“You’re a natural born genius at making boots.”
This makes Will feel a little bit better around Maggie as he now knows that she has confidence in him. This is an important factor to help him grow as a person. Maggie then proceeds to question Willie about his future plans. She asks him when he plans to Leave Hobson’s, he replays,
“Nay, not me. I’ve been at Hobson’s all my life and I’m not leaving till I’m made.”
Maggie tries to make will say that he would like to work somewhere else, where he would be on larger wages and he would be making more extravagant shoes. Will does not want any of this. He is happy where he is and he lacks the ambition and confidence that he requires to start somewhere new.
“Nay, I’d be feared to go in them fine places.”
This line is quiet important, as by the end of the play Will is no longer scared but is quiet capable of starting a new business or take over somebody else’s.
Maggie and Willie start to get on quiet well together. They start to talk about how good each of them is at their trade. Willie tries to get away from the conversation by heading back towards his stool, but Maggie will not allow him to go back just yet. She says to him,
“Everything that I’ve seen, I’ve liked. I think that you’ll do for me.”
This makes will feel uneasy around Maggie, as he is not sure if he has heard her right. He tries to check,
“What way, Miss Maggie?”
Once Maggie tells him that he is the man for her, Will starts to feel nervous and starts to stutter slightly. He feels intimidated by Maggie, as she is his boss’s daughter.
“I’ll-I’ll sit down. I’m feeling queer-like. What dost want me for?”
Maggie tells Willie her plans to start a business. Will acts relieved for a brief time.
“Partnership! Oh that’s a different thing. I thought you were axing me to wed you.”
Maggie then proceeds in telling him that she does. This comes as a shock to Willie and yet again, he feels extremely tense and awkward around Maggie. He has never really spoken to her that much and there is definitely no love between them, yet Maggie has just asked him to marry her.
“I’m bound to tell you that I’m none in love with you.”
Love doesn’t matter to Maggie; we found this out earlier in the play while she was talking to her sisters. Maggie is not sentimental and very un-romantic.
“See that slipper with a fancy buckle on it to make it pretty? Courting’s like that, my lass. All glitter and no uses to nobody.”
This shows just how much sentiment and romance, Maggie is lacking. She doesn’t care if Will doesn’t love her; she is just determined to get a man. Will is still scared about what Hobson will say when he finds out. He fears for his safety and his job. At this point, Maggie demands that she has Will.
“You’re going to wed me, Will.”
At this point, Will is feeling very awkward and he finds it hard to talk to Maggie. He tries to tell her that he is already with somebody else. Somebody called Ada Figgins.
Maggie cannot stand the fact that she is being rejected by a person who works in her shop. She tries to use reverse psychology on Willie by telling him that if he stays with Ada, then he will be a slave for the rest of his life. Maggie then proceeds to tell Will that she can sort Ada out for him.
Soon after, Ada enters the shop, carrying Willie’s lunch. Then Maggie asks her if she can have a word. Will tries to get in first to tell Ada what is happening, but Maggie soon silences him and continues to tell Ada her side of the story.
Maggie and Ada start debating over Will and soon Maggie has won and Ada storms out. Will is mortified by the way in which Ada has just walked out on him and given up so easily.
Willie then tells Maggie that he would rather stay with Ada, as he is afraid of Ada’s mother. Again, this shows just how much Willie is lacking in self-confidence as he finds it hard to stand up to people.
Once Maggie tells him that he never has to go back to Ada’s, he seems really happy.
”It’s like an ‘appy dream. Eh, Maggie, you do manage things.”
Maggie tries to get Will to kiss her, but Will doesn’t want to as he is still not sure what he is going to do, so instead, he goes straight back to his work. This shows that even though Willie is happy about not having to stay with Ada and face her mother, he doesn’t know what to do, as he is scared about many things that would be involved within the change.
Throughout this scene, we have seen discovered a lot about Willie’s character. We have learnt how afraid he is. He has no ambitions and no confidence. These are vital thing s that any human needs to help them survive and become successful.
