In Alias Grace, the heroine's alleged madness is always experienced and interpreted within interpersonal matrices. Convicted murderess Grace might suffer from amnesia and multiple personality disorder, a predicament Grace describes in relational terms when she claims that it feels as if 'somebody else comes in.

Did Alias Grace have split personality?

Grace, we learn, seems to have a multiple personality disorder. Sometimes she's Grace Marks, an innocent maid; sometimes she's Mary Whitney, the vengeful spirit of Grace's deceased friend. Grace is not responsible for the murders.

Was Grace in Alias Grace possessed?

It was suggested variously that she was possessed by the consciousness of her dead friend, Mary Whitney, or had some kind of personality disorder. Another theory was that Marks had in fact died and that Mary Whitney had adopted her identity.

Was Grace innocent in Alias Grace?

To this day, there is no consensus on Grace Marks' guilt. Even during her research, Margaret Atwood noted that no one, even people who claimed to be first-hand witnesses, could say for sure what happened at the Kinnear household.

Did Jeremiah really hypnotize Grace?

Because Grace feels powerfully drawn to him, it seems possible that Jeremiah and Grace are in cahoots in staging the hypnosis. In a letter Grace writes to Jeremiah toward the end of the novel, after he has left Kingston and adopted a different alias, Grace writes ambiguously: “Why did you want to help me?

System Reacts to Alias Grace | Dissociative Identity Disorder

What actually happened to Grace Marks?

At one period (May 4, 1852 – August 18, 1853) she was committed to an asylum but was later returned to Kingston Penitentiary. In 1872, after almost thirty years of incarceration, Marks was pardoned and moved to northern New York. After that she disappeared from the historical record.

What is the twist in Alias Grace?

While under hypnosis, Grace speaks in an unusual voice and communicates in an uncharacteristically frank manner. Dr. Jordan guesses that this voice belongs to Mary Whitney. The voice confirms his guess, then goes on to say that she assisted McDermott in the murders and that Grace took no part in them.

Why did the doctor go crazy in Alias Grace?

Upon his return to his native Massachusetts, Dr. Jordan enlists in the Union Army; he sustains a head wound that causes him, according to his mother, to lose all memory of his time in Kingston and his work with Grace.

What was the truth in Alias Grace?

The story fictionalizes the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in Canada West. Two servants of the Kinnear household, Grace Marks and James McDermott, were convicted of the crime. McDermott was hanged and Marks was sentenced to life imprisonment.

What do red peonies symbolize in Alias Grace?

Peonies. The peonies that Grace sees in a recurring dream symbolize her confusion about her own guilt and innocence. In Grace's dream, red peonies grow from a gravel path. She knows it's the wrong time of year for peonies, and when she touches them, she realizes the petals are made of cloth.

Was Grace in love with Mary Whitney?

Though there are some hints that Grace may have been attracted to her friend Jeremiah the peddler, there are also several hints throughout the novel that Grace may be a lesbian, and that she was in love with her best friend, Mary Whitney.

Did Alias Grace commit the murders?

Grace, we learn, seems to have a multiple personality disorder. Sometimes she's Grace Marks, an innocent maid; sometimes she's Mary Whitney, the vengeful spirit of Grace's deceased friend. Grace is not responsible for the murders. Mary Whitney is the perpetrator.

What is the madness in Alias Grace?

Relational Features of Madness in Alias Grace

Hysteric fits and an intermittent incarceration in a lunatic asylum warrant the engagement of a psychiatrist, and during their sessions, Grace dutifully tells him the story of her life and of previous symptoms of mental illness.

Was Grace possessed by Mary in Alias Grace?

At the climax of the novel, when Jeremiah (disguised as Dr. Jerome DuPont) hypnotizes Grace, Mary Whitney's voice reveals that, upon her death, her spirit possessed Grace's body. Mary claims that she has intermittently taken over Grace's body and that she, not Grace, is responsible for murdering Nancy Montgomery.

Was Nancy pregnant in Alias Grace?

At the time of her murder, Nancy was pregnant with a child most likely fathered by Mr. Kinnear. Before working for Mr. Kinnear, Nancy was a servant at a different household; there, she became pregnant by an unknown man and gave birth to a baby that died.

How old is Grace supposed to be in Alias Grace?

Although the setting and characters remain largely the same, Atwood fictionalizes new elements of the story to allow readers to decide whether the 16-year-old convicted murderer Grace Marks is innocent or guilty.

Did Grace have a split personality in Alias Grace?

After the hypnotism, however, Dr. DuPont and Dr. Jordan provide an alternative explanation based in the science of psychology. They hypothesize that Grace is not possessed by a spirit but has split personality syndrome.

What parts of Alias Grace are true?

The details around Marks's trial and confession are all accurate. Susanna Moodie's 1853 book Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush provides a historical record of Marks's life before the trial, and inspired Atwood to write Alias Grace in 1996.

Why were Grace Marks pardoned?

After 15 months, Marks was sent back to the Kingston Penitentiary. During her incarceration, she impressed “many respectable persons” who petitioned for her release, Atwood writes in the afterword to Alias Grace. In 1872, Marks was finally granted a pardon.

What is the message of Alias Grace?

Alias Grace examines themes like gender issues, memory, truth, and reality while readers get to play the role of a 19th-century detective. Atwood also famously explores gender issues in her 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale.

Was Grace Marks a real person?

Grace Marks served her sentence in the Kingston Penitentiary from 19 November 1843 until 7 August 1872. She also had a brief stint in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum (now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) from 1852–53. In total, she served nearly 29 years before she was pardoned.

What did the doctor do to Mary in Alias Grace?

According to the account Grace will give Dr. Jordan in Part VI, Mary died after undergoing a botched abortion, and it's possible that the “Mary” part of Grace believes this to be the same doctor who killed her.

What is the climax of Alias Grace?

ClimaxDr. Jordan fails to revive Grace's memories of the murders and agrees to let Dr. DuPont hypnotize Grace. Hypnosis appears to reveal that Mary Whitney's soul has been trapped in Grace since her death and that she—not Grace—was responsible for the murders.

Who committed the murders in Alias Grace?

Despite their conflicting narratives about who was the ringleader, Marks and McDermott both confessed to the murders of Kinnear and Montgomery. The partners in crime were sentenced to death, but the jury decided to give Marks mercy and changed her sentence to life imprisonment.

What is the meaning of the quilts in Alias Grace?

39 A pertinent metaphor for a structural paradox, the patchwork quilt in Alias Grace represents the postmodern (contradictory) desire for unity and diversity, for freedom and security, for process and closure.