Paul Marshall

Outer characterization

Paul Marshall is a friend of Leon Tallis who visits the Tallises in the summer of 1935 in the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan. He comes from a wealthy and privileged background as his family are millionaires from a business of making chocolate Army Amo Bars. His exact age is not revealed though it can be assumed he is around Leon’s age, making him 25. 

He is described as having a “comically brooding” (Chapter 4, 36%) face “with the features scrunched up around the eyebrows, and a big empty chin like Desperate Dan’s” (Chapter 5, 43%). He is also described as being “nearly handsome” (Chapter 4, 64%) but having a “cruel face” (Chapter 5, 43%).
Paul marries Lola Quincey in 1940 and they live into old age as rich and famous philanthropists. At eighty-eight, he is “frail” (London, 1999, 26%) and has trouble walking by himself...