Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood is based on the true murders on Nancy Montgomery and Thomas Kinnear, and the imprisonment of Grace Marks, who, along with James McDermott, were the murderers. It has been described as a post modern novel.
Alias Grace has been described as a post modern novel. The post modern novel does not rely on traditional narrative modes to present character or theme: instead the reader has to construct a narrative from a variety of stylistic and formal fragments. This is very true of Alias Grace, as the novel is constantly jumping from place to place, scene to scene, and style to style.
The novel uses epigraphs at the beginning of each section, to give the reader a cryptic idea as to the theme of that particular section. The difference in both Grace's and Simon's narratives play a large part in presenting the characters.
Grace Marks is the main character in the novel, and she is presented to the reader in many ways; her narrative style, the ballad, the epigraphs, the opinions of her from the Governor's wife, her friends and her daughters, the section titles, and Simon Jordan's view of her.
Her narrative can be described as a stream of consciousness, because it tends to jump around, like a person's thoughts. For example, in the first section, she begins by discussing peonies, and then jumps to walking around the prison yard.
Her narrative portrays her as deluded, and possibly mad. She says that "a man is standing there with a candle, blocking the stairs that go up, and the cellar walls are all around me", but she is in the prison yard.
Further on in the novel, she is portrayed, through her narrative, as deceiving, as she says "I think of Mary Whitney, and the apple peelings we threw over our shoulders, that night, to see who we would marry. But I will not tell him that."
The ballad presents her as a very evil, cold-hearted killer, who sold herself to a man so that she could be rid of a love rival. This was a very popular view on Grace at the time of the murder trial, as James McDermott, her supposed paramour, fuelled that belief by saying that he would never have done it if she hadn't asked.
The ballad documents the supposed events of the murder, as well as discussing the love square that was occurring between James, Grace, Nancy Montgomery and Thomas Kinnear, and the hatred that James had for Nancy. It makes Grace a cold-blooded killer in the way it describes her asking James to commit the murder of Nancy:
"O no it cannot be,
Unless you kill for my dear sake,
Nancy Montgomery."
The fact that she is portrayed as asking him outright emphasises the point that she is cold and brutal.
Before each section of the novel there are a number of epigraphs, to show a little about that section of the novel, cryptically. They vary from poems, letters, and essays, to quotes from books, haikus and newspaper clippings. They are there to give the reader an idea of what the section is about, in terms of themes, character, and sometimes narrative. A strong example of this is in the first section, and shows the ambiguity of Grace as a character. It is a haiku by Bash which gives the reader an idea as to what they may see in the first section. The haiku is:
"Come, see
Real flowers
Of this painful world."
Atwood uses it because it is ambiguous towards Grace's character. She could be using the haiku to show that Grace is an innocent victim of her past, and that she may be a murderess, but she is only this way because of the way society and her past have shaped her. She could also be saying that Grace has done it, but because she has stood up for herself and not let people walk all over her, she is something rare, something to treasure.
Grace's character is also portrayed through the way that the Governor's wife, her daughters and her friends discuss her, as well as the many reports that had been given of her in the Governor's wife's scrapbook.
We are told of how the Governor's wife sees Grace through Grace's narrative. According to Grace, the Governor's wife likes to make the most of "her social position and accomplishments" and that Grace is one of those accomplishments, working as a maid during the day for the Governor's wife and her daughters. She says that Grace is "a wonderful seamstress, quite deft and accomplished," and that "under happier circumstances she could have made an excellent milliner's assistant." She also says there is another side to Grace, a more insane side to her, a side which even she is afraid of:
"sometimes she talks to herself and
sings out loud in a most peculiar manner."
"The keepers conduct her back in the evenings and
lock her up properly, otherwise I wouldn't sleep a wink."
Despite the fact that the Governor's wife lets her work during the day, she doesn't trust Grace enough to let her live like a maid, in her home.
The Governor's wife's friends see Grace as an object of fear. They say that the Governor's wife must have "nerves of iron" to allow "that woman" to walk around the house, and that their own could not cope with it. They think that she is doing something charitable with Grace, but that Grace will always be a murderess, no matter how kindly she is treated.
Grace says they go to see her because she is a celebrated murderess, but she herself cannot understand why, as murder is not usually something that is celebrated.
The daughters of the Governor's wife see Grace as a romantic figure; one that never smiles or laughs. Grace says that it's not because she doesn't want to laugh, but because if she laughed aloud, she may never stop.
