Briony Tallis sister

Cecilia Tallis: Cecilia is Briony’s older sister and is kind of the odd one out in her family she decided to go to college and get an education (which her mother thought was stupid because no man wants to marry an educated woman). It is important to note that the reason she can take the time and go to college and focus on what she does is because of her upper class background. This also affects her relationship with Robbie. She is Robbie’s other half in the “love story”. When she read the letter that Robbie sent her she is shocked but the letter gives the freedom to have feelings for Robbie, which she thinks she may have had before but repressed them. On Cecilia’s side of the “love story” she basically falls in love with him but then he is taken away and put in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Cecilia disowns her family because they prosecuted Robbie and believed that he committed the crime; when she leaves she goes to train to be a nurse. Cecilia’s character is not as deep as Briony’s or Robbie’s because we don’t really get many chapters in which you hear her thoughts and feelings. Nevertheless Cecilia actions said a lot about her. How she took off her clothes to go get the vase shows her stubbornness and will and then her choosing her dress for dinner and helping the twins find socks show a softer side of her that she seems to keep hidden. Her character is also developed through her interactions with Robbie, from the letters she sends him signed, “come back” or her encounter at the café in which they simply pick up right where they left off without a moment of hesitation. This shows her trust and belief in Robbie and proves that she really did love him all those years. Cecilia doesn’t grow as much as a character in the book but she does go from caring about Briony to hating her which you can tell through her thoughts about Briony telling the police Robbie raped Lola and her actions such as disowning her family or refusing to answer any of Briony’s letters in part three. Same as with Briony, Cecilia’s character is also written by Briony; this means that the thought that Cecilia has are the thoughts Briony thinks she had. Also, if Briony did have an agenda she could’ve portrayed Cecilia in a way to benefit her goal instead of how Cecilia actually was.