Atonement On Robbies psychological state in the novel Research Paper

Atonement On Robbies psychological state in the novel - Research Paper Example â€Å"He was happy and therefore bound to succeed. One word contained everything he felt: Freedom. Now, finally, with the exercise of will, his adult life had begun. There was a story he was plotting with himself as the hero.† (McEwan, 115-116). This story was for him to attend medical school. Not because medicine was his greatest passion although it would benefit him with prodigious skills and satisfy his practical nature. Robbie was about to make his own decision, and this above all else was the beauty of his aspiration. â€Å"He had never before felt so self-consciously young, nor experienced such appetite, such impatience for the story to begin.† (McEwan, 117). This invigorating time of youth and all its vast potential is where we meet Robbie and we embark with him as he sets out on his journey of promise. He has carried himself on his hard work and good reputation for so long that it is to be expected Robbie will be successful in his exceptional endeavors and rise higher than Leon Tallis, the boy of wealth and good fortune who lacks the ambition or desire to put to noble use the advantages with which he’s been provided. At this time of awakening purpose, perhaps the biggest self-discovery in Robbie is that he has fallen in love. Robbie has become very awkward and uncomfortable around Cecilia Tallis the girl who was first a childhood friend, an almost sister. They hardly talk anymore and when they do their exchanges are blocked with layers of unclear meanings and hidden feelings. The scene in the novel when Robbie and Cecilia are by the fountain is a lovely illustration of the long brewing tension between them. Cecilia goes to the fountain to fill the family’s cherished vase with water for the flowers and he has offered to help her. They quarrel over him going to medical school. When she makes the comment that her father will be paying for it his pride is hurt and he retorts that he will pay the money back. She is not angry any f inancial expense, but at the cost of his leaving. They struggle over the vase and he breaks it losing a piece in the water. Angrily she removes her clothes in front him, dives in and retrieves the missing piece. She steps out of the water and redresses leaving him overtaken with longing for her. â€Å"He stood up at last from his bath, shivering, in no doubt that a great change was coming over him.† (McEwan, 101). Stirred by this great change within him Robbie writes a couple of letters to Cecilia, the one unintended to be given, articulating his sexual yearning for her. Following the lines of a good plot, the wrong letter is delivered to her by her younger sister Briony, who has also witnessed the fountain display of her sister removing her clothes. The fountain incident compels Briony to read the letter, more sexually explicit than her thirteen years can comprehend. A short while after delivering the letter to her sister, she walks in on Robbie and Cecilia making love in th e library that night at the family dinner party. â€Å"He discovered he had never hated anyone until now. There was no good reason why she should be in the library, except to find him and deny him what was his.† (McEwan, 177). Robbie and Cecilia exchange vows of love and by the time dinner is served, Robbie has nearly savored the sweetest dessert of his entire life. In the course of dinner it is discovered, Jackson and Pierrot, cousins of the Tallis family have left a note