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Circling of Ambiguity in Alias Grace

by Amanda Ciarkowski

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood challenges the historical aspects of Grace Marks and

James McDermott by questioning the murder of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery.

Margaret Atwood creates an identity for Grace Marks as she shares her life story from prison.1

For Atwood, it is less important to share the historical kernels from the murder than it is to

understand Grace Marks because “history narrates the lives of the victorious and powerful from

disappear—so to speak—‘into’ the things that it makes possible” (Nealon 97). Readers trust

Grace as an authority through her narration enough to create a subjective understanding of

fictional Grace and historical Grace. The drive of the story then lies within an ambiguous

construction of Grace as she transforms into the author of her story the media did not tell.

Throughout Alias Grace, it is a challenge to understand where Grace speaks internally or

externally, which makes Grace a confusing character. Since the audience relies only on her

words for truth, it is difficult to form a reliable interpretation of Grace. No matter if she speaks to

others, or only herself, there is still a question of her only speaking internally. The lack of

quotation marks around dialogue makes Grace an unreliable narrator. The ambiguous narration,

however, creates relevancy in the reader’s interpretation because “rather than deploying a highly

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restrictive narrative form or simply withholding information, Atwood’s plot and characterization

determine the novel’s uncertainty. … Atwood’s use with Grace of an intimate first-person

narrative lulls us into thinking that our insight is fuller than it in fact transpires to be” (O’Neill

655). Without Grace’s innocence known, the narrative serves as evidence to any interpretation

of Grace. Grace’s way of speaking determines how she handles situations: she says, “I try to

think of what Mary Whitney should say, and sometimes I can say it. If you really thought that of

me you should hold your dirty tongues, I said to them” (Atwood 63). When Grace says she

internalization or outward expression of language.

Grace Marks teeters on the boundary between crazy and intelligent. Her actions resemble

someone who has an unstable mind, but also knows exactly what to say at the right moment. The

question of craziness comes from the unknown narration with her internalized thoughts. There is

no verdict of insanity, but the perceived craziness defines Grace’s self. With the presented text,

however, the claim of intelligence is pertinent. Even through the confusion of Grace’s

personality, “if we pay close attention to her words, we notice that violence, despair, and

incipient or episodic madness may have been part of her days at the Richmond Hill household,

but Grace’s present account of such days is much more carefully assembled and is less frantic

than her story appears” (Blanc 120). It appears that her thoughts are calculated and precise to the

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specific moment to get what she wants. She randomly says small phrases that lead the reader to

believe she knows what she says, such as “when you are sad it is best to change the subject”

(Atwood 68). Rather than saying something she regrets to Dr. Jordan, Grace realizes that she

needs to stop talking. There is a depth to her voice that pushes the reader to question her sanity.

Like the verdict of her innocence, it is up to the reader to determine if Grace is insane or knows

how to cheat the system. Dr. Bannerling mentions that Grace “is an accomplished actress and a

most practiced liar” (Atwood 71). Atwood has characters question her craziness to further leave

completeness since she can withhold any information. The ambiguity of her story makes the

reader fill in the blanks to determine who Grace is as a person from the disconnect between

Grace’s thoughts and dialogue. For Grace, “the common link between the subject and language

is the common social nature of language and social nature to subjectivity” (Nealon 44). What she

says creates the constructed societal view of herself, but may not be who Grace really is in

society. Dr. Jordan may have the wrong idea of her because she says “what I say to him is

different. I say, I don’t know” and goes on to say “I said this last thing to be mischievous. I did

not give him a straight answer” (Atwood 98). Grace understands that she does not have to tell

Dr. Jordan everything about herself and he would not notice. The ambiguity of her shared

knowledge brings up the authority Grace has to share her life with the outside world. Her

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intelligence shines through because she does not share everything with everyone. She knows that

any word she says can be misconstrued to keep her in prison. Grace saying that she does not

always share everything, however, allows the reader to question anything she says in the future.

While still an authority of her own story, she has the power to tell the filtered version for the

reader to sew together the different pieces Grace shares. 3

The more information that Grace shares with people, the more accountability she holds to

uphold her words. By telling Dr. Jordan her life story, she releases a protected part of her

encountered were Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie, Esq., the lawyer, and I was afraid of him; and those

in the courtroom at the trial, and in the jail; and they were from the newspapers, and made up lies

about me” (Atwood 67). Grace’s masked information seems viable to create the self she wants

society to see so that her character is not used against her.4

While being accused of murder, Grace’s words hold more value than ever. During Dr.

