Briony's Relationship with Cecilia

Briony’s relationship with Cecilia.

Briony and Cecilia are two sisters, the stories of their lives underlay the plot of the novel “Atonement”. Briony is the youngest sibling in the Tallis family. There is significant age difference between her and Cecilia and this fact predetermined the development of their relationship. Cecilia is the young woman who has recently received a Bachelor degree in Oxford and now she fools away her time at home. Briony is a lonely child obsessed with new passion – writing. Briony is certainly attached to her elder sister, she cares about her well-being and safety. When Briony suspected Robbie of being a maniac, she bent all her efforts to protect Cecilia. Briony admired greatly Cecilia’s forgiveness of Robbie when they made farewell.  Cecilia is the “big” sister for Briony, as if she is from another world. Cecilia lives her own life, she has a lot of things to take care and Briony is aware of it. However Briony secretly wishes to be the part of her elder sister’s life. In spite of the sisters’ affection for each other, Briony was never been able to confide her worries, doubts fears in Cecilia. Cecilia was kind of enigma to her, and she always wanted to get to the bottom of her sister herself. They are emotionally detached from each other. And this had played its part. Briony made a huge mistake for which she would reproach herself for all her life. The distance between sisters prevented them from truly understanding each other. Later when Briony became an adult she realized what she had done. There was a little chance of restoring relationship between them but  the damage caused with Briony’s lie was fatal. Briony didn’t have enough courage to make a confession in giving a false testimony and Cecilia could never forgive her.