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Grace’s Mother
Born in England, Grace’s father is trained as a stonemason, but his crippling alcoholism renders him unable to find a job or provide food for his family. Grace’s father physically abuses Grace’s mother and, late in the novel, it is obliquely hinted that he may have sexually abused Grace when she was a child. Grace’s father is implicated in arson and a murder, which prompts Aunt Pauline and Uncle Roy to encourage Grace’s parents to emigrate from Ireland. When Grace begins work as a servant in Canada at the age of twelve, her father consistently tries to purloin her wages, but after Mary Whitney comes to her defense, Grace never sees her father again.
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Grace’s Father Character Timeline in Alias Grace
The timeline below shows where the character Grace’s Father appears in Alias Grace. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 13
...self as “a little pitcher with big ears.” By eavesdropping she learned how much her father resented his wife and children, who he felt were “too many in number.” (Grace had...
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Grace’s father, a stonemason by trade, was an alcoholic and struggled to find work. When a house...
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Chapter 15
...then returns to the boat and continues to Toronto, where they disembark. In Toronto, Grace’s father rents lodgings from a widow named Mrs. Burt. Grace intuits that Mrs. Burt is trying...
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Soon, Grace’s father tells her it is time for her to “earn [her] own bread,” though she is...
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Chapter 19
At the end of each of Grace’s first two months of work, her father comes to the Parkinson house and demands her wages. Each time, Mary defends Grace and...
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Chapter 20
Grace moves forward to narrating the month of December at the Parkinson household. Her father sends one of Grace’s younger sisters to beg Grace for her wages; Grace gives her...
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