76 pages • 2 hours read
Alias Grace
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BetaPart XIV, Chapters 50-53Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part XIV: "The Letter X"
Chapter 50 Summary
This chapter consists of letters that describe what happens to Simon and Grace after 1859. The letters include Grace writing to Simon asking him to write a letter to the government in her favor, and a letter from Simon to his friend Edward Murchie, in January 1860, explaining that Simon has nearly had a nervous breakdown over the whole Grace Marks affair.
Grace Marks also writes to Jeremiah, now called Signor Geraldo Ponti, in September 1861, having seen a poster with him on it performing under that name. She relates that Lydia married Reverend Verringer, after being very upset at Simon’s sudden departure. Dora told many stories about Simon and Mrs. Humphreys, and their affair became public knowledge. She also laments that Simon never gave her the help he promised her.
Simon’s mother writes to Mrs. Humphrey in May 1862, in response to Mrs. Humphrey’s many letters to Simon. Simon was a military surgeon in the Civil War; he retained a head injury and has nearly died. He has lost parts of his memory and may never recover.
In October 1867, Reverend Verringer writes to Dr. Bannerling, explaining the results of Grace’s hypnotism and asking him to support her pardon petition. Dr. Bannerling writes back that Grace is where she belongs and that hypnotism is a sham.
Part XV: The Tree of Paradise
Chapter 51 Summary
Grace is pardoned in 1872. She narrates this chapter as if she is talking to Simon Jordan again. Grace was in prison for nearly 29 years, and she doesn’t know where she will go or how she will survive. A second-hand wardrobe is put together from donations, by the Warden’s daughter, Janet, who also helps Grace find a new home.
Chapter 52 Summary
Grace is set free; the Warden and his daughter accompany Grace to her new home in Ithaca, New York, USA. Grace asks questions about where they are going and whether she will be a servant in this new home. Janet says her new home is a secret and a surprise, concerning a gentleman Grace knows.
Grace is greeted at the train station by Jamie Walsh. They talk, and Jamie asks for her forgiveness for the testimony he gave against her at her trial. She forgives him. Jamie asks her to marry him, and she agrees. They are quickly married.
Chapter 53 Summary
About a year after her marriage to Jamie Walsh, Grace sits making a Tree of Paradise quilt on her front porch. She describes her house and her life with Jamie, narrating as if she is still talking to Simon. She seems satisfied her life. She will be 46 within a month, and so it is nearly 30 years since the terrible events at Thomas Kinnear’s. Grace believes that she is three months pregnant; alternatively, she could be undergoing the change of life or carrying a tumor like the one that killed her mother. Grace plans to incorporate a piece of Mary Whitney’s petticoat, a piece of her own prison nightgown, and a piece of Nancy’s pink dress into her quilt, so that they will “all be together” (460).
Part XIV, Chapters 50-53 Analysis
Reverend Verringer’s persuasive skills, a more sympathetic government, and the passage of nearly 30 years since the original crime allow for Grace’s pardon. Grace seems happy with Jamie, but, in truth, she had very little choice but to accept his marriage proposal. She faced either a comfortable life with Jamie, or a life on the street on her own.
Atwood’s resolution, however, retains all of the ambiguity that runs through the rest of the novel. When the reader leaves her, she is either pregnant or dying of a tumor. Neither Grace nor the reader knows which is the truth. She unites with Mary Whitney and Nancy Montgomery by including their fabrics in her Tree of Paradise quilt and says now they will all be together; however, she could also mean that she is about to die and be reunited with them in Paradise.
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By Margaret Atwood
