Atonement is an excellent postmodernist reality novel (which has been adapted into a film), a tragic tale of two loves involving three protagonists. Using the triadic theory of love and attachment theory , this paper analyzes the behavior and psychological process of the characters in Atonement , explores the causes of the two tragic love stories , and on the basis of this reason, proposes that having a better intimacy relationship advice.
In this article, we analyze the behavior and psychological processes of the three main characters in Atonement: Briony, Robbie, and Cecilia, with particular attention to "Robbie-Brioni" and "Robbie-Cecilia" two loving relationships. Using the triadic theory of love and attachment theory for analysis, the results show that these two emotional tragedies are caused by a variety of factors.
For Robbie and Briony 's relationship, the problem stemmed from Briony's lack of caring in the family, which led to her developing an insecure attachment style . After she misunderstands Robbie's protection, a distorted affection for Robbie is formed, a one- sided, asymmetrical attachment : Briony's strong attachment to Robbie and Robbie's to Robbie Briony's lack of attachment. Also, the love component between Briony and Robbie is incomplete : there is only intimacy but not passion and commitment . Therefore, no matter from the analysis of the triadic theory of love or from the analysis of attachment theory, we can see that the relationship between Briony and Robbie is not safe and complete, and there is a certain degree of lack, so it is destined to lead to tragedy.
For Robbie and Cecilia 's relationship, they broke down the barriers of class, shared a common topic, and thus had a passion component . They also have a strong commitment to each other and have healthy attachments to each other . But the separation of bound by physical distance, he had lost the intimate components , and ultimately to the tragedy. This shows that perfect intimacy has strict requirements for various components, and the lack of just one dimension may lead to serious consequences .
Key words "Atonement", ternary theory of love, attachment
This article is the final thesis of "The Psychology of Love", which was completed with the group classmates lmh & lsx.
1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction to the Trinity Theory of Love
The famous American sociologist Sternberg proposed the ternary theory of love (Sternberg, 1985), which explored the origin of romantic passionate love, and divided love into four types and corresponding experiences according to the ternary theory of love, in order to explain men and women various emotional phenomena.
According to the triadic theory of love, love should have three core components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy includes passion, understanding, communication, support, and sharing. Passion mainly refers to sexual desire for the other, and is characterized by the arousal of physical desire. Commitment refers to a willingness to devote yourself to maintaining and actively maintaining that relationship with a loved one. Sternberg proposed that passion is the "heat" of love, intimacy is the "warmth" of love, and commitment reflects a cognitive content with a certain rational thinking. These three components form a triangle. When the strength of the three components is not equal, the shape of the triangle will change, and the corresponding characteristics and meanings of love will also change (Jia Ru, & Wu Rengang, 2008).
According to Sternberg, the absence of any of the three basic ingredients cannot be called love. If there are none of the three, they are two people who have nothing to do with each other, or simple acquaintances who cannot even be called friends. This state is called lovelessness. And when intimacy is high but passion and commitment are very low, liking occurs; when passion is high and intimacy and commitment are lacking, it is infatuation, or "love at first sight"; But empty love occurs when intimacy and passion are low.
At the same time, Sternberg also analyzed four kinds of emotional experiences that can be called "love". These four kinds of experiences all include three basic components of different degrees, and each component occupies a different proportion.
"Romantic love" is love when a high degree of intimacy and passion occur together, a high degree of arousal brought about by the excitement and happiness that comes from the physical arousal and cognitive resonance of two people. Romantic love can lead to ignoring or reinterpreting some of the partner's shortcomings, idealizing the image of the partner, while also triggering a re-examination of oneself and a more diverse self. But the problem is that a lot of research shows that romantic love has the weakness of being short-lived and does not constitute a reason to stay in a marriage in the future.
"Companion's love" is love that combines a high degree of intimacy and commitment. It is characterized by mutual respect and trust between two parties, not only physical intimacy, but also in many aspects such as daily work and work. Interdependence, and the two sides are willing to stay together for a long time, but because of the lack of romantic passion, it seems a bit dull.
