Questioning Social Norms: Jeremiah’s Rebellion
Grace is not the only one who has multiple identities in Alias Grace. Jeremiah fabricates his different identities and brings new possibilities to Grace’s life every time he appears. Jeremiah appears in Alias Grace first as Jeremiah the Peddler, later as Dr. Dupont the hypnotist, and finally as Gerald Bridges in Grace’s letter. While Grace and Dr. Jordan are trapped by their identities which were supposed to be unchanged and determined at birth, Jeremiah rebels against the Victorian social norms, fabricating his identity in whatever way he wants, and successfully tricking everyone. The success of Jeremiah’s alias challenges Victorian social norms and questions the nature of science as the authority on truth.
As Foucault argues, “As a result of this new restraint, a whole army of technicians took over from the executioner: …warders, doctors, chaplains, psychiatrists, psychologists, educationalists” (11). People believe that science is the authority that always figures out the truth of mysterious cases, and they believe that a rational, professional, objective upper-class male like Dr. Jordan can use their scientific knowledge to explore the truth and reach the right conclusion. Scientists’ reports about a client like Grace have the power to decide his fate.
However, it is ironic that Jeremiah appears as Dr. Dupont with the complete respect and trust of all the aristocrats and upper-class people andfinally provides the “truth” that Dr. Jordan fails to provide as a true scientist.In Grace’s letter, she says “And if they found you out, they would think you had tricked them, as what is done on a stage is not as acceptable, as the very same thing done in a library…” (513-514). The metaphor of what is done on a stage points out the nature of science in Victorian society: Science becomes a fancy show for the upper-class male scientists to show off their professional skills, improve their social status,and gain others’ respect, to achieve their personal goals like Dr. Jordan’s dream of gathering money for his asylum building. Science becomes a tool for upper-class people to make judgments on lower-class others like Grace. Jeremiah’s successful trick poses the question to readers: If a scientific judge can be masqueraded, and a scam scientist can reach a conclusion that even a real scientist cannot, can science be the real authority on the truth? Does an authoritative judge that cannot be masqueraded even exist?
Overall, Jeremiah’s successful alias brings him incredibly smooth social mobility and gives him the right to change Grace’s fate. He questions Victorian societal norms that identity is determined at birth and should be immutable throughout one’s life. According to Greenwood, Atwood brings “a rich vein of black, mordant humour” (24) into her novel. Her characterization of Jeremiah contributes to her ironic purpose. Moreover, as Greenwood argues: “Justice, like authority, is a slippery and unreliable presence in the novel. It is mutable according to class and gender” (24). Jeremiah’s rebellion against Victorian social norms questions science as the authority on truth and reveals that, in fact, the strong power given to science comes from people’s fancy with upper-class male scientists. Under his question, the deeply rooted social norms, authority, and justice all become slippery and conditional.
“The character of man is formed for & not by him”
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace. McClelland & Stewart, 1996.
Foucault, M. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Penguin, 1991.
Greenwood, Ruth. “Amazing Grace: Ruth Greenwood Discusses the Challenges Offered by the Addition of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace to the Edexcel Specification.” The English Review, vol. 12, no. 4, Apr. 2002, pp. 24., https://doi.org/0955-8950.
