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Similarities
- Framed Narrative: A story within a story, completed. - McEwan inspired by Mary Shelly's Frankenstein (Layered tradition). Atonement's form covers literature history - Part 1: Austen'esque romanticism. Part 2 - Historical Fiction. Part 3 - Victorian and Modern memoirs. Part 4 modern speculation and theory.
- Epistolary structure; Wuthering Heights:Cathy's letter allows the reader to understand Heathclifff's poor treatement "He calls Heathcliff a vagourbond", Isabella's letter:As soon as I had persuded this epistile, I went to my master, and informed him that his sister had arrived at the heights". Atonement: Key letter in every part (setting the scene potentially). Letter is what separates the lovers 'No more princesses!...with that letter, something elemental, brutal,perhaps even criminal had been introduced", yet results in the only thing keeping them together; 'They made love for years - by post'.
- Use of propelsis - Nelly's flash back and Lockwood's dream ;[. . .] knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch: instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand. The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, "Let me in—let me in!" (3.45) Briony - jumps forward in time, Robbie jumps back in time.
- Episodic structure;episodic plot structure is made up of a series of chapters or stories linked together by the same character, place, or theme but held apart by their individual plot, purpose, and subtext.
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Differences
- Wuthering Heights: Dual narration (wasn't apparent when novel was written), Nelly tells the story, yet the account is delivered by Lockwood.The language used by her improbable. Improbable, that she can recall so many conversation verbatim after a period of many years. Nelly can be seen as unreliable when she admits that "was described,completely, as you will hear" - in her assumption that Heath cliff was vindictive. Nelly's narration is less subject to contradiction. Her knowledge is informed by her own preferences - also her ulterior motives. --- Reader under the impression that Nelly is a neutral or objective narrator. Some feminists analyse have focused on the fact that Nelly Dean's narrative takes precedence over Lockwood, Seen as making an intervention into the male bias of much Victorian literature.Nelly uses figures of speech that are effective - powerful metaphor's, pastoral imagery, alliteration, animal imagery.
- Omniscient Limited Narrator - Briony, everything is altered by Briony potentially. She admits that she lies. As well as reviews events wrong e.g fountain.
- Victorian literature - Wuthering Heights, shows elements of plot twists and turns which are contrived and coincidental
- Atonement: Third person narration, is she reliable? ' [A] novelist...is also God" she says sadly "There is nothing outside her. In her imagination, she has set the limits and terms".
- Brontë provides a few hints that our narrators have their own plans, desires, and interpretations. An example: remember how Lockwood grossly misjudges Heathcliff on their first encounter? He writes 'Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us. A capital fellow! '(1.1)
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