As soon as the story starts we get the impression that Maggie is very eager to help her dad out by selling firstly some boot laces and then some actual boots to Albert Prosser, Hobson’s other two daughters Alice and Vickey don’t care whether he buys these items or not.
The boots that Albert buys are very well made by a man called Will Mossop; he is a very shy, timid lanky man who works in Hobson’s cellar making the boots. At the start of the story Mrs Hepworth enters the shop in order to find out who made the boots that she is wearing, Will comes out of the trap and she congratulates him on them because they are very good, this tells us that he is a very hard working man who doesn’t get treated fairly by Hobson.
Hobson has forbidden his three daughters from ever getting married which they all find very unfair, first of all Maggie finds that she likes Will and marries will, they both move out of Hobson’s shop and they get their own, Hobson’s business falls to pieces with just lazy Vickey and Alice to help him out.
Maggie’s life gets much better because she marries will and they buy their own shop by borrowing some money of a kind Mrs Hepworth, Will buys Maggie a brass ring for he cant afford a proper ring.
Wills life also improve as he is learning to read and write, he wants to be able to buy Maggie a nice ring to replace the brass one he got her, but in order to do this he will have to sell lots of pairs of boots.
Will and Maggie’s marriage is more like a deal at first, Maggie wants will to make the boots and in return she will teach him to read and write.
At the end of the story Hobson becomes ill through too much alcohol, his daughters realise that if Hobson dies then they will get a share in his business meaning lots of money so they pretend that they care about him by comforting him and trying to make it look as if they actually care about him.
Hobson becomes very disobedient to his doctors orders, he is also defiant by declaring that there is nothing wrong with him when he is clearly very ill.
At this time Maggie doesn’t care about getting a share in her fathers business because she is very happy with her own she has become very success full and she would never think about helping her own father for his money.
As time passes by Maggie and will become more affectionate towards each other and start developing a proper relationship, at the start of their marriage there was no sense of real love but now there definitely is. Will realises that both him and Maggie should invest in Hobson’s shop and that is exactly what they do.
I think that one of the many very comical scenes was when Ada Figgins enters the shop and has an argument with Maggie over will mossop.
At the time Will is living with Ada and her mother but Maggie now wants will to marry her, in this scene it shows how powerful Maggie is and she always gets her way, when Will tries to say something Maggie cuts him out because at the time he would rather go with Ada because he is scared of her mum.
Ada makes quite a fool of herself because she turns to will for help but he has already made his decision to say with Maggie.
Another scene which shows comedy is when Hobson falls down the passage near to the solicitors office, the thing that makes this scene very funny is that Hobson is meant to be a professional, rich, respectful man, but he gets drunk and falls down the ditch to his despair. Hobson is now placed in a dilemma because he said that his daughters will not be married but if he refuses this then the solicitor will sue Hobson for a lot of money.
I think that Harold Brighouse includes this in the story to show that Hobson is starting to go downhill.
Harold Brighouse adds many comical scenes in order to keep the audience amused, fascinated, entertained and happy. The audience will want to carry on reading to find out what happens next in the story.
He uses the characters such as Henry Hobson to deploy the comedy because Hobson is the main character and the attention will all be diverted his way, a lot of the comedy is over-exaggerated this is to make sure that we are seeing all the comedy that is included in the book.
The writer also includes language which will make the audience laugh, he uses it at the correct time in the play in order to get the full potential out of each comical scene, and one of the more frequent uses of comical language is “By Gum” both Hobson and Will say this regularly because it adds to the comedy.
We learn a lot from this story we can see how people’s views on life have changed drastically, and peoples attitudes towards each other has also changed.
Also shoe shops don’t often produce their shoes in the shop they are more likely to be ordered in and then sold on, but in the book their shoes are made down in the cellar.
You can also tell the time period in which this book was written because Maggie sold Albert Prosser some boots for a pound, nowadays they would be sold for thirty times that much!
Also when Maggie tells her two sisters that she is going to marry will Mossop they are bewildered because they think that Maggie is far too good for a boot maker because in them days it would be rare that someone of Maggie’s calibre would marry someone like Will Mossop.
Also when Hobson tells his three daughters that they cannot marry we can tell the era in which this book was written by this because once your over the legal marrying age then your free to marry who you wish and all three girls were, but still they were forbidden to do so.
On a whole this book was very enjoyable to read, it was funny but serious at the same time, my favourite part of the book was when Maggie put Ada straight about Will, this was my favourite because it shown us how mentally strong Maggie was and it shows how much she wanted to be with Will, but it was also funny at the same time.
As soon as you pick this book up you can immediately tell that it is going to be a comedy because on the front cover there is a picture of Hobson smiling with his hat on, with an old fashioned lantern in the background.
By Kyle Watson
