Canada and Beyond: A Journal of Canadian Literary and Cultural Studies

Abstract

Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace rewrites Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Both Grace Marks and Hester Prynne epitomize women’s oppression by the patriarchal system, and demonstrate how they challenge and defy it. They are both “criminals,” outcasts that cannot fit in the ideal of True Womanhood of their times because deviant females were shunned from “respectable society.” In the Victorian era, they were denied agency in their transgression, or deemed as monsters. Murderesses inspired fascination and stupor. Hester and Grace gain some empowerment and redemption when they confront their communities, in some measure, through their feminine skills, sewing and quilting.