Atonement Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Briony Tallis

A thirteen-year-old aspiring writer whose misreadings send an innocent man to prison; she spends six decades as a novelist trying to atone through fiction, finally confessing her fabrication at seventy-seven.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Play That Never Happened; Part 2: The Fountain, the Letter, the Library; Part 3: The Accusation; Part 4: War, Atonement, and the Truth; Part 5: London 1999
Themes:: The deadly power of misreading; Atonement and its limits; Fiction as kindness or evasion; The unreliability of memory

Robbie Turner

The charlady's son, educated at Jack Tallis's expense, in love with Cecilia; falsely accused, imprisoned, then destroyed by war—he dies of septicaemia at Dunkirk.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Play That Never Happened; Part 2: The Fountain, the Letter, the Library; Part 3: The Accusation; Part 4: War, Atonement, and the Truth; Part 5: London 1999
Themes:: The deadly power of misreading; Class and who gets believed; Atonement and its limits; The unreliability of memory

Cecilia Tallis

The middle Tallis child, who defies her family for Robbie, trains as a nurse, and cuts all contact with them; she dies in the Balham station bombing, months after Robbie.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Play That Never Happened; Part 2: The Fountain, the Letter, the Library; Part 3: The Accusation; Part 4: War, Atonement, and the Truth; Part 5: London 1999
Themes:: The deadly power of misreading; Atonement and its limits; The unreliability of memory

Lola Quincey

Fifteen, red-headed and freckled, staying with the Tallises during her parents' divorce; she is raped by Paul Marshall and later marries him, silencing the truth forever.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Play That Never Happened; Part 2: The Fountain, the Letter, the Library; Part 3: The Accusation; Part 4: War, Atonement, and the Truth; Part 5: London 1999
Themes:: Class and who gets believed

Paul Marshall

Leon's wealthy friend, a chocolate manufacturer whose Amo bar makes his fortune; he rapes Lola and escapes accountability through marriage to her.

Appears in:: Part 2: The Fountain, the Letter, the Library; Part 3: The Accusation; Part 4: War, Atonement, and the Truth
Themes:: Class and who gets believed; Atonement and its limits

Also in the story

Supporting characters

Grace Turner

Robbie's mother, the Tallises' charlady; one of only two people who believe her son innocent, she leaves the family's service after his arrest.

Appears in:: Part 3: The Accusation
Themes:: Class and who gets believed

Leon Tallis

The eldest Tallis sibling, home from London with Marshall in tow; genial, oblivious, present at the 1999 party.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Play That Never Happened; Part 5: London 1999

Emily Tallis

The children's mother, laid low by severe migraines through the crucial days, absent from every moment she might have corrected.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Play That Never Happened

Corporals Nettle and Mace

Robbie's two companions on the retreat to Dunkirk; Mace rescues an RAF man from a lynching, and an 'old Mr. Nettle' later sends Briony a dozen long letters.

Appears in:: Part 4: War, Atonement, and the Truth; Part 5: London 1999
Themes:: The unreliability of memory

How they are connected

Key relationships

Robbie Turner Cecilia Tallis
The charlady's son, educated at Jack Tallis's expense, in love with Cecilia; falsely accused, imprisoned, then destroyed by war—he dies of septicaemia at Dunkirk.
Lola Quincey Paul Marshall
Fifteen, red-headed and freckled, staying with the Tallises during her parents' divorce; she is raped by Paul Marshall and later marries him, silencing the truth forever.
Paul Marshall Leon Tallis
Leon's wealthy friend, a chocolate manufacturer whose Amo bar makes his fortune; he rapes Lola and escapes accountability through marriage to her.
Grace Turner Robbie Turner
Robbie's mother, the Tallises' charlady; one of only two people who believe her son innocent, she leaves the family's service after his arrest.
Corporals Nettle and Mace Robbie Turner
Robbie's two companions on the retreat to Dunkirk; Mace rescues an RAF man from a lynching, and an 'old Mr.
Corporals Nettle and Mace Briony Tallis
Nettle' later sends Briony a dozen long letters.

Go deeper

Atonement themes & symbols

The deadly power of misreading · Class and who gets believed · Atonement and its limits · Fiction as kindness or evasion

Themes explained

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