Truth and Reality are influenced by a person 's perceptions of the world. This is clear in Atonement as Robbie is accused of a heinous crime and both he and Cecilia suffer because Briony naïvely presumes she understands the complexities of adult relationships, and in an effort to protect her sister, she accuses Robbie of rape. A character is only able to perceive as much as he or she understands about the world, as his or her worldview is clouded by weakness and flaws. An example of truth based on perception is the scene at the fountain. which having dual perspectives, reveals different "truths." First, we have the perspective of Cecilia and Robbie in the moment at the fountain, and in the other Briony looks out her window upon her sister
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As the young Briony tends to do, she immediately romanticizes it, describing first the beauty of the estate, and finally focusing in on the fountain where she notices Robbie and Cecilia in "a proposal of marriage;" she expresses her feelings noting that she "would not have been surprised. She herself had written a tale in which a humble woodcutter saved a princess from drowning and ended by marrying her" (36). Briony invents this prior story from her own knowledge of the world, and thus perceives the world also in this manner with Cecilia playing the part of the princess and Robbie the woodcutter. Once Cecilia begins to strip out of her clothing, and jumps into the fountain, she is shocked, as it did not fit with her perceptions of the situation. However, she still maintains her perception of the scene noting that "the sequence was illogical - the drowning scene, followed by the rescue, should have preceded the marriage proposal" (). Although she doesn 't understand the exchange and its complexities, nor does she understand the order the events happened, she doesn 't go to Cecilia immediately to demand explanation. Instead, she plots how she would capture the moment on paper, with a hidden witness, and then from the point of view of Cecilia and then of Robbie. She is content to write the world from her perception as that is her truth. The prospect to …show more content…
This in particular states a lot about young Briony 's perceptions of the world she lives in as her truth and reality are always grounded in some form of invention, some form of fantasy and fairy tale in which she revels. The world is blended between the truth and the fantasy, and the line for Briony is often unclear. As she moves about the world, and understands, or misunderstands in certain cases, the complexities of the people and their actions around her, she draws in and compares to the fairy tales and stories which she bases her world view on. This is in part because she is always reading or writing, but being the youngest child in the Tallis household, with her mother in bed, her father not around, Leon away at school, and Cecilia in a mother 's role, she has had very little experience with the world and how it actually works. As a result, she imagined more than she could understand and her imagination drove her perception of truth and reality rather than on the factual world around
As the young Briony tends to do, she immediately romanticizes it, describing first the beauty of the estate, and finally focusing in on the fountain where she notices Robbie and Cecilia in "a proposal of marriage;" she expresses her feelings noting that she "would not have been surprised. She herself had written a tale in which a humble woodcutter saved a princess from drowning and ended by marrying her" (36). Briony invents this prior story from her own knowledge of the world, and thus perceives the world also in this manner with Cecilia playing the part of the princess and Robbie the woodcutter. Once Cecilia begins to strip out of her clothing, and jumps into the fountain, she is shocked, as it did not fit with her perceptions of the situation. However, she still maintains her perception of the scene noting that "the sequence was illogical - the drowning scene, followed by the rescue, should have preceded the marriage proposal" (). Although she doesn 't understand the exchange and its complexities, nor does she understand the order the events happened, she doesn 't go to Cecilia immediately to demand explanation. Instead, she plots how she would capture the moment on paper, with a hidden witness, and then from the point of view of Cecilia and then of Robbie. She is content to write the world from her perception as that is her truth. The prospect to …show more content…
This in particular states a lot about young Briony 's perceptions of the world she lives in as her truth and reality are always grounded in some form of invention, some form of fantasy and fairy tale in which she revels. The world is blended between the truth and the fantasy, and the line for Briony is often unclear. As she moves about the world, and understands, or misunderstands in certain cases, the complexities of the people and their actions around her, she draws in and compares to the fairy tales and stories which she bases her world view on. This is in part because she is always reading or writing, but being the youngest child in the Tallis household, with her mother in bed, her father not around, Leon away at school, and Cecilia in a mother 's role, she has had very little experience with the world and how it actually works. As a result, she imagined more than she could understand and her imagination drove her perception of truth and reality rather than on the factual world around