"Illusory love" refers to the experience of high levels of passion and commitment, which Sternberg refers to as a foolish experience, because both parties are driven quickly by passion alone without knowing or liking them very well. into the palace of marriage. This experience is closer to infatuation, because of the unstable nature of the passion component, making this kind of love very risky.
"Consummate love" is the climax of love that is reached when intimacy, passion, and commitment are all present, similar to the experience of a honeymooner. Sternberg sees this as a brief period in the love experience that few people have for a lifetime. "Consummate love" and other kinds of love can be transferred to each other (Acker & Davis, 1992).
Sternberg proposed that different loves can be described by triangles of different shapes and sizes, that is, the area of the triangle represents the amount of love, and the shape of the triangle represents the relative relationship between the three components of love. An equilateral triangle represents balanced love because the vertices representing the individual components are equidistant from the center of the triangle. Which vertex of an unequal triangle has the longest distance to the center of the triangle, this vertex is the dominant component, and the vertex with the shortest distance to the center of the triangle is the relatively lacking component.
Real love often involves more than one triangle, so Sternberg and colleagues proposed the principle of multiple triangles (Sternberg & Grajek, 1985). If there is a mismatch in any of these three factors, it will cause some kind of impact on the love relationship.
1. In the relationship between two people, there is not only a real love triangle of one person to another person, but for each of them, there is also an ideal object in his mind and his own love for this object. triangle. The two triangles are not necessarily the same.
2. Because love cannot be a one-way process, there is both a love triangle of "self-to-people" and a love triangle of "people-to-self".
3. A person's perception of his own feelings towards others, compared to another person, is not a triangle perceived by himself, but a triangle perceived by the other person. For example, in reality, a person feels good to others, but others don't think so.
Although the three dimensions of love proposed by Sternberg have deepened the understanding of the psychological concept of love for researchers, and it seems to have initially solved the problem of how to quantify it, so it has great practical guiding significance, but there are also researchers. (Li Zhaoxu, 1996) pointed out that the rationality of these three love components has not been fully verified, and the conclusion drawn is not love but focused on intimacy; at the same time, the love triangle principle is only limited to empirical research on romantic relationships, can it be generalized? Other types of close relationships (such as parent-child relationships) have not been verified; the question of whether various types of love are socially praised or not, and whether there are cultural preferences has not been answered, so further research is also necessary.
Research on adolescent love points out that there are qualitative differences between early adolescent romantic relationships and later romantic relationships (Liu Wen, & Mao Jingjing, 2011). Early romantic relationships are a form of peer love and close friendships, whereas later adolescent romantic relationships are a strong emotion involving intimacy, commitment, and sex (Bucx & Seiffge-Krenke, 2010). Shulman and Scharf (2000) found that teens sometimes think they are in romantic relationships, when in fact this is no different from trans friendships. The main difference between romantic relationships and friendship is the passion part, that is, infatuation and sexual desire for other people, as well as the monopoly on the relationship (Furman & Shomaker, 2008).
1.2 Introduction to Attachment Theory
"Only a mother is good in the world, and a child with a mother is like a treasure." In a child's heart, a mother will always be the most special and intimate person. Psychological research has shown that there is a "special" connection between the child and the mother: although the newborn baby has a low degree of development of sensory abilities, the baby has a strong sense of the mother's voice (Decasper & Spence, 1986) and appearance ( Pascalis et al., 1995; Bartrip, Morton & Schonen, 2011) and other characteristics of preference. Not only is there a cognitive level of connection, there is also a social level of connection between the baby and the mother, that is, attachment.
The study of attachment originated from the British psychiatrist Bowlby, whose classical attachment theory defines attachment as a strong positive emotional connection between an infant and its guardian (usually the mother) (Feldman & Su Yanjie, 2007): when an infant feels When an individual is attached, as long as they appear, it can make the baby feel happy; if the baby is forced to separate from the attachment object, it will lead to separation anxiety in the baby (Zhong Xinqi & Jing Jin, 2007). Bowlby argues that attachment is primarily based on an infant's need for safety, an innate motivation to avoid predators.
