Mouths Symbol Analysis

In Alias Grace, mouths are associated with violence, and particularly with the way male-dominated society systematically disempowers women. For example, when Grace’s father refers to his children as mouths to feed, young Grace imagines that her pregnant mother’s belly is filled with a mouth that is “eating away” at her, suggesting that Grace sees childbearing as destroying women. Grace also has a recurring dream about Nancy Montgomery where the only visible part of Nancy’s bloody body is her mouth—and of course, Nancy’s murder was plotted in part due to James McDermott’s misogyny. The association between mouths and violence against women is not just in Grace’s head; Dr. Simon Jordan physically uses his mouth to dominate women, as when he covers Rachel Humphrey’s mouth with his “to silence her.” He also has a vivid fantasy about Grace in which he presses his mouth against her and “applies [Murderess] to her throat like a brand.” Similarly, James McDermott covers Grace’s mouth when he attempts to rape her, and the guards who consistently harass Grace on her way to the Governor’s house make comments like, “I hate a screeching slut, women should be born without mouths on them.” Thus, Alias Grace sees mouths—and women’s mouths, in particular—as an invitation to violence, since silencing women is a way to maintain power over them.