Analyse the events of act one and discuss how the playwright, Harold Brighouse prepares the audience for the transformation of Will Mossop's character as seen in act four of Hobson's Choice.

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Claira Reynolds 10H                                 21st December 2001

Analyse the events of act one and discuss how the playwright, Harold Brighouse prepares the audience for the transformation of Will Mossop’s character as seen in act four.

        Hobson’s Choice was set in the Victorian time of 1880. It was written in 1915 and is a Lancashire comedy that also refers to class. When Maggie marries Will, it is seen as a disgrace because Maggie is marrying someone of a lower class.

        Hobson’s choice shows the rise of Will Mossop (a boothand) who is a nervous, unconfident man and how he changes when he marries Maggie, the daughter of Hobson. Maggie is the complete opposite of Will and she transforms him. It shows Hobson and others around them disagreeing with the wedding.

In this essay, I am going to analyse the transformation of Will Mossop from act1 to act4 and say how he has changed.

        We first see Will Mossop when Mrs Hepworth, an important customer of Hobson’s enquires about who made the boots that she has.

        “…Who made these boots?”

 Mrs Hepworth seeks the assistance of Maggie to find out who made the boots, after getting nowhere with Hobson. This puts Hobson out and he still tries to interfere and show his importance. He assures Mrs Hepworth that he will make the man that made them suffer if there is anything wrong with them.

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“…if there is anything wrong I assure you I’m capable of making the man suffer…”

Will appears from the trap door. He is lanky man who is not stupid, but has been stunted mentally. His clothes are poor and shabby but he has qualities and charm in him.

When Mrs Hepworth speaks to him he is nervous and when she goes to give him her card he ducks expecting a blow of her.

        In the film version when we first see Will Mossop he looks similar to how he is described in the book. He looks weak and nervous and ...

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