We can also see Hobson’s character that he suffers from a chauvinistic arrogance. This prejudiced belief is linked with his male status, and we see from various excerpts that he believes himself to be superior to women. For example “I’ll run that shop with men”, - Hobson’s reaction is, in the first place, interestingly chauvinistic in that he decides men will now run the shop. A second example that demonstrates this is from an excerpt on page 12:
HOBSON: I am. They scorn my wisdom, Jim. They answer back. I’m landed in a hole – a great and undignified hole. My own daughters have got the upper hand of me.
JIM: Women are worse than men for getting above themselves.
HOBSON: A woman’s foolishness begins where man’s leaves off.
This proves that even Jim opines that women should be controlled and that men are superior. If they both seem to believe that men are more superior, then the likelihood must be that this was a popular belief at that time. This contemporary attitude towards women can be seen at the beginning of Act 2 when Brighouse displays a more progressive feminist attitude:
ALICE: I’m not snappy in myself. (Sitting at desk.) It’s these figures. I can’t get them right. What’s 17 and 25?
VICKEY: (Promptly) Fifty-two of course.
ALICE: Well, it doesn’t balance right. Oh, I wish I was married and out of it.
VICKEY: Same here.
This excerpt is trying to show that women are inferior and the stereotype view of feminine mental capabilities that they have difficulty with sums. He is doing this by showing that Alice is unable to perform a simple addition and when she asks her sister for assistance Vickey promptly gave her the wrong answer.
Another distinctive feature we find repeated itself in the play is that ‘The man in the house wore the trousers’, i.e. we can see a paternalistic attitude shown by the father towards his daughters. This is evident from the way he orders his daughters about and acts as a marriage broker in choosing for them husbands. He even considers it a common practice to physically beat his daughters and expect them to do the chores, which is evidently the stereotype of that age.
HOBSON (PAGE 7): I’ll choose a pair of husbands for you my girls. That’s what I’ll do.
We can visualise Hobson as a very unsympathetic character; a bully; he is thoughtless; mean and cruel. There is ample evidence to show Hobson as a bully most notably when he believes he can solve all social problems simply by attempting to beat Willie with his belt. We can also see he suffers from a parsimonious nature, when he refuses to pay his daughters any wages. “Wages? Do you think I pay wages to my own daughters? I’m, not a fool.”
Evidence for his parsimonious nature is where he immediately withdraws the idea about marrying off his two younger daughters when he hears about settlements and dowry payments.
HOBSON (PAGE 14): From the moment that you breathed the word ‘settlements’ it was dead off, Jim. Let’s go to the ‘Moonraker’s’ and forget there’s such a thing as women in the world.
The family relationships seems to be very typical of that period, in that Hobson expects to be in charge and expects his daughters to look after him, and work for him without any wages. The way this family relationship begins to break down, is the perfectly natural way that as the daughters grow up, they want to find independence and their own ‘Life Partners’. In different time periods and cultures some would say that a child has a lifelong obligation to the parent, and that is inarguably the way he feels about it, although the daughters may feel differently. There is ample evidence to prove the breakdown of this family relationship, and we even see this at the beginning of the play:
ALICE (Page 1): Oh, it’s you. I hoped it was father going out.
MAGGIE: It isn’t.
There is also evidence that the daughters dislike their father and he doesn’t like them to keep up with the fashion. He prefers them to dress more modestly and more conservatively:
HOBSON (Page 7): You’ve overstepped nice dressing and you’ve tried nice dressing – which is the occupation of fools and such as have no brains.
VICKEY: Do you want us to dress like mill girls (people in mill who produce cloth)?
HOBSON: No. Nor like French madams, neither. It’s UN-English, I say.
ALICE: We shall continue to dress fashionably, father.
We see Hobson rebuking them yet again for their fashionable and immodest behaviour:
HOBSON (Page 6): The hump was wagging, and you put your feet on pavement as if you’d got chilblains – aye, stiff neck above and weak knees below. It’s immodest.
ALICE: It is not immodest father. It’s the fashion to wear bustles.
HOBSON: Then to hell with fashion.
