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www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165 truth. Based on this assumption, she wrote The Servant Girl (1974) based on Susanna Moodie’s Life in the Clearings which became Atwood’s primary source. But with Alias Grace Atwood has successfully deconstructed Susanna Moodie by exposing the errors and biased approach in the non-fictional account of Mark Grace’s trial. In the postscript of Alias Grace, Atwood herself writes about The Servant Girl that it “relied exclusively on the Moodie version, [it] cannot be taken as definitive.” (467) But again Alias Grace does not attempt to replace the previous play written in 1974. The roots of Alias Grace easily convey the message that it is a historical novel which is based on a sensational twin murder case in the nineteenth century. But Atwood has crafted this fact with all the ingredients of a fiction and has rendered a perfect package to the readers. Along the fictional element of the twin murder, the fictional episodes included are: illegitimate love affair between the master and the housekeeper, protagonist Grace with a distressing Irish background and the vicious murder. Atwood not only bring to light the disturbed psyche of the murderer but also the class distinction, gender discrimination and social status. Though the novel moves centrally around Grace Marks, Atwood reflects the many hues of power relationships in the fiction. In particular the female characters in the novel are depicted with a realistic approach in every sense, bringing the nineteenth century lifestyle live before the eyes of the readers. History plays a crucial role in the narration of Grace’s life story and hence holds a story element of intertextuality in Alias Grace. Atwood writes “The Past belongs to us, because we are the ones who need it.” (229) Grace is considered to be an unreliable narrator who does not recount the actual truth but what the people around her wish to hear. As a result, there are multiple perspectives surrounding the character of Grace. Though Atwood completely relied on Moodie’s accounts earlier, she identified severe contradictions later. But similar to Grace, Atwood believes that every one of us has a multiple perspective and approach. Hence “By reconstructing and renegotiating Moodie’s historical past imaginatively, Atwood pays homage to her as a literary foremother who, though dead, continues to live on” Apart from several intratextual references such as papers, poems, articles and scrap book, there are numerous references to intertextual dialogue by employing poetry and fiction of Emily Bronte, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthrone, H.W.Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Poe, Tennyson and William Morris apart from the excerpts from Sussana Moodie’s Life in a Clearing. The ambiguity in the conclusion of Alias Grace reminds us of Charlotte Bronte’s Villette as Atwood leaves the fate of Grace open. It is up to the mind of the reader to decide whether Grace is haunted by her guilt of the twin murders or her repressed memories of the past. Further Wilson states that “Although Alias Grace is a historical novel, based on the nineteenth century crime, history is as much a construction in this postmodern and postcolonial novel…” (225) Historical intertextuality is very evident in the postmodern fiction because without the historical accounts of the twin murder, Atwood would not have come out this fiction. Further the influence of Victorian past, the life style of the people, their thought process, their attitude towards various aspects of life and manner are all well captured by this neo-Victorian novelist and has added the spice of fictional element only when Atwood was not able to relate to the historical facts. Apart from the primary literary influence of Susanna Moodie, Atwood has numerous literary intertextuality references in the fiction ranging from Charlotte Brontë to Edgar Allen Poe. To conclude, Alias Grace is a multi-dimensional historical narrative which is sometimes a tales of Scheherazade and a slice of history of the Canadian immigrants and at other times a thrilling courtroom drama and successful reconstruction of Victorian past. It is an amalgamation of narrative, history and storytelling and therefore rightly termed as a verbal quilt. Each of the fifteen sections of the novel is titled in the name of a quilt pattern, an important reflection of intertextual reference and Vol. II. Grace Issue. does III her role extremely well as a 16skilled seamstress stitching the September plot to 2011 perfection with a figurative movement from the quilt to guilt.
www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165 Atwood’s use of the quilt patterns, the separate individual patterns beautifully interwoven to craft a quilt is a manifestation of intertextuality in her fiction and the open ended conclusion of the fiction is largely due to the historical and literary intertextuality. Therefore Atwood leaves it to the readers to determine whether Grace is sane or insane, a victim of circumstances or a perfidious murderer, innocent or guilty. Works Cited: Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace. New York: Nan A. Talese, 1996. Atwood, Margaret. “In Search of Alias Grace: On Writing Canadian Historical Fiction.” Curious Pursuits: Occasional Writing, 1970-2005. London: Virago, 2005. Doblas, Rosario Arias. “Talking with the dead: revisiting the Victorian past and the occult in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace and Sarah Waters’ Affinity.” 25 Mar. 2005. . Hamill, Faye. “Literary Culture and Female Authorship in Canada 1760-2000.” Cross-Cultures Series 63. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003. Hantiu, Ecaterina. “Irish Immigrants and Canadian Destinies in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.” The Round Table, Partium Journal of English Studies, 26 Mar. 2009. March, Cristie. “Crimson Silks and New Potatoes: The Heteroglossic Power of the Object Atwood’s Alias Grace.” < http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/SCL/vol22_2/march.pdf >. Shiller, Dana. “The redemptive past in the neo-Victorian Novel.” Studies in the Novel. Vol.29, 1997. . Wilson, Sharon R. “Mythological Intertexts.” Margaret Atwood: Works and Impact. Ed. Reingard M. Nischik. New York: Camden House, 2000. Vol. II. Issue. III 17 September 2011
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