Other people's opinions of her are also discussed, including some references to Susanna Moodie's work; she finds it difficult to understand all the contrasting things said about her, such as her having blue eyes and green eyes, that she is an "inhuman female demon" and an "innocent victim of a blackguard", or that she is "cunning and devious" (a quote from Moodie) and that she is "soft in the head and little better than an idiot".
The section titles are all names of patchwork quilt patterns. This is significant to Grace's character because they are almost like women's secret knowledge, and by using anything to do with embroidery, Atwood is showing the reader that Grace is a mysterious character. There is a scene in with Grace discusses a sampler, with Dr Simon Jordan, and he is a little confused by it. By using these items of female knowledge, Atwood is showing that Grace can hide things both from Simon, and the reader.
Simon also gives us a perspective of Grace's character. His prospective shows us the mysterious side to Grace, and, at one point, even gives her saint-like qualities. Simon doesn't see Grace as he does other women in his life. He tends to see the other women in terms of food or animals, but Grace is something different, something more powerful. When Simon looks at the picture of Grace in a pamphlet from the murders, and his description of Grace is sympathetic:
"the mouth dainty, the expression conventionally soulful
The vapid pensiveness of a Magdalene,
with the large eyes gazing at nothing."
As well as this description of Grace being sympathetic towards her, it is also comparing her to the Saint Mary Magdalene, who was one of the sinners whom Jesus Christ visited when he rose from his grave. This is giving the readers the view that Simon may think Grace is innocent.
Simon Jordan is another main character in the novel. He is the psychoanalyst that has been asked by a group who claim Grace is innocent, by analysing her to see if she really did commit the murders or whether she is innocent.
Like Grace, Simon is represented in many ways; his narrative style, the letters to/from him, and the second epigraph before Young Man's Fancy.
Simon's narrative style is in the third person and, unlike Grace's narrative, it is orderly. His narrative is more detailed than Grace's. The way he thinks is important to his narrative and in understanding him as a character. For example, he tends to see women in one of two ways; as food, or as animals. The women he tends to see as food are the women who he finds himself sexually attracted to, almost as a metaphor towards his sexual appetite. The women he tends to see as animals are the women he sees as domesticated, as the animals he uses are domesticated animals, or animals that are used for a domesticated purpose, such as pigs.
In the letters to him, the reader's view of Simon is broadened. In the first letter to him, we find that he is almost obsessive about his work on Grace, inquiring about her, trying to find out whether the doctors working at the asylum at the times which she was committed believed she was in fact mad or not.
In the second letter to him, we are shown another side, a side in which Simon is a disappointment to his mother. His mother sees him as a wild man, because of his lack of a wife and a family, and a settled life. She says that she longs for Simon to marry and find a profession he can establish himself in properly, which she says because she dislikes his choice of profession. She even tells him that she has "grave doubts concerning [Simon's] future prospects," and that she has "never been able to understand the interest [Simon] takes in such things."
She tells Simon that he has always been an idealist, "filled with optimistic dreams", and that he should change his views now that he is thirty. This is showing the reader that Simon is susceptible to seeing the best in everyone, which his optimism. She continues to push the issue of Simon's single life, and discusses a woman called Miss Faith Cartwright, whom she hopes Simon will marry.
The third letter to him, from Doctor Bannerling, reiterates Simon's thirst for knowledge on Grace's mental condition and his obsessive-like way of collecting it.
In Simon's letter to his friend Edward, we discover a lot about how Simon came to be in Canada, researching Grace's case. He dislikes his surrounds, and often makes fun of them, though never to anyone but Edward. He describes Grace, surprisingly, as "the gentle Grace", which is an unusual description for Simon to make about a woman.
There is only one epigraph that really links to Simon, and it is at the beginning of Young Man's Fancy. The epigraph is a quote from a letter from Dr. Joseph Workman, whose letter to Simon we see directly after the epigraphs, to Henry, "a young and troubled enquirer". It is discussing the fact that, in the 19th Century, not enough was known about the way a mind worked, and that Dr. Workman felt like a blindfolded child, groping his way, unsure of if he is going in the right direction or not. The epigraph ends with the phrase, "Someday, someone will remove that blindfold." Simon is using techniques which were very advanced for the time, and without them, some say that we may not have advanced to learn what we now know.
Atwood uses post-modern techniques, such as a fragmented structure, a disconnected and episodic narrative, and impressionistic characters, to make Alias Grace a novel which both excites and shocks the reader with regards to its characters, especially Grace Marks and Simon Jordan.