To understand attachment, early researchers started with animals and studied the formation of bonds between parents and young (Feldman & Su Yanjie, 2007). Ecologist Lorenz (1965) found that newborn goslings have a tendency to take the first moving object they see after birth as their mother and follow him/her as if he/she were Their mother is the same. This phenomenon, known as imprinting, was the first attachment behavior to be discovered by researchers.
In primates, however, attachment formation requires more complex conditions and a longer period of time: Harlow (1958) separated rhesus macaque cubs from their biological mothers for a period of time and gave them two artificial " Mother" - a wire mother with a food supply and a cloth mother without a food supply. Although the young rhesus macaque can eat at the wire mother, it chooses to stay with the cloth mother most of the time because of the soft touch of the body. This suggests that for primates, comfortable physical contact can provide contact comfort (Harlow and Zimmermann, 1959) and play an important role in the formation of attachment.
After this, the developmental psychologist Ainsworth (1978) studied the attachment of human infants and proposed a technique for measuring attachment that can be widely used: the Ainsworth Strange Situation test. In the test, mothers and children entered a laboratory together, and the children were first allowed to freely explore the interior environment. Afterwards, the experimental operation steps such as the stranger entering, the mother leaving, the mother returning, the stranger leaving, the mother leaving again, the stranger returning, and the mother returning again. During this process, the children's behaviors were recorded with video. The results show that there are four behavioral patterns of infants, and Ainsworth summed up four attachment patterns of infants from these four behavioral patterns:
(1) Secure attachment: In unfamiliar situations, the child behaves at ease as long as the mother is present. Although securely attached children are upset when their mothers leave, they return to their mothers and seek contact as soon as they return.
(2) Avoidant attachment: Children do not seek access to their mothers, and they do not seem to seem distressed when their mothers leave. In addition, after the mother's return, the child appears to be avoiding her and is very indifferent to the mother's behavior.
(3) ambivalent attachment: the child shows a mixed reaction of both positive and negative to the mother. At first, ambivalent children cling to their mothers rather than explore their environment freely. They seem a little anxious even before their mother leaves, and when she does leave, they show a great deal of grief. Once she returned, however, they had conflicting responses—seeking to get close to her while kicking and beating, apparently angry.
(4) Disorganized-disoriented attachment: Children exhibit inconsistent, contradictory, and chaotic behaviors. When the mother returned, they would either run up to her without looking at her, or appear calm at first, then burst into angry cries. Their disorganized behavior means that they may be the least securely attached children.
The distribution of the above four attachment styles does not tend to be uniform among infants: for North American infants, the percentage of secure attachment is about two-thirds, the percentage of infants with avoidant attachment is about 20%, and the rate of ambivalent attachment is about 20%. About 10%-15% of infants with a disorderly attachment (Cassidy & Berlin, 1994), and only 5%-10% of infants with disorganized attachment (O'Connor, Sigman, & Brill, 1987; Mayseless, 1996). However, some cross-cultural studies have shown that the proportion of infant attachment styles is culturally related: European and Asian infants are more reserved in unfamiliar situations, and have lower rates of secure attachment than North American infants (Grossmann et al., 1981; Chen et al. al., 1998; Rothbaum et al., 2000).
With the progress of research, the classic attachment theory has been expanded, and researchers have realized that the attachment relationship exists in the process of human lifelong development, not just in infancy; the object of attachment is not only the mother, but also partners, friends, teachers Wait.
Different researchers have proposed different theories to explain attachment relationships at different stages of an individual's development: The continuum/cognitive model of attachment states that individuals gradually develop friend-peer attachments during adolescence, which are attachments to parents Relationship extension (Ju Xiaoyan, Liu Xuanwen, & Fang Xiaoyi, 2011); Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991) found that attachment patterns in early adulthood were significantly correlated with family attachment styles; Hazan and Shaver (1987) found that similar infants also exist in adult romantic relationships adult attachment theory. And put forward the hypothesis: romantic love may be an attachment process (Conceptualizing romantic love as an attachment process). Scharfe and Bartholomew (2010) measured the attachment style of the same adult subjects twice at an interval of 8 months and found that the adult attachment style is stable and not affected by life events over a period of time. Fraley (2002) conducted a meta-analysis of attachment patterns in different age groups and found that individuals' attachment styles were relatively stable before the age of 19.
