Alias Grace Character Development

Ms. Grace Marks, the main protagonist of the entitled novel, Alias Grace, is a very unique character that just keeps getting slowly built upon throughout the novel. The farther you get into the novel the more you seem to know about Ms. Grace. Many of which come from many different people. These people include Susanna Moodie, Emily Brontë and a few others. Most of her character development come from people who believe that she had committed the murder of Thomas Kinnear and his house keeper Nancy Montgomery. The first way the author gives some character development is a very interesting one. It starts with a people in after introducing the characters. This poem describes the killings of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery. With this giving the backstory of the current situation with the murder case it gives us a good mental picture of Grace Marks. This poem gives us the basic
information in the beginning of it with her age, “Her age was 16 years” (Atwood 11), but it also gave us back story of the situation she was put in when she was raised, “ O Nancy’s no well-born lady, O Nancy she is no queen” (Atwood 11). She wasn’t born into a well set family. By 16 she was a serving maid for Thomas Kinnear. This poem in the beginning of the novel is a very unique way of presenting the character and adding character development. Another way that we get some excellent character development is from everyone around her giving their knowledge about Ms.
Grace people such as Susanna Moodie and Emily Brontë who just give their own thoughts about her slowly developing the character more in the story. They give slightly different development as they give more visualizing development rather than to Ms. Grace Marks story and who she is. They both seem to give a rather dull or even in pain look to her as Susanna Moodie regards her with," There is an air of hopeless melancholy in her face which is very painful to contemplate"(Atwood 20). This just takes any sort of good feeling about Grace Marks away and shows how people truly feel about her as a character in this story. Not just in Susanna Moodie's opinion of her having pain, Emily Brontë also states some sort of pain while giving her opinion by saying," Pain could not trace a line, or grief a shadow there"(Atwood 20). With both women stating this further develops the character to have some sort of pain or sorrow which makes sense in the situation that she has been put
through. The final way the author gives character development for Grace Marks in by giving it straight from Ms. Grace Marks herself. She gives some pretty basic character development such as her age and how long she has been in her penitentiary but, right after stating that she gives some development into her thoughts and who she believes she is. As she was telling Doctor Jordan how she was helping Nancy even after envying her Little gold earrings," She's lifting up her face, she's holding out her hands to me for mercy; in her ears are the little gold earrings I used to envy, but no longer begrudge them, Nancy can keep them, because this time it will all be different, this time I will run to help , I will left her up ande wipe away the blood with my skirt, I will tear the bandage from my petticoat and none of it will have happened" (Atwood 6). You can already see in her from this early in the book she carries regret and a lot of it for her saying that none of it would have ever happened and giving her opinion on how hard it is living the way she is with her earlier comparing it to dangling on the edge of a cliff even though you've already fallen. The author, Margot Atwood, had done a ton to give charater development inside of her novel especially of the main protagonist in the novel. She had used several different ways by either using other characters to give her backstory to keep adding on to her development to Ms. Grace Marks saying stuff straight out about her own life and how stuff it is and the burdens she carries. Either of the ways the author used while writing made the character Grace Marks a very great one with many different ways her stories were told but, all revolving around the murder of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery.