The Double Personality of Violence in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace
The Double Personality Of Violence In Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace
Alias Grace is one of the fictions written by Margaret Atwood, who was born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Ontario. Atwood is a well-know writer, publishing a variety of literary works, such as poem, novel, magazine article and children’s book in Canada. The fiction, Alias Grace talks about a story based on a real murder case introducing a sixteen year old girl, Grace Marks, who is convicted of murder and is regarded as one of the most notorious women of the 1840s. Not only the fact murdering her employer, Tomas Kinnear and housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery draw a wild public attention, but also the gender and age of Grace shock people. Because it is not a common sense that a sixteen year-old woman(or a girl) has any motivation to kill two innocent people without a second thought.
Due to the complex situation of this case, even though Grace narrowly escape from death sentence which has happened on James McDermott(who also is considered as the murder), she is still tortured at first several years since people suspect her is a psychotic.In short, to find out whether Grace is mad or not; Whether Grace really is a violent murder or not, probably is the way to understand this story. So, this paper will argue that Alias Grace suggests that Grace’s second personality of violence is made by those external individual forces that company Grace through her whole life.
The first time Grace suffers the pain form violent separation of her mother is in the voyage to Canada when the whole family looks forward a better life. In this long distance travel, no matter how serious the food shortage will be, Grace is still willing to share her limited biscuits to an old woman named Mrs.Phelan who travels with two her daughter’s children. However, when Grace’s mother falls gravely ill and badly needs help, the ship’s doctor does not come as if Mrs.Phelan claims “it is shame and they would treat a cow better.”(Atwood 137)
Alias Grace is one of the fictions written by Margaret Atwood, who was born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Ontario. Atwood is a well-know writer, publishing a variety of literary works, such as poem, novel, magazine article and children’s book in Canada. The fiction, Alias Grace talks about a story based on a real murder case introducing a sixteen year old girl, Grace Marks, who is convicted of murder and is regarded as one of the most notorious women of the 1840s. Not only the fact murdering her employer, Tomas Kinnear and housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery draw a wild public attention, but also the gender and age of Grace shock people. Because it is not a common sense that a sixteen year-old woman(or a girl) has any motivation to kill two innocent people without a second thought.
Due to the complex situation of this case, even though Grace narrowly escape from death sentence which has happened on James McDermott(who also is considered as the murder), she is still tortured at first several years since people suspect her is a psychotic.In short, to find out whether Grace is mad or not; Whether Grace really is a violent murder or not, probably is the way to understand this story. So, this paper will argue that Alias Grace suggests that Grace’s second personality of violence is made by those external individual forces that company Grace through her whole life.
The first time Grace suffers the pain form violent separation of her mother is in the voyage to Canada when the whole family looks forward a better life. In this long distance travel, no matter how serious the food shortage will be, Grace is still willing to share her limited biscuits to an old woman named Mrs.Phelan who travels with two her daughter’s children. However, when Grace’s mother falls gravely ill and badly needs help, the ship’s doctor does not come as if Mrs.Phelan claims “it is shame and they would treat a cow better.”(Atwood 137)
Cited: Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace. Toronto: Seal, 2000. Print.