The above research shows that: although the object of attachment may change during the development of an individual, the attachment pattern remains stable at various stages. Therefore, we can infer individual adolescent and adult attachment styles from infant attachment patterns.
1.3 Summary
The two theories introduced above describe the process of "love" in detail from the perspective of psychology, and they have a high degree of explanation for most of the characters' behaviors, psychology and stories related to love. So next we will use the triadic theory of love and attachment theory to analyze the behavior and psychological processes of the main characters in Atonement, and try to understand the reasons for the entire tragic story.
2 Synopsis
"Atonement" is a long postmodernist realistic novel by the British contemporary writer Ian McEwan. It tells a story about love, crime, war, writing and imagination. It was remade in 2007 and became a multiple Oscar nomination. And the film that won the Best Original Music Award. The novel is divided into three parts, following the family upheaval, war and the fate of the characters, spanning the period from 1935 to 1999 from the eve of World War II to 1999, including the third-person narrative part, the author's imagination in the novel, and the author's self-report in the novel. .
In the summer of 1935, the story takes place among three young men on the Thales family's estate. The 13-year-old manor's youngest daughter, Brioni, is sensitive and imaginative, but she often indulges in writing fantasies because of the lack of real-world communication and the alienation of her family's feelings, confusing fiction and reality; the 23-year-old manor's eldest daughter, Cecilia , beautiful and wise, with aristocratic arrogance and persistent pursuit of love at the same time; and Robbie, the son of a cleaning lady, handsome and talented, and Cecilia as childhood sweetheart playmates, and with the help of the manor owner Became a classmate at Cambridge. The mutual affection between Robbie and Cecilia has never been broken because of class transgression and the arrogance of the two, but Briony has a paranoid and ignorant admiration for Robbie who has taken care of her since childhood. Imagine that he loves him back.
In an accident, Robbie dropped the handle of an antique vase into the pool, but Briony watched Cecilia take off her coat and jump into the pool almost naked to find the handle, and then stood wetly in front of Robbie; At that time, Robbie wanted to send an affectionate letter of apology to Cecilia, but it was accidentally confused with another explicit love letter handwritten, which was peeked by Briony; After meeting each other before the dinner party, the two were passionate in the library; under the jealousy and anger, she almost confirmed that this man was a sinful and erotic person.
Later, Briony found that her cousin Lola, who came to be a guest, was raped in the wild. She only saw the tall figure of the perpetrator who fled in a hurry, but her inner imagination, jealousy and anger made her ignore the perpetrator Paul Marshall (brother) A classmate, a rich man who graduated from Oxford) and Lola insisted on accusing Robbie as a prisoner, and Robbie was also sentenced to three years in prison. Jail wrecks Robbie and Cecilia's fledgling love. The family's distrust causes Cecilia to leave home and cut off ties.
After the outbreak of World War II, Robbie chose to join the army in order to get out of prison. Briony gradually grew up and realized her huge mistakes. The psychology of redemption made her follow her sister's footsteps to become a nun in a field hospital. Although Cecilia and Robbie have always loved each other deeply and finally had the opportunity to meet, Robbie always used her phrase "waiting for you to come back" as the motivation to live, but the cruel war was still passed on to Cecilia At the death of Ata, a desperate and grief-stricken Cecilia also died in the London bombing.
Briony, who caused the tragic fate of the two people, suffered but had no way of redemption, and devoted himself to writing in his old age, giving them a happy ending in the novel.
The intricate feelings, different personalities and bad luck between the three finally lead to the tragic ending of the three. This article mainly focuses on the intimate relationship between the three main characters in the novel and its causes. Therefore, we ignore the World War II part of realism and focus on the family environment, character development and the development of intimacy reflected in the first part. Etc., these are the root causes of all tragedies, and the most moving parts of the novel and the film.
