On The Narrative Unreliability Of McEwan’s Atonement

Atonement is written by Ian McEwan,an English novelist who enjoys great reputation in contemporary English literature.It narrates the story of Briony’s crime committed to her sister Cecilia and servant Robbie,and her later attempt to make atonement.But as the narrator and character in the novel,her narrative tone is full of uncertainty and unreliability.This thesis aims to probe into various types of narrative unreliability and their aesthetic functions in Atonement based on the related theory of Wayne Booth and James Phelan.This thesis divides the narrative unreliability in Atonement into three axes,the axis of events,the axis of judgments and the axis of perception,and it explores the relationship among the three narrative axes.An analysis of the main plots in Atonement indicates that Briony shows her narrative unreliability on the axis of events in her narrating of the fountain event and library event.Briony shows her narrative unreliability on the axis of judgments in her judgment of Robbie’s personality and her own atonement.Briony shows her narrative unreliability on the axis of perception in her explanation of her failure in publication as well as her account of Robbie’s imprisonment.Meanwhile,this thesis discusses two kinds of aesthetic functions achieved through narrative unreliability,namely irony and tension.On the one hand,the irony of narrative unreliability contributes to the characterization of Briony,and discloses Briony’s hypocrisy,self-deception and incapability to find a way out of fantasy.On the other hand,the tension of narrative unreliability is embodied in the multi-layered structure within the novel,which motivates to the greatest degree the readers’ sense of curiosity and expectancy.The thesis concludes that,by employing the technique of narrative unreliability,McEwan not only successfully depicts Briony as a contradictory character,but also puts forward his own concept of writing a novel.By the employment of narrative unreliability in Atonement,McEwan presents the readers with another possibility of writing a novel.