Through Margaret Atwood’s gritty portrayal of Grace Marks, the 18th century convicted ‘murderess’ of her master and housekeeper, it is extremely easy to see her as a wronged woman. Robbed of any means to control her own destiny, she finds herself to be entirely at the mercy of both of both circumstance and the authority figures within her rigidly patriarchal society. At the same time, such male figures prove to be consistently unreliable and often predatory, directly contributing towards, rather than alleviating her precarious position. Given such considerations, it is entirely possible to see Grace’s dilemma as representative of a much wider struggle experienced by women as a whole at the hands of a repressive and exploitative male hierarchy. Such a feminist World-view would emphasize the almost wholly negative consequences of Grace’s male accompaniment over the course of the novel, such as her drunken and abusive father, sexually abusive employers and unscrupulous doctors, perhaps even going so far as to describe her degradation at their hands as a form of rape.

It is certainly true that on more than one occasion within the novel, Grace finds herself the victim of unwelcome sexual advances thanks to the occurrence of “irregularities at the Asylum”, leaving her in a “delicate condition”, as well as occasions where “Mr. Haraghy (an employer) attempted liberties in the back passage”. In her testimony to Dr. Jordan, Marks’ readily comments on such abuse, as if routine, stating that “Some employers expect service lying on your back”. These comments, the implication of Simon Jordan himself being involved in such behavior; “Simon is upstairs…in the attic where the maids live”, the affair Grace speaks of between Mary Whitney and her employer’s son, as well as the relationship between Kinnear and Montgomery, helps to create the impression of a World within which male figures of authority routinely seek sexual gratification from any female with whom they come into contact, irrespective of position, willingness or social class. In such a situation, it is entirely plausible to interpret Grace as living within a World in which every male figure must be considered a potential threat, and in which sexuality becomes currency to be guarded, rather than celebrated. Consequently, by turning Grace’s sexuality into something which she must defend, it becomes an entirely negative attribute, thus, as those such as Drokin would argue, a means through which she can be controlled.

If the ‘rape’ to which Dworkin refers is to be interpreted on a wider level, then there are even more considerable grounds to indict those men with whom Grace has contact. If looked at in consideration of Dworkin’s maxim, it would certainly seem true that, at the very least, all such individuals’ interactions with her are motivated by self-interest. From the reverend Verringer, whose efforts to prove her guilt, Jordan suspects, are driven by a desire to make Grace an “abjectly grateful….wife”, Dr Jordan whose determination to “pry open” her secrets, first to further his own career and later to further his own interest in her, right through to the apparently lovestruck Jamie Walsh whose act of marrying her following her release appears to be motivated, at least in part to be “forgiven” whist “unbuttoning my nightgown”, it seems impossible, in Atwood’s world, at least, to believe in a male who does not seek profit from the attractive murderess and her possible infamy.

What then of Jeremiah, formerly Mr. Jerome Dupont? If there is to be a single hope of male redemption within Alias Grace, it is surely in he. Jeremiah’s offer to take her from the rapidly escalating tensions of the Kinnear household into the relative stability offered by life as a traveling charlatan is turned down, but, given the absence of any visible sexual motive, it may be considered the one true act of kindness offered to the embattled Marks’, thus refuting any feminist claim for the universal treachery of man. At the same time, however one should not be so quick to give Jeremiah the peddler the benefit of the doubt. Marks’ own cynical observation that “help is what they offer but gratitude is what they want”, may well be applicable even in this case, however, with the peddler seeing for himself opportunity in the perceptive woman, if not lying in a sexual capacity, perhaps a professional one.

In considering Atwood’s ambivalence towards the male species within the novel however, perhaps most damning of all is the way in which she, through the character of Grace simultaneously attacks the strength of the patriarchy of her World, with its exploitative and sexually predatory nature, while at the same time ridiculing it and exposing its weakness.

As she herself observes, “Men… do not have to clean up the messes they make, but we have to clean up our own messes, and theirs into the bargain. In that way they are like children, they do not have to think ahead, or worry about the consequences of what they do.”

In this respect, even the greatest proponent of Dworkin’s assertions must take note. Whilst Grace’s gender does indeed leave her exposed to the perversities of the men around her and their desire to ‘rape’ her for their own benefit; whether at a literal, intellectual or even psychoanalytical level, it is in such desires that their weakness becomes apparent. While it may be Thomas Kinnear’s penchant for his young female employees that is to blame for Grace’s being brought into danger in the first place, it is equally true that it is her sexual allure and McDermott’s mesmerization with it that saves her from befalling the same fate as her master and his housekeeper, and perhaps ultimately results in McDermott’s undoing. At the same time, a deeply unjust patriarchal society may indeed be laid to blame for placing the young Grace in the hands of unscrupulous doctors such as Bannerling and Jordan, but such exploitative relationships can, as we see, rapidly become ones of dependency. Whilst Jordan may begin his quest for the truth in a spirit of messianic redemption and self-glorification, in the hands of Grace’s enigmatic personality and the temptation of his housekeeper, Mrs. Humphreys, Jordan himself becomes himself incapacitated, and in fact a dependent. In this respect, Atwood’s characters ridicule, rather than fear male domination; observing men not to be so much rapists as self-absorbed clowns.

Alias Grace, 1996 by Margaret Atwood, Winner of the 2000 Booker Prize on See more on Amazon