Briony Tallis

Outer characterization

Briony Tallis is the main character of the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan. At the beginning of the novel, she is thirteen years old and spending the summer with her family at their estate in the countryside. Her older sister is Cecilia Tallis and her older brother is Leon Tallis. 

Despite her dreams of becoming a writer, when she is eighteen Briony starts training as a nurse in London during the war instead of going to Cambridge. However, she continues to write in her free time and submits stories to literary magazines. In her old age, Briony becomes a successful novelist. When she is 77 years old, she gets diagnosed with vascular dementia. Briony marries a man who dies before her, and she does not have any children. 

Inner characterization

Briony is imaginative but naïve 

The first thing readers find out about Briony is her love of writing and making up stories, which is one of her defining traits. At the beginning of the story, Briony is preparing to stage The Trials of Arabella, which is a play she has written for the arrival of her brother Leon. In part, Briony’s fascination with stories arises from her loneliness, as she is much younger than her siblings and isolated in the Tallis house with no playmates (Chapter 1, 14%).

At the same time, Briony likes writing stories and performing her own plays because she craves attention and validation. She writes The Trials of Arabella “to provoke [Leon’s] admiration” (Chapter 1, 7%) and admits she loves performing her plays and “unapologetically demanding her family’s total attention” (Chapter 1, 29%) because “everyone would adore her” (Chapter 1, 57%). It is in part also this need for attention that motivates Briony to wrongfully accuse Robbie. After Lola robs Briony of the opportunity to be the star of her play, Briony manages to outshine Lola when she positions herself as the prime witness in Lola’s rape and has the adults’ full attention as she offers her testimony: “Of course, Briony was old enough to know that the moment was entirely Lola’s, but […] her cousin’s removal left Briony centre stage.” (Chapter 14, 1%).

Briony is also incredibly moody and dramatic. When Lola takes the lead role in the play, Briony feels that “her only reasonable choice then would be to run away, to live under hedges, eat berries and speak to no one, and be found by a bear...