Chapter 38 Summary and Analysis – Alias Grace
⚠️ 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
Grace relates McDermott’s account that after shooting at her, he revived her with cold water and peppermint, and they ate supper together. She cannot remember any of this. She wakes in her own room at dusk, hair and dress damp from the thrown water. McDermott enters, claiming she promised herself in exchange for his killing Nancy. To avoid rape, Grace humors him, suggesting they use Kinnear’s bed. There she breaks down crying, saying it is wrong in a dead man’s bed; McDermott’s ardor cools. He drags her to Nancy’s room, where they find a bloody copy of Godey’s Ladies’ Book. Grace redirects him toward packing and flight. She burns her own clothes, dons Nancy’s dress, and they leave around 11 p.m. During the ride, Grace has a vision of the sky wrinkling to reveal emptiness, causing a spiritual crisis. Later she wakes on the ground to find McDermott attempting to rape her, claiming she invited him. She bites his ear; he backs off, saying he will wait until marriage.
Key Events
- Grace wakes in her room after fainting: McDermott had thrown water over her.
- McDermott enters and demands she fulfill a promise to exchange herself for the murder of Nancy.
- To avoid assault, Grace agrees but insists on using Kinnear’s bed.
- In Kinnear’s bedroom, Grace cries and McDermott’s desire fades; he drags her to Nancy’s room.
- In Nancy’s room, they find the blood-stained Godey’s Ladies’ Book.
- McDermott explains the book was in Kinnear’s hands when shot, and he threw it into Nancy’s bed as a sign.
- Grace urges haste: they ransack the house for valuables.
- Grace takes Nancy’s box of clothes but leaves the unfinished dress to avoid the dead returning.
- She tidies the house, washes dishes, empties Nancy’s chamber pot, and burns her own clothes.
- She puts on Nancy’s pale floral dress, petticoat, shoes, bonnet, shawl, and rosewater.
- They depart around 11 p.m.; Charley Horse is reluctant.
- McDermott talks of escaping to the States and buying a farm.
- Grace sees the sky wrinkle and reveal a cold black emptiness; she prays silently.
- Later, Grace wakes to find McDermott on top her, claiming she invited him; she bites his ear.
- McDermott releases her, calls her a good girl, and says he will wait for marriage.
Character Development
Grace demonstrates remarkable resourcefulness under threat. She uses psychological manipulation – agreeing to McDermott’s demand but invoking the dead man’s bed, then crying – to delay and defuse his lust. She regains control by directing the packing and flight, assuming a practical authority that contrasts with her earlier helplessness. Her superstition (leaving the unfinished dress) and her vision of emptiness reveal a deepening spiritual fear. McDermott is portrayed as volatile and irrational, alternating between menacing and almost tender. His justification for the murder (Nancy’s “whoredom” caused Kinnear’s death) shows his twisted reasoning. His quick shifts in mood – from demanding sex to calling Grace a good girl – highlight his instability and the constant danger she faces.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Power and Helplessness: Grace, as a female servant, has limited physical power but uses cunning and delay to survive. Her insistence on a different bed and her tears are tactical.
- Memory and Trauma: Grace cannot remember making the promise or the fainting episode, suggesting repression of traumatic events. Her fragmented recollection shapes the narrative.
- Superstition and the Supernatural: Grace fears the dead returning to complete unfinished tasks, so she leaves Nancy’s sewing. The bloody book becomes a “sign” for McDermott, linking violence to Nancy’s supposed sin.
- Religion and Doubt: Grace’s vision of the sky as a thin surface hiding emptiness shakes her faith. She prays but wonders if there is no God, revealing her spiritual crisis after the murders.
- Clothing as Identity: Burning her own clothes and wearing Nancy’s dress symbolizes Grace’s attempt to shed her former self and assume a new, possibly compromised, identity.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is the hinge between the murders and Grace’s flight. It shows her passive complicity – she participates in ransacking, tidying, and donning Nancy’s clothes, actions that bind her to the crime. Her psychological state – memory gaps, fear, manipulation – deepens the mystery of her guilt. The vision of emptiness challenges religious certainties and foreshadows later existential themes. It also sets up the journey to Toronto and eventually the trial, making Grace’s survival strategies central to the novel’s tension.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does Grace use psychological manipulation to avoid McDermott’s sexual assault?
Grace first agrees to his demand but steers him to Kinnear’s bed, where she invokes the dead man’s presence to make him uneasy. When he insists, she bursts into tears, appealing to propriety (“it isn’t right”). Later she redirects his energy toward packing, using practical urgency to defuse his mood.
2. What is the significance of the blood-stained Godey’s Ladies’ Book?
The book becomes a physical trace of the murder, connecting Kinnear’s blood to Nancy’s bed. McDermott sees it as a sign that Nancy’s supposed whoredom caused the death. Grace suggests it will confuse investigators. Symbolically, it represents the transfer of guilt and the contamination of domestic culture by violence.
3. Describe Grace’s vision of the sky during the wagon ride. What does it reveal about her state of mind?
Grace sees the sky wrinkle like scalding milk, revealing a cold black emptiness behind it. This terrifies her more than Hell, suggesting a universe without God. The vision underscores her spiritual crisis and fear of damnation after the murders. It closes over again, but the experience leaves her shaken.