Hobson strongly believes in social classes and regards the lower classes as inferior. This attitude is reflected by his two daughters, Alice and Vickey, when they look down on their sister Maggie for taking accommodation in a cellar in Oakfield Road and for furnishing the cellar with second hand furniture. Hobson is obsequious to the upper – class particularly when it comes to the extracting money from the prosperous and respectable Mrs Hepworth:
HOBSON (Page 8): Good morning, Mrs Hepworth. What a lovely day! (He places chair for her.)
MRS HEPWORTH: Morning, Hobson. I’ve come about these boots you sent me home.
HOBSON: (kneeling and fondling her foot): Yes Mrs Hepworth. They look very nice.
MRS HEPWORTH: Get up Hobson. (He scrambles up, controlling his feelings.) You look ridiculous on the floor. Who made these boots?
It is evident from this excerpt that Hobson dislikes the upper class, and considers them conceited. However, he is servile to them for money and exploits her presence to show off about the shop:
JIM (Page 10): That’s a bit of a startler.
HOBSON: Eh? Oh, morning, Jim.
JIM: You’re doing a good class trade if the carriage folk come to you Hobson.
Maggie, on the other hand, is the exact opposite to her father and we can see her strong views concerning the elitists of the upper – class:
ALICE (Page 21): You’re going to marry Willie Mossop! Willie Mossop!
VICKEY: You’ve kept it quiet, Maggie.
MAGGIE: You know about it pretty near as soon as Willie does himself.
VICKEY: Well I don’t now!
ALICE: I know, and if you’re afraid to speak your thoughts, I’m not. Look here Maggie, what you do touches us, and you’re mistaken if you think I’ll own Willie Mossop for my brother-in-law.
MAGGIE: Is there supposed to be some disgrace in him?
ALICE: You ask father if there’s disgrace. And look at me.
MAGGIE: You’ll marry Albert Prosser when he’s able, and that’ll be when he starts spending less on laundry bills and hair cream.
Maggie has clearly displayed her views on the stupidity of spending large amounts of money on laundry bills and hair cream. The lower classes in those days were more accustomed to spend less on these unnecessary luxuries. Maggie backs up her views when to the disgust of her family, she decides to marry Willie, a poor lower-class worker.
The social milieu in those days were very different; they were formal in addressing – when Albert Prosser comes to visit Alice he refers to her as ‘Miss Alice’ who replies back ‘Mr. Prosser’. Another point worth noticing on this is that we see with Mrs Hepworth that because she is of a high class, she refers to a lower class without a Mr or Mrs.
MRS HEPWORTH (Page 8): Morning, Hobson. I’ve come about these boots you sent home.
We also see the other way round that when talking to a higher class they are referred to with proper respect.
HOBSON (Page 10): Good morning Mrs Hepworth. Very glad to have the honour of serving you, madam.
Alice and Vickey are social climbers, in that they want to be regarded as upper class in the eyes of others. The fact that they want to marry into an upper – middle class proves this, and especially when their own father pleads with them to look after him, they both refuse (Page 73).
Another noticeable point, is the way that Maggie who was born into the middle – class society could have married into a wealthy family like her sisters did, but decides to marry Willie Mossop, a poor and uneducated boot maker. This was a revolutionary concept for those ages for those in the middle class to marry down into a lower class. The social attitude was to marry into your own class or higher.
Initially perhaps the marriage between Maggie and Willie seems the most unlikely to succeed. It seems it is a marriage not based on love, but for ulterior motives and plain convenience. Willie is the bootmaker and Maggie is the bootseller. However, towards the end of the play we can have no doubt that the marriage will succeed when they look at each other and say:
MAGGIE: Eh Lad!
WILLIE: Eh lass!
An interesting theme that is relevant to social and cultural issues is the industry (hard work) in the 19th century, and we see a great deal of evidence of the virtue of industry from this play.
We see very obvious examples of the way that Willie and Maggie consider hard work the norm, and the way that Maggie works incredibly hard in the shop. Her business – like attitude and strong personality is also evident when she forces Albert to purchase a pair of boots:
MAGGIE (Page 3): Do you get through a pair a day? You must be strong.
ALBERT: I keep a little stock of them. It’s as well to be prepared for accidents.
MAGGIE: And now you’ll have boots to go with the laces, Mr Prosser. How does that feel?
ALBERT: Very comfortable.
MAGGIE: Try it standing up.
ALBERT: Yes that fits all right.
MAGGIE: I’ll put the other on.
ALBERT: Oh no, I really don’t want to buy them.
