Character Analysis
More's wife Alice (Wendy Hiller) isn't actually the mother of Margaret—she's Thomas' second wife, married after the death of his first (More didn't believe in divorce, obvs). While far less educated than More—she mentions the fact that she can't read, at one point—Alice is feisty and committed. She desperately doesn't want More to die and urges him to take the oath, angry that he's allowing himself to be committed to prison.
She refuses to say that she understands why More is doing what he's doing—the very thing he wants her to say. Finally, she confesses:
ALICE: As for understanding, I understand you're the best man I ever met or am ever likely to. And if you go, God knows why, I suppose. Though as God's my witness, God's kept deadly quiet about it. And if anyone wants to know my opinion of the King and his Council, he only has to ask for it!
More responds by saying,
MORE: Why, it's a lion I married. A lion. A lion. This is good. It's very good.
So, he and Alice are on good terms, it seems, as More heads toward the executioner's block.