3 Character Behavior and Psychological Analysis
3.1 Briony's behavior and psychoanalysis
3.1.1 Analysis based on the ternary theory of love
As the 13-year-old daughter of the estate owner, Brioni is in the midst of adolescence. According to Erikson (Erikson & Erik, 1963), adolescents at this time are mainly concerned with other people's evaluation of themselves compared with their own feelings, and desire to be recognized by others. As mentioned below, Briony did not get enough attention and attention from the outside world (parents, playmates) during this period, which made her feel in love with Robbie, the "brother" like her parents. According to Robbie, Brioni learned to swim from him around the age of eight and would always "scream and hop into his arms from the river". Briony reveled in being held by him to practice swimming, inventing the "swim ascent", a way to swim upstream against the current, even though it would tire him out for Robbie. By the time Brioni was about ten years old, after a practice session, she stood on the bank in a towel and asked Robbie directly, "Will you save me if I fall into the water?" After getting Robbie's affirmative answer, Brioni didn't even hesitate and jumped into the water. When Robbie dragged her ashore in wet clothes, instead of admitting her mistake, she told Robbie in a challenging tone that she wanted him to save her because she loved him. Here we can see the author's description of Briony "blinking her eyes fast as she spoke, she was dazzled by the fact that she had uncovered this great fact", indicating that Briony hoped that through her own The behavior made Robbie understand his so-called "love" and hoped that Robbie would also respond.
Bucx et al. (2010) pointed out that early romantic relationships are a form of peer love, closely associated with friendship, whereas later adolescent romantic relationships are a strong emotion involving intimacy, commitment, and sex. Shulman and Scharf (2000) also found that adolescents sometimes think they are in romantic relationships, when in fact this is no different from trans friendships. The main difference between romantic relationships and friendships is the passion part, ie infatuation with others and sexual desire, and the monopoly of the relationship (Furman & Shomaker, 2008). It can be seen that Briony's love for Robbie at that time was indeed a kind of companion love - she hoped that Robbie would always pay attention to her and help her, and interpret the plot of the hero saving beauty as love. Obviously, the love triangle between Briony and Robbie and Robbie and Briony is only intimacy, that is, they only have the feeling of "like" between their companions. However, Briony interprets this feeling as a perfect love, and takes it for granted that Robbie should respond to her, which makes the two people have an unequal understanding of the love triangle.
According to Sternberg, a mismatch between one's own perceptions of the feelings of others and the perceptions of others' perceptions of such feelings can have a negative impact on a romantic relationship (Sternberg & Grajek, 198). In this story, Briony feels that his love for Robbie is complete, while Robbie doesn't take the relationship seriously and only treats it as a kid's joke, which leads to the same love between the two The perception of triangles is different. This mismatch eventually broke Briony's heart and subtly changed her attitude towards Robbie afterwards.
3.1.2 Analysis based on attachment theory
As mentioned above, Brioni has just entered adolescence. She is sensitive, imaginative, and talented in literature, but she often confuses reality and fantasy, and has her own set of regular cognitive and logical systems. She grew up in a family of five, with parents, older brothers and older sisters. According to Bowen's (2002) family system theory, people are not simple autonomous spiritual entities, they are emotionally interrelated, and the whole family is an emotional unit. So Briony's character and emotional problems are inseparable from the family.
The manor's father, Jack, was a government official who was "always in town" and busy all day (or, most of the time, in another woman's house). Briony, who faced the absence of his father since childhood, transferred his attachment to his father to his brother Leon. In order to welcome her brother Leon home and get his praise, she even imagined two "short plays" in her mind, "each of which revolves around Leon". Even at home, the father has little communication and intimacy with his wife and three children, and this lack of intimacy prevents Briony from properly recognizing the intimacy and love between Cecilia and Robbie. Briony is desperate for her father's love, but the lack of intimacy makes her attachment to her father insecure.
