This play is so dramatic it is difficult to believe it could happen. Maggie is so ahead of her time that she would have come over the audience in her time as a shocking character. The making of this play is mainly dramatic devices and the affects of characters and their actions.
When Mrs. Hepworth enters the shop, Hobson kneels down by her shoe to examine it close up which is indicative for Hobson’s slow downfall. Mrs. Hepworth imposes herself on him, saying, “Get up Hobson, you look ridiculous on the floor.” She then asks him who made the boots to which Hobson replies “We did. Our own make.” Mrs. Hepworth takes advantage of his answer to make out that Hobson is pathetic and says, “Will you answer a plain question?”
Then they call up Willie who comes up the ladder, this is the turning point to Willie’s ultimate rise. Willie responds in a nervous manner to Mrs. Hepworth’s questioning. Mrs. Hepworth shows Willie a visiting card and asks him to read it to which he looks at it upside down and stutters plainly. From here, we can see that Willie is an illiterate, uneducated and poor man.
After the marriage between Maggie and Willie, Hobson’s business goes bust and so he urges Willie to return. Willies reply is they have to become partners if he returns, and the shop should be named ‘William Mossop, late Hobson” but after an argument with Maggie he agrees to ‘Mossop and Hobson’.
This event clearly marks Willies assertiveness and social mobility, and at the same time Hobson’s downfall.
We can see from Hobson’s character that he suffers from a bigoted arrogance. This prejudiced belief is linked with male status, and we see from various instances that he believes himself to be superior to women.
“HOBSON: They scorn my wisdom, Jim. They (daughters) answer back. I’ve landed in a hole - a great and undignified hole. My own daughters have got the upper hand of me.”
We can visualize Hobson as a very unsympathetic character; he is a thoughtless bully. He believes he can solve all social problems by attempting to beat Willie with his belt:
“HOBSON: I don’t bear malice, but we must beat the love from your body, and every morning you come here to work with love still sitting in you, you’ll get a leathering.”
Willie starts under the trap door, in the cellar of Hobson’s shop. Towards at the end, he is at the top of a ladder looking through his stock in his newly acquired shop- this is a dramatic device, and can be seen as a seesaw affect.
Willie starts as a person who could hardly speak. He could only say monosyllabic words such as “by gum.”
Maggie sees his potential and by teaching him how to read and write brings it about. She sees that together they could make a successful couple, and so she proposes to marry him. This was against Hobson’s wishes who did not even consider marrying his eldest daughter, Maggie, as she in his opinion was “past the marrying age.”
When Willie is asked to get married, he is taken aback, as it is not usual for a woman of her stature to request from a man of poor education to marry. She was from the middle class and he was from the lower class.
We know right from the beginning that Willie has potential as Mrs. Hepworth says to him ‘you’re a treasure.”
To the audience watching, they would have gasped at this proposal.
Class in the 19th century era was especially distinguishable. This is shown by the way Hobson, a middle class man bends down and fondles with Mrs. Hepworth’s boots.
Mrs.Hepworth is a higher-class woman.
Willie refers to Hobson as “sir”, and to Maggie as the “master’s daughter.” This shows his fear of Hobson.
Hobson is clearly the boss of the house, this is because he has a very dominant character and he is male. This is shown in the scene where he states what time dinner is.
Maggie is also a very bold person, she stands up to her father, for example, “You will pay my man, Will Mossop, the same wages as before. And as for me…you will pay me 15 shillings by the week” she says this to her father in a very powerful and pushy way.
Willie’s development is illustrated clearly throughout the whole play.
In act one Willie barely knows how to speak, he uses words such as “Nay”, or “aye”.
In act two, he uses phrases such as “My mind’s made up.” “I’ve got wrought to a point. I’m ready.”
In act three his language has clearly improved, we see this where he makes a speech in the cellar. However he has not yet fully developed it, Willie: “that the - the-”
Maggie: (in an undertone) “generous”, he still pauses between words.