Alice and Vickey enter the shop and Maggie tells them her plans to marry William Mossop. Her sisters can’t stand the idea and think that it is ridiculous. They have no respect for Will and they don’t want him to become part of their family as he embarrasses them.
“What you do touches us, and your mistaken if you think that I’ll own Willie Mossop for my brother-in-law.”
As soon as Hobson arrives home, Vickey tells him about Willie. He also has no respect for Willie and he cannot stand the fact that it might ruin his reputation if his daughter marries a boot-hand.
“I’d be the laughing-stock of the place if I allowed it. I won’t have it, Maggie. It’s hardly decent at your time of life.”
Hobson is really against the whole plan and so he tries very unsuccessfully to try and talk Maggie out of it. Maggie then tells Hobson to pay her future husband and her a normal wage and she threaten him with the fact that, if one of them goes, they both go.
Hobson still underestimates Willies value and so he accuses him of being “cheap.”
Assuming that it was Willies idea for him and Maggie to wed, he calls him up to the shop. Hobson’s gets his belt out ready to beat him. Willie tries to put thing s right, he says,
“I’m none wanting thy Maggie, it’s her that’s after me, but I’ll tell you this, Mr Hobson; if you touch me with that belt, I’ll take to her quick, aye, and stick to her like glue.”
From this speech, you can see how much self-confidence Will has gained from being with Maggie for such a small amount of time. Hobson then hits Will with his belt, and out of temper, Will kisses Maggie. This really impresses Maggie.
“Willie! I knew you had it in you, lad.”
This shows that Maggie has had a lot of faith in Will all along. My the end of scene one, we have already seen the impact of which Maggie has had on Will in a short time, even Hobson is amazed at the sudden change.
A month later, Maggie and Will own their own boot shop. Mrs Hepworth, who had influenced Will and Maggie at the start, had loaned them some money to get started. Their shop is doing really good and they are turning over a good profit and working on paying the money back. However, Hobson’s is slowly going out of business. Maggie and Will go to visit Hobson’s shop. Vickey blames Maggie and Will for their drop in business.
“That’s your fault. Yours and his.”
Maggie’s sisters have still not gained any respect for Will and they blame Maggie and him for taking all of their customers. Maggie then proceeds to tell her sisters that she has a plan. After Hobson had forbidden them to marry their boyfriends, Maggie had found a way to let them. The sisters still blame Will, but he tries to stand up for him self. In defence he says,
“It wasn’t my fault, Miss Vickey, really it wasn’t.”
Maggie tells Will that he is to call her sisters by their first names, as he is part of the family. Maggie is trying to get her sisters to respect Will in the same way that she does. Vickey and Alice are still not to happy with this arrangement and they still call Will their “old boot hand.” Maggie stands up for Willie and in his defence, she starts to list his accomplishments, saying that he is now the proud owner of his very own, successful shop whereas they are just assistants. Willie is very modest and so he doesn’t like to boast about his business.
“I’ve got my name wrote up on the windows, but I dunno so much about being a master.”
To try to gain their respect, Maggie makes both of her sisters kiss Willie. He would prefer it if they didn’t make a fuss over him. Maggie tells her sisters that they are to come to the wedding that evening and then in the disgust of her two sisters, she buys an old brass ring for her wedding ring.
Just before they leave for church, Willie tells Maggie that he will answer truthfully to the priest as Maggie is growing on him.
By the end of Act Two, Willie has gained the respect of Maggie’s sisters due to his relationship with Maggie. His relationship is also starting to become stronger with Maggie.
In Act Three, Willie and Maggie have just been married and they are sitting in their cellar with Alice, Albert, Vickey and Freddie (their boyfriends.) Willie is so nervous, that he gets up to say his speech, which he has practised earlier, but he rushes it. About half way through, Maggie has to remind him of his line. This really embarrasses Will, but he tries to act like he doesn’t care. Maggie then asks Willie to clear up the pots and pans, Freddie and Albert laugh at him, and so Maggie makes them help him.
