[issybird]

Originally Posted by gmw

So I've come away from it thinking that Atwood built the theory and then did almost everything she could to make it ambiguous - and that was the primary role for Jeremiah/DuPont. In a pure fiction story I'd have said it was a waste of a good character, in this ... I still thought it was a waste of a good character.

As with Bookpossum, I thought it a shame Grace didn't take him up on his offer. I think that's also a comment on Victorian mores especially as regards women, an essential passivity and unwillingness as well as inability to break out of social constraints. A book about Jeremiah would have been more interesting!

Originally Posted by gmw

Spoiler:

The Stephen King novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, does an effective job of describing how inmates become institutionalised - even to the extent of committing new crimes so as to be returned to the life they know.

On one level Grace appears to skip a lot of that, but then she has been being brought out of prison to interact with non-prisoners at the Governor's home, so this may have protected from the effect - to some extent.

When they first spoke of Grace going to New York I assumed New York City, and could imagine this would be a huge change for Grace and very difficult to adapt to. Then realising they meant a rural setting it seemed an ideal solution for her, with the possible downside of reminding her of Richmond Hill. Finding out that Jamie Walsh was rescuing her, and was apparently not at all concerned about marrying a murderess ... it felt like too much to credit.

Grace made enough tangential comments about Jamie that I knew there had to be a payoff, eventually. Like you, it doesn't mean I bought it, though.

I recently finished a very good novel myself where the protagonist, having come to the end of her resources and committed a murder, waited for the authorities to come and take care of her. I think it also ties back to Victorian times and why the workhouses were so very horrible; so no one would be tempted to go there unless they truly were at the end. The extremely demeaning and ungenerous attitude of the privileged and powerful, of course!