Only a few short pages later and Willies final character begins to emerge. He gets tired of being told what to do by Mr Hobson and being bullied by him. It all comes about when Maggie is telling her father of her engagement to Will and Mr Hobson hits Will with a leather belt. To this he remarks, ‘And I’ve nobbut one answer back. Maggie, I’ve none kissed you yet. I shirked before. But by gum, I’ll kiss you now - and take you and hold you. And if Mr Hobson raises up that strap again, I’ll do more. I’ll walk straight out of shop with thee and us two’ull set up for ourselves.’ With this outburst, Mr Hobson is taken aback. With it coming from his faithful worker he doesn’t know what to say next. Maggie is also taken aback but reacts differently to it saying, ‘Willie, I knew you had it in you lad’, and puts her arm round his neck as if he is a trophy. Later in the play, Mossop would stand by every word he ever said, but on this first rebellious occasion, he is not totally convinced that what he has done was the right thing and his hands fall limply to his sides.
A month after this occasion, Vickey and Alice are the only ones left in the shop after Will and Maggie’s departure and with Hobson spending most of his time in the Moonrakers. Since Will left, all the high-class trade has gone with him and the takings are very poor. The pair of them are arguing about this and blame all the problems on Maggie and Will. Coincidentally Maggie and Will walk through the door at this very moment accompanied by Freddy Beenstock. Alice and Vickey seem taken aback at her appearance in the shop. Maggie now knows that Vickey and Freddy are going to be married and she believes that without her help, they never will. Maggie offers her services to them saying, “You’ll get no further with it by yourselves from what I hear of fathers carryings-on.” Vickey clearly annoyed by this replies, “That’s your fault. Yours and his”, as she points at Will. She is clearly very annoyed by the sudden engagement of the pair and in a way she is being extremely selfish. When Maggie was still working in the shop, she would handle the accounts and orders, leaving Vickey and Alice to sell the shoes to people of the streets. Suddenly, the two sisters have an increased workload and resent the fact that the only reason they have to do some proper work is because Will and Maggie have left. They resent Will as they see him as the root of their own problems. Maggie is trying to force Vickey and Alice into accepting him into the family, and although they strongly resent him, they do as Maggie says. Maggie believes that if her sisters kiss Will, they will accept him into the family. Upon this she forcibly tells them to kiss him and sisters try to put up a creditable argument against doing so but the arguments have no real basis and they finally give him a kiss grudgingly, Vickey first and then Alice. They have reluctantly allowed him into the family, but they still do not treat him as most people would treat their prospective brother-in-law.
Further evidence of his changing in character is evident in Act 3 of the play when Will, having been taught to read and write by Maggie, gives a speech to the guests at his wedding reception which was held at home. In his speech he stands in front of his guests and with only minimal prompting from his wife, thanks everyone for attending and for their generosity towards the couple. In standing up in front of an audience he proves that his shyness and timid ness is fading and he is slowly becoming the man of the house. His transformation is not yet fully complete, as just a few lines later, he wilfully accepts orders from Maggie to clear away the pots and wash them up.
When it becomes apparent to Maggie that someone is going to have to live with and look after her father, she decides that it is going to have to be herself and Willie. Prior to arriving at the shop, Maggie tells Will to take a high hand and not to take any trouble from her two sisters. Upon arriving at the shop, Maggie goes out the back to discuss the business proposals with her father, and Will carries out his ‘orders’ completely. Will steps up onto the ladder and begins to inspect the current stock of Hobson’s. When asked by Vickey what he is doing, his new found confidence and easiness around people just spills out of him. Instead of offering some inaudible answer, created by his old bashful ways, he confidently and clearly says, “I’m looking over the stock. If I’m to come into a thing I like to know what I’m coming into.” Vickey seems slightly taken-aback by Wills transformation and I believe that this is the moment that she finally accepts Will into the family, at last seeing him for the man that he has become. Another example of the transformation, is evident just a few lines ahead when Willie is told that he’ll do whatever is arranged for him. With this Willie replies, “I’ll do the arranging, Alice. If we come here, we come here on my terms.” This is such a stark contrast to the man who used to take orders from this woman and scurry about down the trap content with making shoes and boots. Now with his new found personality and self-confidence, comes a need to take charge of his own destiny. He wants to call the shots and tell people what to do instead of the other way round. He has recognised the fact that he has a talent for bootmaking and wants to make a handsome living out of it. His own personal targets have also got higher and I think that he is now content in making more money and being the head of the household. I also feel that he wants people to acknowledge his transformation. A prime example of this is when he says to Alice and Vickey, “Times have changed a bit since you used to order me about this shop haven’t they Alice?” He also tells them that people now know him as Mr. Mossop and not merely Mossop or Will. He has big things planned for his future and he wants people to watch him every step of the way. “Thy pride is not in same street, lass, with the pride I have in you. And that reminds me. I’ve a job to see to.”