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The Role Of Alyce In The Midwife's Apprentice

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Throughout this piece of literature, “The Midwife’s Apprentice”, Alyce (or Beetle) went from having no self esteem to having self esteem back to no self esteem. Beetle self esteem raised in chapter 5, “The Merchant”, when a merchant gave her a comb and a compliment. The compliment was “Comb those long curls till they shine, girl, and sure you'll have a lover before nightfall.” This compliment was the first one Beetle ever had received and it made her feel better about herself. She was also called a person she was not, Alyce. This person could read. Since, someone thought that Beetle was that girl named Alyce. So, she changed her name to Alyce. Since someone thought that she was someone who could read, that also raised her self esteem. Then her self esteem dropped in chapter …show more content…

I am too stupid to be a midwife's apprentice and too tired to wander again. I should just lie here in the rain until I die.” Her self esteem did increase, a lot. This happened in chapter 17 gets the choice to help Magister Reese with his widowed sister and wished to employ Alyce, take care of the new baby in Salisbury, staying with Jannett at the inn, or going off on her own. She thought to herself “ What to do? What do I want?” and she choose to be a midwife’s apprentice. She thought of “the joyful chatter of birds building their nests ... the triumph on the face of the midwife as she coaxed a reluctant baby into life, remembered the silky feel of Tansy's newborn calves and the sticky softness of the baby called Alyce Little.” Alyce decided to go to the village to become Jane sharp’s apprentice. You can tell that Alyce’s self esteem went up once she realized what she wanted to because she wouldn’t go back to the village in chapter 11, when her self esteem crashed and burned. According to Alyce she was “nothing” in chapter 11, but in chapter 17 she went up to Jane’s door and asked her to take her back. Even though Jane didn’t take her back to began with, Alyce didn’t give

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