When Maggie suggests that Will moves on from Hobson’s, such as setting up his own business, he interprets this wrongly and seems to think he is about to lose his job: “Leave Hobson’s? I-I thought I gave satisfaction”. This is shown here with the use of the hyphen character to represent stuttering.
Maggie then asks what keeps Will at Hobson’s: “Is it the – the people?” The audience can clearly see what she’s trying to say is “Is it me that makes you stay here?” but doesn’t want to make it too obvious what she’s getting at. Of course she needn’t have wasted her efforts, as Will has no clue whatsoever!
Later in the conversation, Maggie claims she and Will are “a pair”. He is completely, utterly clueless as to where she is going with this so when she says “It seems to me to only point one way”, he stupidly replies “What way is that?” Maggie then says, “You’re leaving me to do all the work, my lad” at which point comprehension finally seems to dawn upon Will as he nervously says, “I’ll be getting back to my stool, Miss Maggie”.
Here Maggie’s firmness kicks in again and she is having nothing of the sort: (stopping him) “You’ll go back when I’ve done with you.”
She hints again to Will: “I’ve been watching you for a long time and everything I’ve seen, I’ve liked. I think you’ll do for me” but he finds this unbelievable and decides to “play dumb” in the hope that she doesn’t mean what he thinks she means: “What way, Miss Maggie?”
What Will fears, Maggie says: “Will Mossop, you’re my man. Six months I’ve counted on you and it’s got to come out sometime” meaning she’s wanted wed him for a long while now.
Will response to this sudden announcement is complete shock “But I never-“ Again Maggie interrupts mid-sentence by saying “I know you never, or it ‘ud not be left to me to do the job like this.”
Maggie claims Will is “a business idea in the shape of a man”, meaning she wants him both for business and as a husband. Once again Will displays a lack of confidence in himself and his potential by responding “I’ve got no head for business at all.” Maggie believes they could work well together: “My brains and your hands ‘ull make a working partnership.”
All of a sudden Will’s outlook transformed from shock to relief: “Partnership! Oh, that’s a different thing. I thought you were axing me to wed you.” However, as quickly as the feeling left, it came back again because Maggie was indeed asking him to marry her.
Maggie is very determined to get what she wants: “He’ll [her father] will say a lot, and he can say it. It’ll make no difference to me.” “When I make arrangements, they’re not made for upsetting”.
It is made obvious that Will is just as frightened of Hobson as he is of Maggie: “Much better not upset him. It’s not worth while.”
Whatever Maggie says, goes, as far as Will’s concerned. “Seems like there’s no escape”, he says. He can’t think of a way to get out of marrying Maggie, he has almost given in.
Next Will announces that he is tokened (engaged) to Ada Figgins. When Ada enters the shop to claim him he acts pathetically timid, he doesn’t stand up for himself and lets other people tell him what to do, such as when Ada says “Will Mossop, I’m telling you, you’ll come home tonight to a thick ear” he makes an attempt at giving into this threat: “I’d really rather wed Ada, Maggie, if it’s all the same to you.”
Once Maggie has finally persuaded Ada that Will is going to marry Maggie, not Ada, Will is pleased to be leaving the Figgins and appreciative of Maggie’s help: “It’s like an ‘appy dream. Eh, Maggie, you do handle things.” He is also quite impressed by Maggie’s act of persuasion.
Will is still not quite comfortable with the situation as he refuses to kiss Maggie, using Vickey and Alice entering the room as an excuse, whereas Maggie remains very calm and when asks what’s wrong with Will she answers in an off-hand, casual way: “He’s just a bit upset because I’ve told him he’s to marry me. Is dinner cooking nicely?”
Alice is stubborn and not at all pleased at the idea of Will becoming a member of the family. She considers herself in a class well above him.
Hobson returns from the Moonrakers pub and the first thing he says as he walks through the door is “Well, what about dinner?” to which Maggie replies “It’ll be ready in ten minutes” and he says “You said one o’ clock” which just proves that Hobson is one of those awkward, confusing fathers who are never satisfied.
When Maggie explains that she is going to marry Will to her father she is very defiant and determined not to let what Hobson says have any effect on her: “I’m thirty and I’m marrying Will Mossop” as if that settles it, as if it’s final.
When Hobson is threatening Will with the strap, Will is suddenly overcome with confidence and he firmly threatens Hobson: “I’ll tell you this, Mr. Hobson: If you touch me with that belt, I’ll take her quick, aye, and stick to her like glue.” Maggie is thoroughly pleased at this, because it proves she was right in having faith in him: “Willie! I knew you had it in you lad!” Hobson is just shocked in “amazed indecision”.
Act Two is one month on from the happenings in Act One. Maggie has left Hobson’s and Alice now has Maggie’s position in the shoe shop which is going out of business, it’s “all sixes and sevens”.
Maggie, Will and Freddie enter the shop and one of the first things Vickey has to say is an accusation against Will and Maggie, holding them responsible for the state that Hobson’s is in, but Maggie is quick to cut in and stick up for Will.