Willie still feels intimidated by Maggie and so he fells afraid to be alone with her. WE find this out while he is talking to Freddie and Albert.
“It’s not being alone with her that worries me, and I did think that you’d stand by a fellow man to make things not so strange at first.”
Maggie then proceeds to tell them that they can leave the washing up. Then Hobson knocks at the door. Maggie asks Willies permission for her farther to enter the building.
When Hobson comes in, Willie is polite to him. Hobson tells Maggie that he is in trouble, he then informs her of the situation that he is in. Maggie already knows what has happened and so she tells him that she has come to an agreement with Freddie and Albert. The agreement is that Hobson will let his daughters marry and give them £500 and in return, they shall drop the lawsuit for Hobson trespassing on Freddie’s business. Throughout the conversation, Maggie included Willie; this makes him feel more like one of the family. Once they have come to a settlement, they all leave.
Since Maggie got together with Willie, she has been educating him, using some basic words on a slate. Maggie gives him some words to practice and then heads off to bed. She tells him to follow her when he is done,
“I’m of for my bed. You finish that copy before you come.”
Once Willie has finished, he is afraid to go into Maggie’s room and after a lot of hesitation, he decides to sleep on the couch. Maggie comes out; grabs Will by the ear and drags him in to her bedroom.
It is in Act Four where we see the most dramatic change in Willie. Hobson has become ill and so Tubby sends for a doctor and also for Maggie. This is because the doctor has said that Maggie is the best cure for Hobson.
When Maggie arrives, Hobson asks her if she is coming to stay. Maggie tells Hobson that she will have to consult her husband first. When Willie arrives, nobody can believe the change in which he has gone through. Willie has become really confident and tells Hobson that if they do come to stay, then it will be there own terms. Willie has completely changed, he is more confident and he stands up to Hobson, Vickey and Alice. Thanks to Maggie, he is no longer afraid of them.
“I’m none worried that bad I’ll see my business suffer for the sake of you.”
They all start talking business with each other and Hobson tells Willie that he can have his old job back as a boot-hand. Willie isn’t too pleased with this comment, as there is no point in becoming a boot-hand again while he has his own business.
“Me that’s the owner of a business that is starving yours to death.”
Hobson cannot believe that this is the same person that is talking to him as used to be an old boot-hand.
“But-but-you’re Will Mossop, you’re my old shoe hand.”
Will lays out his terms of business. He tells Hobson that he will transfer all of his old business to Hobson’s shop and go into joint partnership with him as long as Hobson is a silent partner. Willie also makes another request,
“William Mossop, late Hobson, is the name this shop u’ll have.”
At this point, Maggie joins into the argument. She doesn’t agree with Willie, she feels that he is being too harsh on Hobson. They decided on the name “Mossop and Hobson,” after Will demanded it or they would go home.
Once a settlement had been made, Hobson leave the room. At this point, Will asks Maggie if she thought that he was to hard on Hobson. He cannot believe himself what he has achieved and how well he stood up to Hobson.
Will tries to replace Maggie’s old wedding ring with a proper gold one, but Maggie refuses.
“I’ll wear your gold for show, but the brass stays where you put it, Will, and if we get to rich and proud we’ll just sit down together quiet and take a long look at it, so as we’ll not forget the truth about ourselves.”
Now at the end of the play, we have seen how much of an influence Maggie has had on Willie. She has changed him from a timid, shy lad, to a fully-grown, confident man. She has helped him go from a normal boot-hand to a successful businessman in less than a year. She has gained him loads of respect from all of the people that he knows. She no longer needs to defend him or back him up as he is no capable of doing this for himself. She is also teaching him literacy skills so that he can read and write himself.
Through all of this, their relationship has become stronger and Willie no longer feels intimidated by Maggie. I think that through this story, Willie has changed physically, mentally and emotionally. At the end of the play, Maggie is really please as she has accomplished what she originally set out to do and not only has she gained respect for Willie, but she to has also gained her fathers respect.
