Alias Grace question

Hi everyone!
I think that Atwood's narrative gives us a clue as to the question of Grace's culpability ... I therefore did not find the ending frustrating at all! Grace is a very unreliable narrator who actually gives the reader several hints not to trust what she is telling us - especially towards the end I was startled by sentences such as: "It calls for a different arrangement of the face; but suppose it will become easier in time" (513) or "Though I suppose it isn't the first lie I've told; but as Mary Whitney used to say, a little lie such as the angels tell is a small price to pay for peace and quiet" (532).
Morover, within her own narrative, Grace starts calling McDermott 'James' when her narrative approaches the times of the killings which does in a way hint at a certain degree of intimacy between them; her hypnotism must have been agreed upon beforehand with Jeremiah (especially as she thanks him later in a letter for his help), so she must be conscious of everything that she says during this 'seance'. I consequently do not think that Mary Whitney is her 'alter ego' or her second personality but that she really existed and that her death had a huge impact on Grace.
For me, the narrative structure of the book suggests that Grace voluntarily abstained from helping Nancy or even killed her herself. Here's why: Several pages of the novel deal with Grace's past, her violent father and her life with Mary Whitney. Why do we get these information? I really do not like to talk about 'trauma' as it is widely misused within literary studies, but I cannot but see Grace as in a way (I am being cautious here) 'traumatized' (in lack of a better word). At a young age she had to witness her mother dying an unworthy death and she was probably sexually abused by her father (the chapter "Fox and Geese" in a way suggests this when she is hugged by a man she cannot see and remarks: "...but another man, someone I knew well and had long been familiar with, even as long ago as my childhood, but had since forgotten; nor was this the first time I'd found myself in this situation with him" (326)), then later she witnesses what happens to her friend Mary due to her pregnancy by a man of a higher social status.
Interestingly enough, shortly before the killings, Grace gets to know that Nancy is in the same position as Mary: She too is pregnant by a man of higher social status. Grace's commentary to this similarity is: "Mary Whitney had done the same as her, and had gone to her death. Why should the one be rewarded and the other punished, for the same sin?" (321).
To make a long story short: I think that Grace is not an innocent victim and I do think that the narrative structure does give us several hints as to her complicity in the killings.
What do you think?
God, this book has been so much fun reading!!

My most straightforward and simplest answer would be no, Grace did not fake the hypnotism. Something truly happened to her during the course of her session with Jeremiah.

I can't say for sure, as written by Atwood, if it was the unveiling of her unconscious (scientific explanation) or some act of channeling (paranormal explanation).

That's the genius of the setting and storyline of Alias Grace. I think Atwood leaves both possibilities open, as the time period was the start of serious exploration for both.

I actually really liked the ending ^^ To be honest, I didn't except that kind of ending, (after all Margaret Atwood is the writer) but I really liked it ^^ She usually has darker endings so this was refreshing :)

I also found the ending to be unsatisfying. However, I think the point of the ending was for it to be unsatisfying. It shows that "happily ever after" endings don't exist. Grace went from being in a prison to suddenly being in a paradise, yet the tone of the last chapter was somewhat empty and void of emotion. The poem in that chapter called, "The Poems of Our Climate" sums it up quite well, "The imperfect in our paradise."

Have not read the book but just watched the series on Netflix. Great mysterious and complicated story.

The end might've been problematic and quite an unsatisfactory finish, but this was, for me, only her choice to be with Jamie that caused me to dislike it. Other than that, I absolutely adored the unanswered question of whether she committed the murders or not.
My strongest theory is multiple personality disorder. It seems quite unlikely to me that Atwood would steer into the direction of ghosts and a spirit taking over Grace, which slightly dissipates the tension and leaves a poor impression of a horror story. Grace was clearly very heavily impacted by the events in her life, and this has disturbed her greatly, affecting her mind.
It is common to experience memory loss with a split personality disorder, which is what occurred on more than one occasion. She may have been imitating the personality of Mary Whitney, most likely – in the hypnosis, I found this very likely. When she answered no to being Mary (Mary's spirit) the next most sane assumption for me was she was merely something influenced by her.
I absolutely loved Alias Grace.

I believed right from the get go that Grace was innocent. I thought for sure she was an amnesiac, but it turns out she also has- split personality? schizophrenia? bipolar disorder? I don't know what's the right term. So in that sense the ending gave me peace. I was happy with that conclusion, morally.
The ending with Jamie...honestly, I was kind of expecting something horribly depressing for the ending, since that would be exactly the thing Atwood would go for probably(!) And yes, Jamie 30 years later is not IDEAL. I'll be honest, I was shipping her and Dr. Jordan the WHOLE time lol. But I can see her being happy with Jamie, and more importantly he doesn't seem to be an abusive selfish pig like 99 percent of the other men in the novel.... I will say that his obsession with hearing the sorrowful details, especially, forced sexual situations of her sufferings, is honestly creepy and weird. But Atwood was still making a point. Maybe about the lack of good hearted men who are also strong minded and intelligent and with a strong moral compass.

I think she's a great storyteller and actor, so she faked the seance. Her motive for killing Nancy was the unfairness she felt if Nancy would have married a rich man, while Mary was killed.

I'm a bit torn on the ending. On one hand, it felt like the supernatural stuff was a bit over the top. But, it gave us the answer that part of Grace is culpable (her subconscious, Mary Whitney possessing her, her trauma hanging over her, etc) but the other characters seem to think she is not morally responsible. I was rooting for Grace to be innocent and I think this is what I'm going to cling to as well. Maybe there's a dark part of Grace that took over and that she's been repressing her whole life, and after years of being a victim of her circumstances, she finally enacted what she thought of as justice. There's that creepy quote where she compares Mary Whitney's fate to Nancy's and it makes it sound like God failed in punishing one but rewarding the other, so it's Grace's job to play God. In a sense, there's something darkly satisfying about her finally getting revenge (even if it wasn't necessarily on the "right" people).