Maggie demands her sisters to respect Will: “If you want your Freddy, and if you want your Albert you’ll be respectful to my Willie.” However, Alice is quite a snob: “Will Mossop was our boot hand”, she says, as if disgusted at the idea of being forced to respect a man like Will. Maggie, however, believes that Will is the one who is in a higher class: “Better, I say. They’re shop assistants. You’re your own master, aren’t you?” but Will still lacks faith and confidence in himself: “I’ve got my name up on the windows, but I dunno so much about being a master.”
Although Vickey and Alice are such snobs and against the idea of Will and Maggie getting married, Maggie insists upon them being there at her wedding.
Not only are Alice and Vickey snobs but they are very materialistic also: “Wedding with a brass ring!” Alice exclaims. “Well, I’d think shame to myself to be married with a ring like that.”
Maggie is still the one in control of Will, she still orders him about: “Get upstairs, Will. I told you what to bring.”
Maggie strongly believes that she and Will will succeed together: “When me and Will are richer than the lot of you together, it’ll be a grand satisfaction to look back and think about how we were when we began.”
When Will and Maggie finally leave for the church this is the first time in the whole play that Maggie asks Will’s opinion on the matter: “The parson’s going to ask you will you have me and you’ll either answer truthfully or not at all. If you’re not willing, just say so now, and –“ and Will cuts in with “I’ll tell him ‘yes’. Maggie, I’m resigned. You’re growing on me, lass, I’ll toe the line with you.” This is also the first time Will has acted as if he is happy to be marrying Maggie also.
Act Three is set in Maggie and Will’s cellars in Oldfield road, just after the wedding. Will makes a speech, with a little bit of support from Maggie, and even Vickey and Alice are impressed.
Maggie is keen for Will to become the more superior one in the work shop by saying “I? You mustn’t call it my workshop. It’s his.”
Will is not to proud to do the so-called “woman’s chore” of dish-washing and happily accepts it when Maggie asks him to do it, whereas Albert and Freddie laugh, obviously thinking Will is foolish to let Maggie tell him to do something so “low”. So she makes them help him, which they’re not too pleased about.
Willie says to Freddie and Albert as Maggie leaves with Vickey and Alice: “I don’t favour your going so soon” and admits that he is afraid to be alone with Maggie, since he never has done so before.
In this scene the characters hear Hobson knocking at the door. Vickey, Alice, Freddie and Albert all hide while Maggie and Will remain where they are and quickly says to Will before she opens the door, in encouraging support: “And don’t forget, you’re gaffer here.”
The key point of this scene is that Will is meant to be acting as the boss, as best he can, in front of Maggie’s father. When Hobson asks to come in Maggie says “Well I don’t know. I’ll have to ask the master about that…Will, it’s my father. Is he to come in?” She wouldn’t have bothered asking if it wasn’t Hobson at the door, but she is trying to prove a point: that Will can be just as high up and respectable as Hobson.
Hobson is keen to talk to Maggie about his troubles and doesn’t consider Will as worthy of being there whilst he does it: “I’ve to tell you this with him there?” to which Maggie replies “Will and me’s one” meaning that Hobson either talks to both of them together or not at all.
After Hobson leaves Albert suggests that he, Freddie, Vickey and Alice all leave too and once again Will gets nervous and says “No. No, I wouldn’t dream of asking you to go” which basically translates to the audience as “No! Don’t leave me with her all on my own!”
Once the rest have finally left, Will sets to continue Maggie’s educating him. Maggie picks a flower from the wedding bouquet and is sentimental: “I thought I’d press it in my bible for a keepsake”, meaning that she counts this as a special day that she would like to remember in the future.
When Maggie leaves to go to the bedroom, Will is hesitant to follow her. He goes back and forth, stretching out the time it takes to change clothes. This makes it obvious that Will is still shy and quite frightened of Maggie, though not as much as before, he still doesn’t actually go up until Maggie pulls him by the ear.
The final act, Act Four is set again in Hobson’s living room. He is ill because of his excessive drinking habits and needs one of his daughters to stay with him to help him fight the temptations of alcohol. Maggie, Vickey and Alice are all fetched from their new homes. Each are married, it is one year on.
Alice and Vickey refuse to come but suggest it should be Maggie, since she’s the eldest. Maggie says it’s up to Will, her husband but Alice and Vickey think she’s being silly, letting him be the boss. Maggie just says, “Maybe Will’s come on since you saw him” at which point Will arrives at the shop.
There is definitely a change in Will, and Maggie is not the only one to notice it, Alice does too: “That’s never Willie Mossop.” As Will enters the room he is “prosperous and self-confident” which he would never have been before marrying Maggie.
Will talks like he knows what he’s talking about in this scene, he now has plenty of experience in the trade. “You try to sell it and you’d learn. Stock and goodwill ‘ud fetch about two hundred… I’ll do the arranging, Alice. If we come here, we come on my terms.”
Now, instead of being the one taking orders, Will is now the boss, rather than Maggie. There is confrontation between Maggie and Will when arguing over the name of the shop, but he sticks to what he wants: “Mossop and Hobson or it’s Oldfield Road for us, Maggie” and she eventually agrees.
After Hobson leaves Will discusses this new confidence that’s come over him: “You told me to be strong and use the power that’s come to me through you” Maggie knows that she is the one responsible for this ‘new Will’: “You’re the man I’ve made you and I’m proud”.
