Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
It seems only three or four of us have got through it!
Some of the themes of the book seem to be the attitudes of society in Victorian times (and I assume it is appropriate to use that term for Canada as part of what was then the British Empire) to gender, criminality and sanity. I suppose class and nationality should be added in there, given the references to both Grace and James McDermott being Irish servants.
Is there somewhere that we can go with these themes while we wait for others to join in?
From the little I have read, it seems that opportunities for women were as limited in other countries. Housewives, domestic servants, farm labourers, prostitutes and nuns seem to be the only roles available. Education was of course minimal. So Grace's opportunities to improve her lot in life were very limited and the opportunities for being exploited sexually or financially were many and varied. She should have taken up the offer of the entrepreneurial Jeremiah!
|
It seems fairly well established that these discussion threads may contain spoilers and, anyway, once you get to page 90 or so (ch12) you have most of the story already. Earlier I dropped a detail concerning the ending into spoiler tags because, being entirely fiction, it offers the one little bit of of surprise that exists in the book.
To my way of thinking, a theme is something the author adds or emphasises in their work. So some of your suggested themes I would describe merely as setting rather than theme. You can't write about servants and prisons in Victorian times without getting grisly, they weren't good times to be at the bottom of the heap. I'm inclined to think that Atwood gave us a fairly clean and pleasant ride, considering the possibilities - or maybe things were easier in Canada.
Casting around for things that weren't setting, the biggest item (for me) is Grace and the question of her identity. The obvious question of whether she was actively and consciously involved in the murders (is she a murderess or not) evolves into a bigger question of labels and identity.
Grace observes at one point that "it is more important to be a murderess than the one murdered," because she is still being discussed but Mr Kinnear is fading from memory, even her own. She is self-identifying as a murderess, but I don't get the impression this is a confession, it is more a sort of acceptance of the label she has been given; she is a murderess whether she did the deed or not.
Grace, in herself, seems to have evolved a malleable identity, but something she is aware of: "I could see that she felt some tears were in order, and I shed several." and "It calls for a different arrangement of the face; but I suppose it will become easier in time." Again, it didn't feel to me like these were deceptions as much as they were conscious adaptations she knew she had to make. She still kept her own sense of what was right and wrong, but within that she would consciously adapt to her circumstances.
Self-awareness seems to be one of Grace's particular strengths, and it is this that gives her the advantage over the young and naive Dr Jordan.
Dr Jordan might be said to have a malleable sense of self as well, but this seems to be one of weakness - responding to stronger characters, or situation, around him. "All of this will be a compromise. But he has now - very abruptly it seems - reached the right age for it." It's not abrupt, he's been compromising all the way through, but unlike Grace he seems unaware of his choices and what they say about him.