Characters The Margaret Atwood 4-Book Bundle Margaret Atwood

Laura Chase: The Enigmatic Sister at the Heart of The Blind Assassin

Overview

Laura Chase is the younger sister of Iris Chase and the posthumous author of the novel-within-a-novel, The Blind Assassin. Her deliberate car crash off a Toronto bridge ten days after World War II ends (Chapter 3) sets the entire story in motion. Although Laura dies before the main narrative begins, her presence pervades every chapter. She exists through Iris’s memories, the hidden notebooks she leaves behind, the scandalous novel published under her name, and the conflicting public and private accounts of her life. Laura is both a character and a symbol—a figure of radical innocence, religious fervour, and silent rebellion against the patriarchal structures that confine her.

Plot Role

Laura’s suicide is the inciting incident. The police witness her drive Iris’s car off the bridge intentionally (Chapter 3). Iris, outwardly composed but inwardly shattered, discovers Laura’s notebooks hidden in a drawer. This discovery triggers the central mystery: what really happened to Laura, and what secrets does her writing contain? Later, The Blind Assassin—purportedly Laura’s novel—is published in 1947 and becomes a literary sensation that also destroys Richard Griffen’s political career (Chapter 92). Laura’s hidden relationships, her confinement in BellaVista Clinic (Chapter 76), and the true authorship of the novel are the puzzles that Iris, as elderly narrator, gradually unravels. Laura is the absent centre around which the whole plot revolves.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Laura’s actions reveal a character driven by a fierce, literal‑minded morality and a longing for transcendence. As a child, she attempts to drown herself in the river to bargain with God for her mother’s life (Chapter 33). This event shows her belief that sacrifice can purchase salvation—a pattern that repeats. She refuses to eat at her tenth birthday because she feels guilty about the stillborn baby (Chapter 32). Her religious phase includes wanting to become a nun (Chapter 35). She volunteers at a soup kitchen for unemployed men during the Depression (Chapter 38), insisting “it’s wrong to call them bums.” Laura lacks social tact; Iris observes that being Laura is like being “tone deaf”—she doesn’t hear the subtext others do. She cuts herself out of a photograph of Iris, Alex, and herself after sensing betrayal (Chapter 40). Her final act—driving off a bridge—is interpreted by Iris as a gesture of washing her hands of the family. Laura’s traits include: uncompromising truth‑telling, a mystical view of love and God, distrust of social institutions (marriage, property), and a willingness to sacrifice herself for what she believes is right.

Chronological Arc

  • Childhood (1919–1934): Born in 1919, Laura is six when her mother dies. She reacts with unsettling cheerfulness (“Mother is with God”), which provokes Iris to push her into a lily pond (Chapter 21). She grows up exploring Avilion, reading pulp magazines, and suffering abuse from tutor Mr. Erskine (Chapter 35). At fourteen, she meets Alex Thomas at the button factory picnic (Chapter 36) and later hides him in the cold cellar after the factory fire (Chapter 39).
  • Adolescence and secrecy (1934–1935): Laura apprentices with photographer Elwood Murray (Chapter 38). She secretly meets Alex, claiming she wants to convert him. When Iris and Alex begin an affair, Laura senses the betrayal and cuts herself out of the photograph. She runs away to Muskoka and is found (Chapter 46). Richard Griffen controls the narrative, calling it a “confusion.”
  • Forced confinement (1935–1945): Laura moves to Toronto under Richard’s guardianship. She resists marriage plans and speaks against marriage as an outworn institution (Chapter 75). Richard commits her to BellaVista Clinic after she threatens self‑harm and accuses him of trying to kill Iris (Chapter 76). There she is silenced.
  • Death and aftermath (1945): Ten days after the war ends, Laura drives Iris’s car off a bridge (Chapter 3). The coroner rules it accidental (Chapter 4). Her novel is published in 1947, causing scandal and ruining Richard’s career (Chapter 92). Iris later finds Laura’s notebooks and typescript in a steamer trunk (Chapter 51).

