One thing that I particularly like about the Princess Alice was her forward way of thinking. She was really quite remarkable for her time in some ways. My impression of her is that outwardly she appeared to be the perfect Victorian wife and daughter, and seemed rather meek and submissive, but inside she was a strong lady with a sharp mind and passionate opinions. She had to be strong to nurse her ailing father during his last days and to comfort her widowed mother for so long as she so capably did, even becoming her personal secretary of sorts. Like her sister Vicky, she was quite intelligent and a good learner, albeit with a sweeter and gentler personality.
For a short time (I believe it was after Frittie's death), she even came to question her belief in religion, and this was at a time when that was nearly unthinkable. Another thing she did which defied the conventions of her time can be found in the surprising but refreshing letter which she wrote to her husband, published in Gerard Noel's book. It basically stated how unhappy she was with their marriage, how disappointing it was that he was not her intellectual equal, and how they did not have much in common at all. I think that must have taken quite a bit of courage to write, but most of all to first admit that to herself, at a time when women were supposed to idolize their husbands, ignore their shortcomings, and basically be in denial about their unhappy marriages. She probably did love her husband and was devoted to him, but she was also able to be perfectly honest with both him and herself, and realize that they were not a perfectly suited match.
Some authors contend that Alix did not inherit her mother's great interest in intellectual matters. I think this is in part true, because she didn't seem interested in scholarly or intellectual pursuits very much at all. Her interests lay more in religious study. I wonder what she thought, being such a deeply religious person, about her late mother's questioning of her faith for a time. I think that for all that mother and daughter had in common, it is a striking difference that the mother appeared to be, if anything, more progressive in some ways than her more conservative daughter, even though it's usually the other way around.
I would love to read Alix's thoughts about her mother, based on what she learned of her from relatives and perhaps even books or articles, as she couldn't have remembered very much herself. I tend to think, however, that perhaps neither her relatives nor authors of the time would have been completely forthcoming about what they may have considered the more unappealing (to their eyes) aspects of her personality, such as her crisis of faith. Unfortunately, I haven't come across many references to Alice in her daughter's writings, only references to remembering her on the anniversaries of her passing, etc., but I know full well that she still loved her even if she didn't talk much about her.
All in all, then, I think we can all agree that Alice was a complex and intelligent woman, thinking beyond her times when it came to topics such as marriage and religion, and she could have taught her children so much to further enlighten them.