As Briony's transferred attachment, Leon doesn't show the attention she deserves as a brother or the fatherly love she expects. As Briony lashed the wicker with some rage, she "realized that a chaise was behind her," and Leon came back, "she thought he was staring at her, and he would definitely stop the carriage and run off The embankment came", but "the sound of wheels and hooves retreated from the second bridge", Leon did not notice her, she had to defend him in her heart "this proves that her brother understands the meaning of distance and respect for the profession ". But still "feel a little sad". And it turns out that Lyon paid little attention to the plays she wrote and rehearsed specifically to greet him.
In the absence of her father and the indifference of her brother, her daily mother, Emily, should undoubtedly have played an extremely important role in Briony's growth and self-development. At first glance, at the age of her mother in her thirties, Brioni's "unexpected birth brought life to the whole family", "relieving and comforting people's hearts", so her mother always felt that she was "lovable", But Brioni also felt "withdrawn into a completely closed inner world" that even "a loving mother could not penetrate". In reality, she's just a fake matriarch, a self-deceiving wife (making excuses for her well-known husband's infidelity), and an incompetent mother. From Cecilia's point of view, "she is either suffering from migraine headaches, or is very indifferent, even unreasonable", we can truly feel that she is incompetent in the responsibilities of mother and parent, and she is unable to take care of her own three Having a child and taking care of her family (she even needs her child to take care of her, instead), the migraines that have always plagued her seem to be the perfect and real excuse for her to escape her responsibilities as a mother. Even with daily contact, she and Brioni are still extremely lacking in communication and real intimacy, with only formal greetings, comfort, and food and daily care.
Sister Cecilia has actually become the family that has the deepest bond with Brioni. Under the absence of her father, the indifference of her brother, and the incompetence of her mother, Cecilia is most of the time taking care of the family and taking care of her mother. and sister. With a higher education, she hopes to feel the importance of her family, and also expects Briony to rely on and communicate with her. The fantasies indulge their bond less and less, and Briony all but severs her apparent attachment to her. But in fact, Briony still has a peculiar love and attachment to her sister in her heart, "that is a kind of selfless love", "she will protect her sister", but this kind of "attachment" that is seldom communicated in the bottom of my heart, It also eventually led to her making a big mistake, causing eternal pain for her sister and Robbie.
To sum up, it is not difficult to see that Brioni has a lack of communication and intimacy with the four family members who should be the closest, the absence of his father, the indifference of his brother, the incompetence of his mother and the strange feeling of alienation with his sister. This made her form an insecure and contradictory attachment pattern in her childhood and even childhood: she longed for the warmth and harmony of the family, especially the love of her brother and mother. When she was frustrated in the article, she expressed "how much she wanted her mother" more than once, but at the same time closed her thoughts in writing. Through "Arabella's Tribulation", she portrayed the imaginary close family relationship and love, and expressed her love for her parents, The brother turned a blind eye to her "ignorance" and even took the initiative to excuse them. The alienation from her family made her extremely insecure. She wanted to get love but was afraid, and even resisted getting it; it also often made her doubt, and her heart was always accompanied by "but her mother will not come. No one will come to see the cloth." Leonie is gone, no one will come to talk to her" thoughts.
According to Bowlby's (1969) theory, as young creatures, there should be secure and stable attachment figures and attachment relationships to "protect themselves"; but no family member can provide such care. In addition, when the father is absent, the daughter will seek male attention to make up for the absence of the father (Hoier, 2003), so she naturally transfers her attachment to Robbie - growing up with her older brothers and sisters, taking care of and protecting herself from childhood Yes, "teach her to swim" and "would love to hear" what she confided, on the son of a cleaning lady. The age difference of more than ten years made her maintain a family and peer attachment at first; however, with the advent of puberty and the germination of sexual consciousness, accompanied by her addiction to fantasy, this attachment gradually changed, Robbie changed from a simple The parent-like attachment object becomes a lover-like being. In the scene by the pool, she jumped into the water, in order to verify that Robbie has the same "love" for herself, to find the security of being loved, and forcefully interprets "you saved me" as "you love me". These contradictory behaviors are all manifestations of his ambivalent attachment, and Briony undoubtedly loses his important emotional ties and becomes more conflicted and unstable in his interactions with the opposite sex (Horne, 2011).
