Alias Grace

As Grace waits for Simon, she has begun sewing blocks for Miss Lydia’s quilt—Pandora’s Box. Simon is surprised when Grace knows the story.

Mary Whitney is a laundry maid at Alderman Parkinson’s. She teaches Grace everything about the family they work for, how to be a maid, and about the world. Grace turns 13 shortly after her arrival. Mary is sixteen. The Parkinson family consists of Mr. Alderman Parkinson, Mrs. Alderman Parkinson, who is an American, and two grown sons away at college in the United States. Both girls work in the laundry.

Mary is a democratic person with little use for idle, rich upper-class people. The recent Rebellion—an uprising of the poor against the rich that was put down by government troops—still rankles many who lost their friends, family members, and farms. Mary’s own father lost his farm in the Rebellion, as it was burned to the ground. As a result, her parents both died trying to survive that winter living in the woods. The uprising left many working-class people resentful of the rich, and many of the rebels were hanged, transported, or fled south to the United States.

Mary and Grace become close quickly. There is abundant food at the Parkinson’s, so Grace, who is very thin and small for her age, begins to grow taller and to fill out. Mary helps Grace get decent clothes. Jeremiah the peddler arrives, and Grace buys buttons for the new dress she’s making. He is funny, charming, and entertaining. He is also a gypsy fortune-teller. He leaves a big impression on Grace when he says, “You are one of us” (155). Grace assumes that he means that she is a homeless wanderer, like he is.

Grace’s father comes around at the end of the month, wanting all her wages. Mary intervenes and calls the stable hands to chase him away. Mary educates Grace by sticking up for her. She explains that being a servant in this country isn’t anything to be ashamed about. Many women hire themselves out to earn the money for their dowries. Then they get married and, if their husbands prosper, they hire servants themselves. In Canada, people rise by their own hard work.

Further, Mary believes that the rich are the ones who are dependent upon the servants, as the rich cannot even take care of themselves and wouldn’t be able to survive without their servants. Mary is outspoken, cheerful, and mischievous. For example, when she discovers that Grace is afraid of the washing when it’s hung in the attic to dry, she hides behind the sheets and makes moaning noises to frighten Grace.

Grace and Mary are put in charge of getting out the winter quilts and airing and mending them for use that winter. Grace loves the beautiful dark colors of the winter quilts, and muses that women must make these colorful covers to draw attention to the bed as a warning. Beds are dangerous places for women, for it is where babies are conceived and born, at great risk to both women and babies. Bed is where most people die.

In October, Grace gets her first period, and, not knowing what it is, she thinks she’s going to die. Mary kindly explains what is happening and helps her cope with it. Further, Mary warns Grace that soon she’ll be beautiful and to watch out for men, for they are all liars. Grace, at thirteen, doesn’t really understand what Mary means.

On Halloween night, Mary brings four apples to peel that will reveal who they are going to marry. The old wives tale is that the peel forms the first letter of the future husband’s name, and if a girl places the peel under her pillow, she will dream of her husband. Grace’s peel seems to form the letter J. Mary attempts to get one long peel three times, and each time the peel breaks. She is very upset. Grace has a nightmare about her mother’s winding sheet unfolding as her body drifts downward in the ocean, but, as her hair comes out of the sheet, it isn’t her mother’s hair. It is dark hair, and the woman inside the sheet is still alive.

Grace tells of November and December at Alderman Parkinson’s. Her sister, Katey, comes to beg money. Grace gives her money, and Katey says that they will be leaving in the spring to follow the news that there is free land further west. Grace never hears from anyone in her family again.

With Christmas comes a lot of work, pitching in to help with the baking and cooking for the holidays. The two young gentlemen come home from Harvard, Richard and George.

George stays home after the holidays because he’s ill. By the time he’s well, it’s the middle of February, so he stays home until the next term begins. Everyone makes a great fuss over him, including Mary.

Grace figures out that Mary is pregnant. At the end of April, she confronts Mary about it. Mary confesses that she is pregnant, and that the father of her child said he would marry her, but he has gone back on his promise and won’t speak to her anymore.

Mary decides to try one more time to appeal to the father, and when she threatens to expose him, he turns the tables on her, saying that he doubts the child is even his, and that he’ll deny it and ruin her reputation. He gives her five dollars and says that she can end her troubles quickly by drowning herself.

Mary gets an abortion; Grace helps her by giving her money and going with her. After the procedure, Mary is in agony. Grace sleeps on the floor to keep Mary company. When Grace wakes up the next morning, Mary is dead.

Mrs. Alderman Parkinson questions Grace about who the father of the baby might be. Grace tells her that Mary was engaged to a gentleman who refused to marry her. They all believe that Mary died during a miscarriage. Grace believes that George Parkinson is the father of Mary’s baby. Once Mrs. Parkinson hears about the gentleman, she decides to tell a story that Mary died suddenly of a fever.

While Agnes and Grace are cleaning up, Grace hears Mary’s voice in her ear, saying “Let me in” (178). When all the servants come in to see Mary laid out in her bed, Grace faints and stays unconscious for ten hours. When she wakes up, she repeatedly asks where Grace is and does not seem to know what has happened or who she is. She then falls asleep for an entire day. When she wakes up this time, she knows who she is and that Mary has died. Grace has no memory of what happened in between the two long sleeps.