Chapter 18: Grace Enters Service and Meets Mary Whitney
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Dr. Jordan appears unusually disarranged and preoccupied. Grace, sewing a Pandora's Box quilt for Miss Lydia, begins telling him about her first situation in Toronto: the Parkinson house on Front Street. She describes the opulent mansion, its servants, and the family. She shares a cramped attic room with Mary Whitney, a bright and irreverent laundry maid who quickly becomes her friend. Mary helps Grace obtain a bath, a new dress, and an education in the realities of life below stairs. They visit Lombard Street to glimpse the world of prostitutes, then shop for fabric from a peddler named Jeremiah. Jeremiah gives Grace an extra bone button, whispers “sharp rocks ahead,” and tells her “you are one of us.” The chapter ends with Grace feeling transformed by her new friendship and respectable clothing.
Key Events
- Dr. Jordan seems distracted; Grace mentions she is making a “Pandora’s Box” quilt.
- Grace begins her story: she arrives at the grand Parkinson house on Front Street.
- She describes the house interior, the family, and the servants she will work with.
- She meets Mary Whitney; they become immediate friends and roommates.
- Mary helps Grace arrange a bath and obtain an advance on wages for a new dress.
- They take a forbidden walk to Lombard Street, where Mary explains the realities of prostitution.
- They buy blue-and-white gingham from a peddler, Jeremiah, who visits the kitchen.
- Jeremiah performs conjuring tricks, flatters the women, and gives Grace an extra button.
- He tells Grace privately: “There are sharp rocks ahead” and “You are one of us.”
- Grace makes the dress herself; Mrs. Honey approves of her improved appearance.
Character Development
- Grace Marks: This chapter shows Grace as an eager but naive young immigrant. Through Mary, she learns about class, politics, and survival. Grace’s sewing skill and her cautious curiosity about prostitution suggest a practical, observant personality.
- Mary Whitney: Introduced as lively, kind, outspoken, and politically radical. Her family lost everything in the 1837 Rebellion. She is protective of Grace and unafraid to mock the gentry. She represents female solidarity and defiance.
- Dr. Simon Jordan: He appears “more disarranged than usual” and is eager for Grace’s story to distract him. His personal worries remain unspoken, hinting at his own emotional turmoil.
- Jeremiah Pontelli (the peddler): A charismatic Yankee of Italian descent. He is a master of flattery and conjuring. His cryptic warnings to Grace suggest he perceives something about her fate.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Pandora’s Box: The quilt pattern becomes a symbol for hope and hidden truths. Grace’s retelling of the myth—with Mary Whitney’s commentary—questions whether hope is really a comfort or a cruel joke.
- Quilting and Sewing: Grace’s sewing is both a practical skill and a narrative device. Stitching the quilt parallels the act of piecing together her story.
- Class and Economic Vulnerability: The stark contrast between the Parkinson mansion and the attic bedroom, or between ladies and prostitutes, underscores the limited choices for poor women. Mary’s education of Grace about prostitution reveals the thin line between respectable service and destitution.
- Rebellion and Radical Politics: Mary’s father died after the 1837 Rebellion, lost his land to the Tory elite. This backstory introduces the theme of political injustice and the servants’ covert resentment.
- Fortune-Telling and Hidden Knowledge: Jeremiah reads Grace’s palm and delivers ambiguous predictions. His statement “You are one of us” may foreshadow her outsider status and potential for ruin.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 18 deepens Grace’s backstory and introduces her most important friendship—one that will shape her fate. Mary Whitney’s influence explains many of Grace’s later attitudes and her willingness to borrow Mary’s name in an emergency. The chapter also plants seeds for later plot elements: the Pandora’s Box quilt, Jeremiah’s prophecies, and the political tensions simmering beneath the surface. Atwood uses this domestic setting to critique class and gender hierarchies in mid-19th-century Canada.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Grace choose to tell Dr. Jordan the Pandora’s Box myth, and what does her version reveal about her view of hope?
Grace says that hope is found “at the bottom of the box” but then jokes that it is like “scraping the bottom of the barrel.” She admits she has been “getting along without” hope for some time. This suggests she is skeptical of hope as a genuine consolation, seeing it as a story people tell themselves to endure hardship.
2. How does Mary Whitney’s description of prostitution challenge Grace’s initial assumptions, and what does it reveal about the realities of class and gender?
Mary describes both the “better class” of prostitute in elegant houses and the “cheaper sort” who suffer disease and poverty. She explains that many women turn to prostitution when options run out, and that the street life is a “dismal sort of life.” This educates Grace about the economic desperation that can lead women into the trade, contradicting any romantic notions.
3. What might Jeremiah mean when he tells Grace “You are one of us”? How could this phrase foreshadow events in the novel?
Grace assumes he means she is a homeless wanderer like peddlers. But Jeremiah may be recognizing her as someone marked by fate, destined for outsider status. This foreshadows Grace’s eventual imprisonment and notoriety, setting her apart from ordinary society.