Chapter 51: The Pardon and the Unsettling Gift of Freedom
⚠️ 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 Marks is sewing in the prison workroom when Janet, the Warden’s daughter, rushes in to announce that a pardon has arrived from Sir John Macdonald and the Minister of Justice in Ottawa. The news leaves Grace cold and faint; she insists on shedding the tears Janet expects. That night she is moved to the Warden’s spare bedroom, but the unfamiliar space and clean sheets trouble her, and she recalls her mother’s burial shroud, sensing her own identity dissolving. The next morning the Warden’s family treats her as a rescued lamb, and Grace resolves to act like someone who has been saved. Almost immediately she feels dejected, realizing she has no money, no friends outside the prison, and no prospects. Janet reveals that a home has been arranged for Grace in the United States, where she can start a new life unknown. To prepare, they open the box Grace brought with her twenty-nine years earlier. The clothes – including Nancy’s dresses, Mary Whitney’s things, and the dress Grace made at Mrs. Alderman Parkinson’s – are moth-eaten, discolored, and rotting. Grace is overwhelmed by visions of the dead women inside their ruined garments. Janet gathers donations and purchases, and together they remake a wardrobe in the current fashion (wire bustles and hats). Grace snips pieces from her old dresses and asks for a prison nightdress as a keepsake. She feels gratitude but still fears the future. Janet cries, calling it a happy ending “just like a book,” though Grace remains unsettled.
Key Events
- Janet announces the pardon; Grace reacts with shock and physical coldness.
- Grace is moved to the Warden’s spare bedroom, where she struggles to sleep.
- The Warden’s family holds a thankful breakfast; Grace commits to acting rescued.
- Grace expresses her fear of having nowhere to go and no means of support.
- Janet reveals a home has been arranged for Grace in the United States.
- The old box is opened; moth-eaten clothes evoke painful memories of Nancy and Mary.
- Janet collects new garments and they alter them together, creating a presentable wardrobe.
- Grace cuts fabric pieces from her old dresses and keeps a prison nightdress as a memento.
- Janet cries, comparing Grace’s release to a storybook happy ending.
Character Development
Grace Marks: The chapter shows Grace caught between two identities – the celebrated murderess she has been and the ordinary innocent woman she must now become. Her physical disorientation (the oversized bed, the clean sheets) mirrors her psychological unease. She is practical about her future, aware of her age and limited options, yet also sentimental about keepsakes. Her command of her own narrative remains strong: she can snip away the past but chooses to preserve small fragments of it.
Janet: The Warden’s daughter is kind, sentimental, and well-meaning, but naive. She treats Grace like a character in a novel, unable to grasp the real trauma of reintegration. Her actions (begging clothing, arranging the American home) are sincere, but her view of a tidy “happy ending” contrasts sharply with Grace’s unresolved grief and anxiety.
Memory figures (Nancy Montgomery, Mary Whitney): Though dead, they reappear through their ruined clothes – decaying cloth that triggers a vivid, unsettling vision. Grace’s reaction suggests that the stain of their deaths lingers, and that her pardon does not erase the tragedy.
Themes, Symbols, and Motifs
Identity and Transformation: Grace’s pardon forces a change in how she is seen and how she must present herself. The “different arrangement of the face” she must adopt signals that identity is a performance, one she must now relearn.
Time and Decay: The moth-eaten clothes symbolize the damage that twenty-nine years of imprisonment have done – not only to fabric but to Grace’s life, relationships, and sense of self. The ruined dresses of Nancy and Mary become literal ghosts.
Freedom as Fear: Rather than joy, the pardon brings terror of homelessness, starvation, and a degraded life. Grace briefly considers sex work as the only practical option, underscoring how little a pardon changes for an unskilled, older woman with a notorious past.
Material Objects and Memory: Grace’s decision to snip pieces from her old dresses and keep a prison nightdress shows her need to carry tangible evidence of her past. Objects anchor memory and identity when everything else is in flux.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 51 is the narrative pivot from imprisonment to release, yet it subverts the expected triumph. Grace is not simply freed; she is cast into a new kind of uncertainty. The chapter deepens the novel’s exploration of how society treats survivors of trauma and how women with criminal records are rarely given real second chances. It also ties together earlier symbols (the patchwork quilt, the dresses, the hair keepsake) and prepares for Grace’s ambiguous future. Without this chapter, the novel’s conclusion would lack the emotional complexity that distinguishes Alias Grace from a simple crime story.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Grace feel “dejected” almost immediately after learning of her pardon?
Because she realizes she has no money, no friends outside prison, and no marketable skills. The pardon removes her identity as a celebrated murderess but offers no real means of survival. She fears being turned out to starve or having to resort to prostitution.
2. What is the significance of the ruined clothes in the box?
The moth-eaten garments represent the irreversible decay of time and memory. Nancy’s and Mary’s dresses trigger a haunting vision of the dead women, reminding Grace that the past cannot be simply discarded. The ruined clothes also underscore that her former life is irretrievably gone; she cannot simply step back into the person she was twenty-nine years ago.
3. How does Janet’s view of the “happy ending” differ from Grace’s own experience?
Janet sees Grace’s pardon and new life in America as a neat, storybook resolution – complete with tears of joy and a fresh start. Grace, however, experiences the pardon as disorienting and frightening. She feels like an old dog being sent away, and her preparation for departure is marked by anxiety, grief, and the careful preservation of keepsakes. The gap between Janet’s naive optimism and Grace’s troubled reality highlights the novel’s critique of simplistic narratives about redemption.