MAGGIE: (pushing him) Sit down, Mr Prosser. You can’t go through the streets in odd boots.
ALBERT: What’s the price of these?
MAGGIE: A pound.
ALBERT: A pound! I say –
We can see from this that she is mercenary minded, and it is because of this attitude that she becomes so successful. Luck does not play a large part in their continuing rise but hard work does. We may see Hobson’s character in decline, but his initial hard work must have built up his business.
Hobson exploits his daughters and he considers Maggie as a utilitarian.
HOBSON (Page 13): Vickey and Alice are mostly window dressing in shop. But Maggie’s too useful to part with. And she’s a bit on the ripe side for marrying is our Maggie.
He also mentions his wife and likewise considers wives only as a function.
HOBSON: They’re the trouble. Do your daughters worry you, Jim?
JIM: Nay, they mostly do as I bid them, and the missus does the leathering if I don’t.
HOBSON: Ah, Jim, a wife’s a handy thing, and you don’t know it proper till she’s taken from you. I felt grateful for the quiet when my Mary fell on rest, but I can see my mistake now. I used to think I was hard put to it to fend her off when she wanted summat out of me, but the dominion of one woman is paradise to the dominion of three.
And then finally, in Act 4 when the doctor comes to examine Hobson he says:
DOCTOR: …Have you a wife, Mr Hobson? (Hobson: Points upward.) In bed?
HOBSON: Higher than that.
DOCTOR: It’s a pity. A man like you should keep a wife handy.
HOBSON: I’m not so partial to women.
DOCTOR: Women are a necessity, sir. Have ye no female relative that can manage ye?
And then we hear the doctor tell Hobson about the usefulness of women:
DOCTOR: …If she’s a sensible body I concur with your opinion she’ll no come back, but women are a soft hearted race and she’ll maybe take pity on ye after all.
So we see that females were thought of as useful assets to the male race as they were able to care for them and look after them. And they would be willing to do so because they are a ‘soft hearted race’.
Hobson’s chronic alcoholism – Hobson is intemperate and almost dies because of his drinking. It seems that Hobson considers it a ritual to visit the pub and drink. The pub is also for relieving himself from women and placating himself and drinks to get rid of his troubles. His nature is very stubborn and when the doctor rebukes him, he won’t admit it and he refuses to give up. Contrary to this, Hobson expects his daughters not to drink and to marry temperance men – perhaps he does realise to an extent that drinking is bad.
HOBSON: I’d like my daughters to marry temperance young men, Jim.
This is ironic because he indulges in alcohol but wants temperance folk for his daughters.
He tries to constantly hide the fact that he drinks at the Moonraker’s and pretends to go to Masons’ meetings.
HOBSON (Page 4): Maggie, I’m just going out for a quarter of an hour.
MAGGIE: Yes, father. Don’t be late for dinner. There’s liver.
HOBSON: It’s an hour off dinnertime.
MAGGIE: So that, if you stay more than an hour in the Moonraker’s Inn, you’ll be late for it.
HOBSON: ‘Moonraker’s’? Who said -? (Turning)
VICKEY: If your dinner’s ruined, it’ll be your own fault.
HOBSON: Well, I’ll be eternally –
ALICE: Don’t swear, father.
HOBSON: …Listen to me you three. I’ve come to conclusions about you. And I won’t have it. Do you hear that? Interfering with my goings out and comings in. The idea! I’ve a mind to take measures with the lot of you.
MAGGIE: I expect Mr. Heeler’s waiting for you in Moonraker’s father.
An interesting point that is relevant to social issues is the custom of dowries and religious marriages that took place at that time. We see that it was the father’s duty to pay for the dowry and settlements. This duty can be proven from an excerpt that I brought on Page 4 – HOBSON (Page 14): “From the moment that you breathed the word ‘settlements’ it was dead off, Jim.”
Regarding the religious marriages, we see that Maggie and Willie have a religious marriage at church and not a civil one. This is certainly unlike modern trends of having a civil marriage outside church. Also, in the Victorian times people got married and not just partners, as we see with Maggie and Willie.
* * * * * *
Conclusion: It is apparent that Brighouse has incorporated many themes into this play. As I mentioned before, this play is not merely a comedy, but a treasure house of historical and social issues that reflects life in the Victorian period in which it was written.
THE END