Answer:
b. The pirates whose absence Arabella laments are Leon and Paul.
Step-by-step explanation:
"Atonement" by Ian McEwan tells the story of the main protagonist Briony and her life during the Second World War. It starts with her younger days till her adulthood, introspecting and looking back at what she had experienced and done that led to her writing of the play "The Trials of Arabella".
In the play, Briony included several ironic events that are reflective of the rel life events that will later be seen in the whole story, her own life story. Arabella was a character in the play that was composed by Briony. But out of the options given in the question, the pirates that Arabella laments as absent are Leon and Paul is wrong. This sentence is not part of the ironic events that Briony will include from her real life events.