At one point at the end of the play, Willie shines even over Maggie, and he wins. This is when he decides the name for their new shop “Mossop and Hobson’s.”
Willie has become so self-assured and established, that Maggie looks up to him. When Hobson comes to Willie and Maggie’s new home to complain about his penalty for ruining Mr. Beenstocks flour, and trespassing, Maggie and Willie are so confident that they decide whether they should let Hobson in or not.
Hobson: ill come in.
Maggie: Well, I don’t know. Ill have to ask the master about that.
Hobson: Eh? The master?
Maggie Will it’s my father. Is he to come in?
Willie: (loudly and boldly) Aye, let him come in.
This shows the improvement of Willies confidence.
When Willie is asked by Maggie to leave the shop his response is “Not me. I’ve been at Hobson’s all my life, and I’m not leaving till I’m made.” This shows his loyalty to Hobson. Maggie cannot stand this; she is much tougher and thinks it foolish.
When Maggie proposes to Will, he is shocked and he says he is “Tokened to Ada Figgins.”
Maggie thinks Ada is the “helpless sort” and she is so determined to marry Will that she stands up to Ada and pushes her away from marrying Will.
Maggie represents the women’s campaign for equality; she asserts herself to marry Will and helps him stand up to Hobson at the end.
Hobson represents the pressures of Maggie asserting herself. When she has an argument with him about marrying Will, Hobson “beats the love out of his body”, this causes Will to be come more secure and confident against Hobson. He says, “If you touch me with that strap, ill take her quick, aye, and ill stick to her like glue.
He then kisses her confidently right before Hobson, whilst he stands there watching in astonishment. All Hobson’s bad judgments and stupid acts contribute to Willie’s rise, and Hobson’s fall. This is why the hitting of Hobson to Willie is highly dramatic.
Later on in the play, Hobson falls into Beenstocks cellar; this makes him give dowries to all of his daughters.
One of the biggest dramatic devices in the play is Mrs. Hepworth. She shows Willie his potential, and Maggie develops it. Mrs. Hepworth lends them money to start their business.
Through all these incidents, Willie transforms from a humble, loyal worker into a manager of a successful shop. Hobson loses customers, and becomes lower down in society. This shows social mobility and class movement. Maggie is a powerful female and would have come across to the audience as highly shocking. She actually has control over Will and her father is powerless over her.
What makes Maggie what she is, is that she is way ahead of her time.
Maggie is similar to Hobson in that she has a manipulative character as she can be seen here before her wedding, when she has everyone where she wants them; Willie being the master of the house, Hobson in the cellar etc.
This play was written in 1916, and Maggie’s character really does fit in with the suffragists who kicked up a lot of fuss in the early 1900’s at the peak of industrial revolution. This play illustrates what at the time were groundbreaking ideas. Maggie’s outgoing and stubborn person shocks all the males surrounding Maggie and the audience at the time. She is convinced that she can marry, when everyone else believes she is past the marrying age. This would have been seen as very controversial at the time Brighouse wrote this play, and therefore contributes to the overall drama.
In the scene where Hobson falls into the cellars of Beenstock where they have sued him for spying on the company’s secrets, it is very ironic as only Maggie knows this and Hobson does not. She then takes matters in her own hands and lets the case be dealt with avoiding publicity. She then takes the other five hundred to help marry off her two sisters. This is where we see her setting her father straight.
Because Hobson who is narrow-minded slips into alcoholism, this mainly contributes to the reversal of roles between him and Willie.
It causes Hobson to fall into the cellar, which is a very important dramatic action, which contributes to the fall of Hobson.
Chain reactions of dramatic devices take place throughout the play. For example: - Because Hobson is a drunkard this ends up making him fall into the cellar which then results in him giving dowries to his daughters.
This instance shows the change of character, and their actions and the great power of dramatic devices.
As the play moves on slowly the tables are turning round, until Willie ends up as a successful and articulate businessman who is extremely confident and Hobson -a business collaborate with a illness.