In the story that follows, she peeks at Robbie's letter to Cecilia; the discord in her parents' marital relationship makes her misunderstood about the love between Robbie and her sister. She then entered her own emotional cognition system, believing that Robbie was a "bad guy" and a "sex maniac", and that she had an obligation to "protect her sister" from harm. In the end, she took her fantasies as fact and accused Robbie of raping her cousin, which caused her sister and Robbie to be separated forever; in fact, the letter and the passion of her sister and Robbie in the study made her confirm in her heart. Her own attachment figure is moving away from and betraying her, and the situation of abandonment activates her conflicting attachment system; jealousy, anger follow, and growing up in an alienated family environment, she tends to hold negative views of the opposite sex (Hoier, 2003), so in love, Brioni unconsciously went to such extremes.
3.2 Robbie's behavior and psychological analysis
3.2.1 Analysis based on the ternary theory of love
Robbie was a typical image of a housekeeper as soon as he appeared on the stage, "Kneeling and weeding all the way by the rose hedge", this image seems to determine that it is difficult for him to fall in love with the noble Cecilia. But in fact Robbie and Cecilia received the same good education, and the two have a close relationship since childhood. In fact, the two have long been in love with each other and have been brewing for a long time. This intimacy from adolescence has kept Robbie's love triangle high for Cecilia. Then after the apology letter incident, Robbie confessed to Cecilia his feelings for her. Here we can see Robbie's relationship with Cecilia through an explicit love letter written by Robbie. Leah already had a strong desire for sex and possessiveness. Liu Wen et al. (2012) pointed out that adolescents' support for romantic relationships increases with age, so it is not surprising that Robbie, who is still in his youth, wants to have such a strong romantic relationship with Cecilia. Afterwards, the two had a fierce entanglement in the library, and Robbie expressed the passion in his love for Cecilia. So far Robbie's love triangle has constituted "romantic love". But unfortunately, the love between the two still lacked commitment at this time, and this romantic love encounter was accidentally interrupted by Briony, which also led to Briony's misunderstanding of Robbie.
Direct physical contact and communication between Robbie and Cecilia is lost after Robbie goes to jail for Briony's charges. After Robbie was released from prison to participate in the war, the two still could not meet, and even communication was very difficult. This situation will inevitably lead to the low level of intimacy in their love. At this time, Robbie had only the belief in returning to his motherland to find Cecilia, "He will find Cecilia. Her address is in the letter in his pocket, next to the poem." It can be seen in Robbie In his heart, Cecilia still occupies a very important position. At this time, Robbie's love for Cecilia has a high commitment. From Robbie's desperate desire to return to China, we can see that he really hopes to improve the love relationship between the two, and hopes to re-establish the intimacy and passion in love. But the helpless fate gave him a cruel blow again, and in the end he died on the way back home with his thoughts of Cecilia.
Looking at the development of Robbie's love for Cecilia, we can find that in the first paragraph, the two have already had relatively high intimacy and passion, but no commitment has been brewed; Commitment is high, but intimacy and passion are low because of distance. This is doomed that neither of these two loves can be a complete love, which makes Robbie fall into continuous painful thoughts. Although the tragedy in Atonement was not caused by Robbie, this tragic fate undoubtedly destroyed the integrity of Robbie's love triangle, causing him to fail to obtain the happiness he expected after all.
3.2.2 Analysis based on attachment theory
Robbie's father left him when he was six years old after leaving a note, and it was his mother's struggle to get them to settle on the Thales family manor and put Robbie up with Lyon (son of the manor's owner) of his age. ) and Cecilia grew up together and became "playmates who climbed trees together".
