Grace Marks Essay

416 Words2 Pages
A villainous character is usually thought to be evil and immoral. In Alice Grace by Margaret Atwood, Grace Marks is a woman who is accused of two brutal murders. She is now serving a life sentence when we are introduced to her. Instantly, many assumptions are made about Grace Marks. However, Margaret uses different literary techniques that leave the reader questioning what exactly happened. Therefore, readers actually feel more sympathetic towards Grace Marks. Alias Grace begins after the murderess has served 8 years in prison. Grace is around thirty years old, being accused of the crimes when she was only sixteen. Despite what she’s done, Grace is an incredibly likeable character. The reader, even though he or she may know what she’s done and question her sanity and status as a reliable narrator, it is easy to feel sorry for her. Her father is good for nothing, she has endured a long journey that left her without a mother, she is forced into work and furthermore, seems oddly out of place in a prison, especially being a women. Another one of the reasons why it is also easier to sympathize with Grace is that her direct hand in the murder of her employer is not entirely clear. While Alias Grace centers on this murder as the central driver of the plot of Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood never allows the reader to know in any detail what exactly transpired. This is done by the varying point of views throughout the book. In addition, the poem in the beginning of the book foreshadows many facts that become consistent with Grace’s testimony. However, there are also many contradictions that are made throughout the book. First off, the reader cannot be sure even if Grace is a reliable character. In fact, Grace does not know if she is even innocent. Grace is in prison where she has been mentally tortured during her rotation from prison to asylum over time. Doctors who wish

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