Alice

Can all this really be true? Or is Henry hallucinating all this? I can't believe HENRY and ALICE  have a fling! This scene was shocking. I mean, there were hints earlier in the play that HENRY and ALICE  could possibly have something going on, but I never though it would become true. In my point of view, it's foul  play because HENRY has a girlfriend and I'm pretty sure ALICE is well aware of that, yet she still has the nerve to kiss him right after telling HENRY that she couldn't love him the way he wanted her to love him. It could be that ALICE was lying about not being able to love HENRY and that's why she kissed him in the end, or she meant it but kissed him anyway so they could bothe get a feeling of closure, maybe. Still, ALICE gives DELLA's greetings to HENRY right before she leaves, after she has kissed him, which I found to be hypocritical of her since that is HENRY's girlfriend. I ended up reading the whole scene and ignoring the argument, and instead payed more attention to the love connection that was going on.

Though the argument isn't as important to me, the quote that reveals the most about the play is found during the argument ALICE and HENRY have. On page 84, ALICE  tells HENRY,
          "I never been able to accept one person ...pushing me around! Can't you see that's why I'm here? ...I can't stand it happening to you. Because I'm a Jew, goddammit! I have been there! If you lose, I lose."
These are powerful words coming out of ALICE's mouth. After HENRY so annoyingly persists that ALICE tell him why she is helping them, she finally does. She tells him that she's there because she know what it feels like to be pushed around and made less of. She reveals that she is a Jew and she has related to HENRY her whole life. If HENRY's battle is lost, a piece of ALICE will lose too. This quote left me with mix emotions. I was angry at HENRY for misjudging ALICE, but I also felt a deeper connection to ALICE because she has also been discriminated.

QUESTION: Why do you think it took ALICE so long to finally confess to HENRY the reason she was helping them?