There are some other wild theories along those lines, such as Grace suffering from dissociative identity disorder (also known as multiple personality disorder) or that Grace is the one who actually died and Mary took over her identity. The True Story Of Grace Marks And The Brutal Murder Behind ‘Alias Grace’. Marks spent a total of 29 years in prison. Kinnear, a wealthy Scottish gentleman who’d moved to Canada to seek out further fortune, had been shot in the chest while his housekeeper and mistress, Montgomery, had been struck in the head with an ax, strangled, and shoved under a tub. Atwood once noted that in her research, she found that “the witnesses—even the eye-witnesses, even at the trial itself—could not agree” on what they had seen. An impressionable girl or a steely killer? ☝️, Awesome, You’re All Set! “I was imagining when I did press for [this], I would be introducing this as a conversation,” Polley says. Suffice to say, the outpouring that’s followed those initial Weinstein allegations took everyone involved with Alias Grace by surprise. But I’ve had many years to obsess over it, and it oddly became a really big part of my psychoanalysis. Mary is a fictional character created by Atwood. In the afterword to Alias Grace, Atwood notes that she “felt free to invent” details to fill in the gaps between irreconcilable versions of the murders. Grace Marks (c. July 1828 – after c. 1873) was an Irish-Canadian maid who was involved in the 1843 murder of her Richmond Hill, Ontario, employer Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery.Her conviction for the murder of Kinnear was controversial and sparked much debate about whether Marks was actually instrumental in the murder or merely an unwitting accessory. The show does present both sides by way of having Dr. Jordan read McDermott's confession to Grace, but the series definitely leans to the side of Grace as the unwitting accomplice. 13 hours ago, by Monica Sisavat “People know they need to look brutally and honestly at the world.”, In This Article: Kinnear, a gentleman of Scottish origin, owned property in a rural village some 16 miles outside of Toronto. Or, is it just a fantasy set in the past, instead of in the near future, like Atwood's other novel adapted for streaming, The Handmaid's Tale? Atwood’s novel and Netflix’s subsequent miniseries explore the four real-life theories as to what might have driven Marks to such unprecedented violence. Alias Grace Is A True Story. The real mystery was whether or not they shared equal blame. Did the Northern Lights Play a Role in the Titanic's Demise? spoilers, tread carefully. What we don’t have is her voice.”, That a centuries-old murder could raise issues of class, gender and power that still resonate today is a testament to Atwood’s writing. Deeply ingrained ideas about the fundamental nature of women may explain why Marks was given a commuted sentence, while McDermott was sent to the gallows.