DuPont’s hypnotics on Grace, her dialogue suggests that she is no longer herself. Keeping the

idea that Grace may or may not be aware of her speech, she divulges information when asked

about the murder that concludes Grace has a split personality or controls her words to confuse

authorities. After multiple people in the room believe Mary Whitney’s spirit is within Grace, the

voice says, “you like riddles. You know the answer. I told you it was my kerchief, the one I left

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to Grace” and “Grace doesn’t know, she’s never known” (Atwood 402). While this poses

confusion, it shows that words hold importance. There is no definite answer as to whether Grace

still holds control of her words or if Mary’s spirit is housed within Grace. The only hint Atwood

gives readers as to whether Grace truly knows what she says as she leaves the room, unaware of

anything she said while under hypnosis, is “she walks away lightly enough now, and seems

almost happy” (Atwood 404). Different interpretations create varying viewpoints on Grace, but

“whether read as spiritualist possession, neurological multiplicity, stage-hypnotic theatrics, the

Margaret Atwood uses many different ambiguous elements in Alias Grace that challenge

the reader to form their own opinion of Grace’s identity. Holding back information leads to

confusion as to whether Grace’s words divulge the true story or not. It is not as important to

know the guilt or innocence of Grace, but rather the essence of what her character embodies.

Every time Grace speaks, she constructs how she wants society to view her. In the eyes of the

media, Grace Marks has no importance—everything revolves around the murder and proving her

guilty rather than who Grace is as a person. Atwood’s ambiguity throughout the novel helps the

reader to understand the Grace who has a story other than guilty or innocent. It follows that

“Atwood’s denial of narrative closure parallels her denial of any ultimate moral judgment, any

determination of Grace’s guilt or innocence” (O’Neill 662). The lack of information helps to take

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the focus off of the murder to allow Grace to tell her story, whether it be in her head or verbally.

Not much is concrete from Grace’s narration; the reader is left with different squares of

information to quilt together an ending to Grace’s story given her own perception of her own

character.

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Notes

1. For more reading on the discussion of Alias Grace as a fiction story in terms of taking an old

story and applying a new form and having the freedom to invent new elements, see “Alias

Fiction” by Elspeth Cameron.

2. “Reconstructing Margaret Atwood’s Protagonists” further elaborates on Atwood’s construction

of Grace’s self-identity. The historical accounts lack the voice of Grace; Goldblatt emphasizes

the perception of women malleable to men, creating a vulnerability to which Atwood diminishes

faded yellowish, from the prison nightdress… And the third will be a pale cotton, a pink and

white floral, cut from the dress of Nancy’s” (Atwood 460). Each part of Grace’s life is sewn into

the quilt of her life.

4. Grace is constantly subjected to the discourses of anyone who has power and consequently

makes her decisions in order to survive the hard legal world. According to O’Neill, in an analysis

of Alias Grace and the dangers of courtroom narration, “considering the story with respect to

authorship, one recognizes in the imagery of the hunter and the hunted, and in the confusion over

which is which” (O’Neill 659). Grace often does not have an immense amount of power. “The

Eroticism of Class and the Enigma of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace” by Sandra Kumamoto

Stanley also elaborates on Grace’s fight for power against the erotics of class.

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Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace. New York: Doubleday, 1996. Print.

Blanc, Marie-Thérèse. "Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace And The Construction Of A Trial

Narrative." English Studies In Canada 32.4 (2006): 101-127. MLA International

Bibliography. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

Cameron, Elspeth. "Alias Fiction." Canadian Forum 75.856 (1997): 39-42. Rpt.

in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 232. Detroit: Gale,

Nealon, Jeffrey T., and Susan Searls Giroux. The Theory Toolbox: Critical Concepts for the

Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012. Print.

O'Neill, John. "Dying In A State Of Grace: Memory, Duality, And Uncertainty In Margaret

Atwood's Alias Grace." Textual Practice 27.4 (2013): 651-670. MLA International

Bibliography. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

Stanley, Sandra Kumamoto. “The Eroticism of Class and the Enigma of Margaret Atwood's

Alias Grace”. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 22.2 (2003): 371–386. JSTOR. Web.

20 Nov. 2015.