The lack of paternal love is partly made up for by the patronage of the manor Jack, and the maternal love offered to him by his mother is a rare healthy perfection in the novel - the mother strives for a better environment for him and is "proud of him" ", until the age of 23, he was still "happy to wash his clothes" and "give him hot meals and dishes". As a result, he developed a stable and secure attachment with his mother from childhood; this secure attachment pattern also naturally developed between him and Cecilia, the "trusting hand-holding little sister" he grew up with. stand up. After the two people's love and sexual consciousness germinate, under the condition of their unconsciousness, this trusting and intimate peer attachment relationship gradually changes to romantic adult attachment. In the end, the apology letter incident made them understand each other's feelings, and the two moved towards a secure attachment. This kind of attachment relationship, until Robbie was wrongfully imprisoned and released to join the army, and Cecilia ran away from home and became a field nurse, even though the two almost never had the chance to meet again, it never changed. The two of them serve as a safe base for each other in their relationship and are always a solid backing for each other; it can be said that if there is no such forced separation, the attachment relationship and love between them are basically perfect.
As for Briony's heart, Robbie is tall and gentle, taking care of her since childhood, even "teaching her to swim" and appreciating her novels. In the absence of her father and the indifference of her brother, she naturally regards such a near-perfect Robbie as her father and brother's status as her attachment object in the "relatively isolated" manor.
This childlike attachment is unequivocally unequal: Robbie as the attachment figure offers without receiving care, Briony seeks but does not provide security; this attachment continues until Briony reaches puberty, although Her feelings for Robbie have changed, but the attachment relationship between them remains the same, which is destined to be built on such an attachment relationship that does not conform to the principle of adult attachment and reciprocity. It is impossible to develop into a mature relationship. love.
On the other hand, between Robbie and Cecilia, they are both knowledgeable, understand each other and rely on each other, so that the reciprocal attachment relationship is safe and stable.
4 Summary and discussion
4.1 Causes of tragedy
In this article, we analyze the behavior and psychological processes of the three main characters in Atonement: Briony, Robbie, and Cecilia, with particular attention to "Robbie-Brioni" and "Robbie-Cecilia" two loving relationships. Using the triadic theory of love and attachment theory for analysis, the results show that these two emotional tragedies are caused by a variety of factors.
For Robbie and Briony's relationship, the problem stemmed from Briony's lack of caring in the family, which led to her developing an insecure attachment style. After she misunderstands Robbie's protection, a distorted affection for Robbie is formed, a one-sided, asymmetrical attachment: Briony's strong attachment to Robbie and Robbie's to Robbie Briony's lack of attachment. Also, the love component between Briony and Robbie is incomplete: there is only intimacy but not passion and commitment. Therefore, no matter from the analysis of the triadic theory of love or from the analysis of attachment theory, we can see that the relationship between Briony and Robbie is not safe and complete, and there is a certain degree of lack, so it is destined to lead to tragedy.
For Robbie and Cecilia's relationship, they broke down the barriers of class, shared a common topic, and thus had a passion component. They also have a strong commitment to each other and have healthy attachments to each other. However, due to the separation of physical distance, they lost their intimacy, and finally went to tragedy. This shows that perfect intimacy has strict requirements for various components, and the lack of just one dimension may lead to serious consequences.
4.2 Advice for having better intimacy
Atonement's series of tragic stories can be traced back to Briony's upbringing of various lack of affection, which led to her one-way attachment to Robbie, accidental misunderstanding of him, and ultimately Robbie and Ceci Leah's tragedy.
So aside from focusing on a specific relationship, we can summarize from these stories a way to avoid tragedy, that is, to have a better intimacy.
First of all, you need to pay attention to the family environment. It is difficult for any child to develop a secure attachment relationship in a situation where the roles of parents, siblings are incomplete, and family relationships are at odds. And this insecure attachment relationship is also likely to trigger the breakdown of intimacy later in life. Therefore, the healthy environment of the family in childhood is the basis for better intimacy in adulthood.
Second, you need to focus on the integrity of a relationship itself. In an intimate relationship, any inadvertent flaw can lead to the breakdown of the relationship. Therefore, when conducting an intimate relationship, individuals should pay attention to whether the love triad is complete and whether the attachment relationship is safe and healthy, so as to ensure the healthy development of the intimate relationship.
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