Grace Marks: Murderess of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery
The dominant time of the novel is 1859, although the first chapter is set in 1851, and the last section in 1872. Grace has been convicted for over 15 years, is a model prisoner and works at the Prison Governor’s house as a servant. Grace’s story develops as an articulated dialogue between Grace and Dr. Simon Jordan, the American psychologist who has been summoned to investigate Grace’s mental health. He applies the newest methods in the blossoming field of psychology with special regard to analogy-related practices. Asking Grace to tell the story of her life, he believes she might possibly regain her memory and remember what happened the day that Kinnear and Nancy were murdered. It appears that Grace is a terrific storyteller. Dr. Jordan is mesmerised by the detailed description she provides of her poverty-stricken family in northern Ireland, the journey across the Atlantic Ocean in the hold of a filthy ship, her father’s drinking and violence, the death of her friend and fellow servant, Mary Whitney, and finally the few weeks in service at Kinnear’s. Grace says she doesn’t remember much of the day of the crime because she fainted several times, shocked by the violence of McDermott, though her descriptions of people and situations prior to that experience are extraordinarily precise. Although Grace’s story is told in a camera-clear manner, Simon is not able to find out the truth about Grace. Alias Grace points out that there were many different opinions about Grace Marks in the nineteenth century. Public opinion was divided into two major groups representing the two major political parties at that time: Tories and Reformers. Because Grace was an immigrant, a woman and a representative of the servant class, the two political factions used her to display their political clout. The Tories wanted Grace (and McDermott), as servant-class people to be punished for the crime of insubordination, and problems connected with massive immigration from Europe. Grace,