After reading the conclusion of Atonement, readers cannot help but feel a little bit sad. Briony’s atonement does not seem to be accomplished because she cannot outlive Lola to publish the novel before her death and even the fictional ending of Cecilia and Robbie is not the happiest possible result. However, the imperfect ending, either in real life or in her novel, actually lays Briony’s burden of crime down. As she wrote at the end, “the attempt was all” (351) The pities that are left in the novel reveal Briony’s real understanding of what fact, or rather say, reality is.
Briony learnt about the facts of her crime by collecting materials in museums. The first setting of the conclusion is in the Imperial War Museum where Briony was reading the documents on the Second World War (333). She did so because she wanted to know what Robbie and Cecilia had experienced respectively in the war because of the crime she had committed. Besides real experience on the battlefield, the archives are the nearest place to facts because of the first-hand sources collected there. Briony was serving as a nurse when Robbie died from septicaemia and Cecilia was killed by the bomb in Balham Underground station. Briony first pushed Robbie to the prison and then indirectly to the battlefield but she had no way to know what Robbie had really suffered except to look over in historical documents that record the disastrous war. Although Cecilia died from an accident, Briony was also partly responsible for her death because if Robbie had not been sent to prison, Cecilia probably would not have left home and became a nurse. Briony realized the serious consequence of her lie when she grew old; the only way she could compensate for her crime is to have a vicarious experience of Cecilia and Robbie’s sufferings through recorded words.
However, the written words cannot fully provide Briony with the most germane experience because they can only give her a rather rough account of the happenings in the war. She needs accuracy and authenticity. The Keeper of Documents helped Briony get closer to facts. He offered to check the language Briony used in her novel to see whether it was appropriate or not. He pointed out that “On the double” was the American style and the correct term should be “At the double” (339). He changed Briony’s “twenty-five-pound guns” to either “twenty-five pounders” or “twenty-five-pounder guns” (339). Those subtle changes of words add authenticity to her novel. Besides vocabulary problems, the Keeper also noticed some easily-neglected historical truth. For example, he said that “beret” did not exist in 1940 and suggest Briony replace it with a “forage cap” (339). Although the changes are nuance in the novel, the subtlety is important to Briony because it brings her closer to facts and thus she is able to make atonement.
However, what Briony really gained during her atonement is more than historical or literary facts; it is an understanding and acceptance of reality. The “trivial alterations” (340) could not give her one hundred percent accuracy. As Briony said, if she cared so much about facts, she would have written a different kind of book (340). It may seem strange at the first sight that she did not actually care too much about facts. However, with a closer understanding of the story, readers would realize that Briony in fact had a real grasp of what reality is. Her illness which would slowly eat away her memory and thinking (334), together with Leon’s paralysis, Jackson’s death and Pierrot’s oldness (345), makes her senior years not as satisfactory as people would imagine. The author could have depicted a perfect reunion of them but he did not do so because that deviates from the real world. Moving from superficial work of collecting materials to learn about facts, Briony moved one huge step towards reality because she could accept her approaching death without complaints; she finally understood the fact that reality does not always cater to her will.
Besides her illness, what really makes the ending a little sad is Lola’s health. Because it is written in law that Briony could not publish her novel when Lola was still alive and the fact that Lola would definitely outlive Briony, the latter one would have no chance to see her “atonement” published before her death (339). The inability to publish her novel means that she could not vindicate Robbie. However, it does not seem to bother Briony much because she said that a novelist could not achieve atonement as there is no one to appeal to or that can forgive her. While she worked hard to collect materials to write the novel, trying to make atonement through written words, Briony finally realized that it would only seem to readers as her “invention” (350). It does not matter to her any more whether she could publish it before her death or not because it is only a fiction. The reality is that Lola would outlive her and “the attempt [is] all” (351).
What is really ironic is the contrast between Lola and Briony as described in the conclusion. Briony thought Lola to be “comic” with her “heavy make-up” and bold clothes while she was a “puritan” herself (341). The difference in their attitudes towards appearance is a reflection of their minds. Lola could never get rid of her crime and she had to wear a cover all the time to conceal her shamefulness. However, Briony went over atonement and she no longer had to hide anything from others. She can definitely meet people with her unpolished appearance. It is true that Lola lived in wealth and had a better health condition, but Briony could stand on her own feet because she learnt how to face reality.
Not only the conclusion of Atonement is kind of sad, the ending of Briony’s novel in the book is full of regrets. In the fictional ending where Briony wrote about Cecilia and Robbie in their apartment, Robbie was going to catch a train to join the troop (325). The war was on and the destiny of Robbie was suspended. Briony indicated in the novel that he was very like to sacrifice in the battles because everyone who knows about the Second World War would understand the large casualty. Although his death is not directly written in the book, readers have every reason to believe that he would. In addition, when Robbie finally knew that it was Paul who insulted Lola, they had just finished their wedding ceremony. Their marriage and their social influence means that Robbie would never have chance to revert the case, even though Briony was willing to stand out and vindicate (328-329). However, like Briony accepted her approaching death and her inability to publish the novel, Robbie, under Briony’s settings, only said to her to “just do all the things” (329) he asked—that is, her statement to a solicitor and her explanation latter to Robbie. Briony created such an imperfect ending to Robbie and Cecilia in her novel because she wants to get closer to reality, even in fiction, because that shows she really understands how the real world should be. As she said at the very end, it was “not impossible” to have Cecilia and Robbie attend her seventy-seventh birthday party (351).
Although the conclusion of Atonement fulfils Briony’s dream of the play that is sixty-four years late, an air of sadness and pity actually dominates the ending. Briony’s illness, along with all the other senior character’s destinies, and the obstacles of her novel’s publication leave the story much to sigh. The author could have written a better ending for Briony but he did not do so because he wants to attribute to Briony the ultimate apprehension of reality. She learns how to accept imperfection in her search for atonement in real world; she even applied it to her fiction. While atonement is never achieved, her understanding of reality is her biggest gain. As she said, she made a huge digression and doubled back to her starting point. However, she returned because she had totally experienced all she could to understand how to face reality and she laid down all her burden of crime. The sad ending proves that “the attempt was all.”