Relationships

  • Iris Chase (sister): The central relationship. Iris both loves and resents Laura. She saves Laura’s life when she tries to drown, but also pushes her out of jealousy. Iris protects Laura by hiding Alex, yet later betrays her by having an affair with him. Iris ultimately becomes Laura’s literary executor, publishing the novel and answering scholars with venomous letters. The relationship is one of deep ambivalence: Iris feels guilt, responsibility, and a sense that Laura’s purity exposes her own compromises.
  • Alex Thomas (lover?): Evidence is ambiguous. Laura meets Alex at the picnic and hides him. But the novel‑within‑the‑novel depicts a love affair between a young woman and a man that mirrors Iris and Alex’s secret meetings. Iris herself suggests that Laura may have been in love with Alex, or that Richard raped Laura. In a phone call to Richard, Iris says “You as good as raped her” (Chapter 92). Richard does not deny it. Laura’s true relationship with Alex remains one of the novel’s great mysteries.
  • Richard Griffen (brother‑in‑law): Richard controls Laura after her father’s death. He commits her to a clinic and suppresses news of her pregnancy (if she was pregnant). Laura’s posthumous novel exposes Richard’s cruelty—he is found dead with a copy of the book beside him. Richard’s sister Winifred blames Iris for destroying him.
  • Reenie (housekeeper): Reenie is a mother figure who defends Laura, though she finds her odd. She believes Laura when she says Mr. Erskine touched her.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  • Trying to drown herself at nine (Chapter 33): Consequence: Iris saves her and lies about an accident. This establishes Laura’s pattern of extreme religious bargaining.
  • Hiding Alex Thomas (Chapter 39–40): Consequence: She draws Iris into the conspiracy, leading to Iris’s affair with Alex and the eventual writing of the novel.
  • Writing the notebooks and, presumably, the novel: The consequence is a posthumous book that exposes family secrets, destroys Richard, and forces Iris to confront her own complicity.
  • Driving off the bridge (Chapter 3): Consequence: She becomes a martyr figure, her story turned into scandal and literary myth. Her death allows the novel to be published posthumously, but also silences her forever.

Theme and Symbol Connections

  • Memory and storytelling: Laura’s hidden notebooks and novel embody the power of written words to preserve truth. Iris’s act of publishing them is both betrayal and tribute. (Link: Themes: Memory and Storytelling)
  • Gender oppression: Laura is controlled by first her father, then Richard. She is institutionalized for challenging patriarchal norms. Her body and voice are appropriated. (Link: Themes: Gender Oppression)
  • Betrayal and manipulation: Iris betrays Laura by sleeping with Alex. Richard manipulates Laura’s confinement. The public story of Laura’s “accident” is a cover‑up. (Link: Themes: Betrayal and Manipulation)
  • Identity and self‑invention: Laura’s refusal to conform—her literal‑minded Christianity, her rejection of marriage—is a form of self‑invention that society punishes. Her novel becomes her lasting identity. (Link: Themes: Identity and Self‑Invention)
  • Power and control: Richard and Winifred exert control over Laura’s life and reputation. The BellaVista Clinic is a tool of patriarchal power. (Link: Themes: Power and Control)
  • The bridge: Symbol of transition and death—Laura drives off it to escape. The “bridge” is also the title of the first narrative chapter, and it recurs as a motif of impossible crossroads.
  • Blindness: Laura’s name echoes “blind” in the title. She sees truths others ignore, yet is blind to social conventions. The blind assassin in the story represents both violence and love.

Questions and Answers

1. Why does Laura Chase commit suicide?
The novel never gives a single definitive reason. Iris interprets Laura’s white gloves as a gesture of washing her hands of the family. Possible motives include despair over Richard’s control, guilt or shame over a possible pregnancy, the end of the war removing a reason to endure, or religious self‑sacrifice. The coroner rules it accidental, but the witnesses confirm intentionality (Chapter 3). It is a deliberate act of protest and escape.

2. Did Laura actually write The Blind Assassin?
The text presents the novel as Laura’s work—published posthumously with a biographical note (Chapter 92). However, Iris’s discovery of Laura’s notebooks and her role in securing publication suggests that Iris may have edited or even co‑written the book. Iris’s letters to scholars fiercely defend Laura’s sole authorship, but the ambiguity is deliberate. The epigraph “The word is a flame burning in a dark glass” hints at dual authorship.

3. What was Laura’s relationship with Alex Thomas?
Evidence is contradictory. Laura meets Alex at the picnic (Chapter 36) and later hides him in the attic (Chapter 39–40). The novel within the novel depicts a love affair that closely mirrors Iris’s secret meetings with Alex. Iris implies to Richard that Laura was in love with Alex, but also that Richard “as good as raped” Laura. The most plausible reading is that Alex and Laura had a brief, innocent connection, but it was Alex and Iris who became lovers. Laura may have felt betrayed, or she may have written the novel to expose Richard and protect Iris.

4. Why does Richard commit Laura to BellaVista Clinic?
Richard and Winifred claim Laura threatened self‑harm and accused Richard of trying to kill Iris (Chapter 76). Laura also says she is pregnant. Institutionalizing her silences her and prevents scandal. The clinic is later closed after a former employee’s testimony (Chapter 92). It is an act of patriarchal control dressed as medical care.

5. What is the significance of Laura’s cutting herself out of the photograph?
In Chapter 40, after Alex kisses Iris, Laura secretly cuts her own image out of the group photo. This symbolic act foreshadows her later erasure from the family narrative. It also shows her awareness of betrayal—she removes herself from the happy picture, choosing isolation. The photograph motif appears throughout the novel; Laura’s own posthumous photo becomes the face on her book jacket.

For further exploration, see the ending explained and questions and answers pages.