I was completely fascinated by the symbolism and artistic effect in Atonement. Without it, the movie would have been a drag, but it really boosted the entertainment value. I’m wondering what I missed in it, so here’s the list of what I saw/remember.
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When Robbie is arrested, Briony looks through a “Matilda” figure in the window. Reference to Mathilda ?
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The picture/memory the couple shares looks like Dover beach. The general scene and the specific shots of the pebbles rolling back and forth called to mind Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach”, which is about seizing love while you have it, and contains the lines:
“on the French coast the light/
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand/”
and
“Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.”
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The drowned Cecilia is in the Christ-figure position. It might mean more, but it seems to represent her (albeit unwilling) sacrifice.
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Briony’s friend says she saw Hamlet. I can’t pinpoint what that’s about, but it’s got to be something! Ophelia’s death?
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I couldn’t catch it exactly and my memory is hazy, but there’s a quick reference to a “Romulus” early in the film, alluding to the roman Romulus. Moments later, Robbie jumps over a fence w/ his ill-fated letter. Historian Livy tells us of Romulus: “Remus, in derision of his brother, leaped over the new wall, and Romulus, enraged thereat, slew him, uttering at the same time this imprecation: ‘So perish every one that shall hereafter leap over my wall’”
So what else is there? Help me enjoy this movie more!