Furthermore, Briony’s attempts to make amends after Robbie returns from fighting in the war are doomed to begin with. After many years of having been separated from Robbie and Cecila, she visits them, hoping for forgiveness. However, the mere act of apologizing to both of them becomes so daunting for Briony when she realizes the harm she inflicted upon Robbie: “So she stood by the wall, pretending not to lean against it, and watched her sister. What was surprising was the speed with which her relief that Robbie was alive was supplanted by her dread of confronting him” (338). It is evident that Robbie’s presence alone is enough to unnerve Briony to the point that she is unable to speak, thereby weakening her apology and rendering her acts of compensation ineffective. What furthers her guilt is the sight of Robbie’s haggard appearance. “The shock was how much older he looked, especially round the eyes. Did everything have to be her fault? She wondered stupidly. Couldn’t it also be the war’s? ‘So it was you,’ he said finally” (339). Briony’s shock over Robbie’s appearance lies in her knowledge that she is the primary cause of it. Because of her false confession, Robbie was unjustly forced to endure both jail and war service, both of which aged him beyond his years. Thus, upon seeing the toll that her actions had taken on him, Briony realizes that no matter what she does, she will not be forgiven. Any action she takes is fruitless, as the damage she has imposed is too much for her to compensate for.
         Briony’s final effort to atone for her guilt, penning a novel about Robbie and Cecilia’s love story, proves to be a futile action. By writing the book, Briony, now sixty-four and suffering from vascular dementia, and is attempting to give Robbie and Cecila the happy ending that was denied to them in real life: the lovers never reunited, both having died before the war’s end. However, for Briony, this means of contrition serves only to remind her how ineffective the act ultimately is. She realizes that, ultimately, no one forced her into blaming Robbie: “She would never be able to console herself that she was pressured or bullied. She never was. She trapped herself, she marched into the labyrinth of her own construction, and was too young, too awestruck, too keen to please, to insist on making her own way back” (360). Briony, who is writing a book in which Robbie and Cecila get their happy ending, knows that “she would never be able to console herself”. She knows that she will not be able to console her guilt as “she trapped herself” and she can’t do anything about it. If Briony knows she is incapable of doing anything to relieve her guilt, she also shows that any action she takes to relieve it will be ineffective. What furthers her guilt was when she finished her book and thought how fake it was as compared to real life:  “She was surprised at how serene she felt, and just a little sad. Was it disappointment? She had hardly expected to be forgiven. What she felt was more like homesickness, though there was no source for it, no home. But she was sad to leave her sister.” (371) Briony, who is overburdened by her guilt “hardly expected to be forgiven” when writing her book. She knows that as both, Cecila and Robbie are dead and it is “just a little sad.” She wrote the book as a form of atonement and expected forgiveness to relieve her guilt initially but later on found out that is not possible. In conclusion, since Robbie and Cecila are dead, her actions are useless as she cannot be forgiven by them. This makes her action to compensate for her guilt ineffective.