
In the movie, there is a scene that Briony jumps into water on purpose, and wants Robbie to save her (01:01:11). This action done by Briony shows her naïve personality; the reason she does this is that she has the love fantasy on Robbie, and Briony doesn’t even realize what consequences will her action bring if Robbie did not save her on time. However, Briony does not feel grateful after all, she feels disappointed that Robbie is so mad at her, and she starts to change her impression on Robbie. Thus, Robbie becomes an evil guy in her eyes, and this action could cause bad consequences. For another example, the scene when Cecilia and Robbie are near the small pool, and Briony is watching them in the house near the window. (11:11). Joe Wright uses different narration to film this scene; first he films the scene with Cecilia’s point of view, so it gives the truth of what happens, and then the scene is showed by Briony’s point of view which is her misunderstanding of Robbie. This difference between the views could make us feel more anxious about Briony’s misunderstanding, and it shows Briony is naïve. The feeling of that Briony is going to something to ruin the relationship between Robbie and Cecilia is emphasized by the restricted view of Briony, and she thinks in her own
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