To what extent do you agree that Briony is guilty of a crime in Atonement and should be held accountable? (25 marks)

I will answer this in note form/with bullet points, and in an actual lesson we would go over how to link these together and develop the essay.Yes she is accountable...She tells an actual lie and is aware of this ('Yes. I saw him' - however she later talked about the 'disk' of a face showing how dark it was).Her actions were motivated by a selfish desire to tell a story, and she ruins real lives through this (Eg. talk about the changes in Robbie and the horrors he endures in Act 2).No she isn't...Perhaps society is more at fault - the adults accepted the words of a child, she was encouraged, the issues with society that they perhaps accepted Robbie was to blame due to his lower social class.InbetweenYes she committed a 'crime' and should be held accountable, but her lifetime of atonement/punishment is out of proportion to her crime - especially when compared to unpunished crimes e.g. the rape of Lola.RememberQuotation and close language analysisWider readingCritical analysisContext