A movie or a text has boundless possibilities of
interpretation. That's why perhaps literary theories gained so popularity in
last decades. Yesterday I watched Atonement. A stupendous movie. It abounds in
loops or aporia. But a careful viewer can deconstruct the
psychological loops in the movie. The movie will also remind you of Barthes
"typology of codes". According to Barthes there are five codes
through which one can interpret a text. These are respectively: Hermeneutic
Code, Proairetic Code, Semantic Code, Symbolic Code and Cultural Code. I will
not go on explaining all the codes here because the subject of my emphasis is
symbols and psychological loops in the movie Atonement.
According to Hermeneutic Code , a critic deciphers the inherent
meaning which is not overt on the surface of a text. The mysterious meaning in
Atonement is Briony's psycho-sexual desires for Robby and her Id, Ego and
repressed self. The movie has infinite possibilities for psycho analysis.
Here is the summary of Atonement (movie) - When Briony Tallis, 13 years old and an
aspiring writer, sees her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner at the
fountain in front of the family estate she misinterprets what is happening thus
setting into motion a series of misunderstandings and a childish pique that
will have lasting repercussions for all of them. Robbie is the son of a family
servant toward whom the family has always been kind. They paid for his time at
Cambridge and now he plans on going to medical school. After the fountain
incident, Briony reads a letter intended for Cecilia and concludes that Robbie
is a deviant. When her cousin Lola is raped, she tells the police that it was
Robbie she saw committing the deed when in fact it was a visitor to the estate.
(source: review)
Symbolic Code - Its so paradoxical that Robby Turner dies out of
thirst while Cecilia dies by drowning. And it does relate to the fatal
incidents in the beginning of the story that affected the unconscious of
Briony. One incident occurs at the pond where Briony plunges into the water so
that Robby will save her life. Plunging into the water to get her love is a
powerful symbol that communicates with another such incident in which Cecilia
plunges into the fountain water to get a broken piece of vase. She does this
act in anger but it also represents her thirst like other characters. Here
Briony sees both at the fountain and misinterprets the whole incident. This
misinterpretation rises from her unconscious desire for Robby. And in her anger
and envy she unconsciously takes revenge upon Robby and Cecilia. The last scene
of the movie is shoot at the ideal beach house where Cecilia and Robby plays
with water on the beach. Thus in the whole story Thirst and Water becomes
prominent symbols.
The movie poses a very interesting question in my mind - the
writer of the novel Atonement in the movie is Briony who says that the novel is
autobiographical but she has changed the ending by making it possible for
Cecilia and Robby to live together forever. Now she says that ‘as a final act
of kindness I gave them their happiness…which they deserved… .’ To give a sense
of hope to readers she ends it happily. Now I wonder whether it is fine to
change the reality, to cater the naked truth or it is better to slant the truth
and sustain the hope ? I wonder if someday I write my own story , will I change
my true emotions and tragedies and if I do so will I do in order to fill the
readers with a hope or in order to pacify my own guilty heart and to eradicate
my criminal feelings ? 
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