“Listen to me, you three, I’ve come to conclusions about you. About I won’t have it. Do you hear that? Interfering with my goings out and comings in. the idea!”
This shows his dominant streak which doesn’t quite work though. He is quite an old fashioned man, who may sound like people today who are in one generation above me.
Maggie Hobson also a dominant member of the play, to ‘her’ principles and must have her way. Maggie is much more than the efficient organizer of the fortunes of Mossop and Hobson. When she makes her bargain with Will Mossop,
“I want your hand in mine and your word that you’ll go through life with me for the best we can get out of it.”
This brings over the awareness of Maggie being very hard, not so typically Victorian. She has signs of having emotional warmth although she hardly shows it. For example when she takes one of Mrs Heptworth’s flowers to press in her bible as a keepsake, we have a foretaste of her words at the end of the play about the ring, in which genial wisdom transcends mere common sense.
Through out the play we see the similarities of Maggie and Hobson who like daughter like father are both very self-opinionated which not a very usual thing for a female was in the Victorian period. Although she is quite independent and bossy;
“Come up, and put the trap down; I want to talk to you.”
This shows Maggie ordering William around, a very unrealistic thing for a woman to do in the Victorian era.
Maggie is 30 years old, considered to be ‘on the shelf’ by her father, Hobson. Later does he realise he is proven quite wrong. Maggie’s relationship with Hobson is different from Vickey and Alice because in that day and age, women weren’t allowed to be the head of the house, have a say in anything. Maggie isn’t like that; she’s independent and doesn’t take orders from anyone.
Vickey and Alice are both very similar in their characters. Both daughters of Hobson are very pretty. Vickey the younger of the two is aged 21 tries getting her way quite indirectly;
“Hobson: “There’s been a gradual increase in uppishness towards me.”
Vickey: “Father, you’d have more time to talk after we’ve closed tonight. (She is anxious to resume to her reading)”
Vickey doesn’t give him the reply he expects she puts him off, saying they’ll talk about it later. The stage directions also show us she’s ignoring the serious pants (uppishness increases) he thinks she is making.
Alice aged 23 is quite a typical Victorian woman like her younger sister Vickey. Both being very different from Maggie, as they continue to show their feminine qualities. They do not try to take over men’s roles, although they do marry Albert and Freddie for class as well as love.
William Mossop ‘was’ a shy and bullied by Hobson at the beginning of the play, he was a lonely shoemaker who worked in a cellar. He as a male works his way up the class system in this play.
At the beginning he is described as ‘not naturally stupid, nut stunted mentally’. As he pops out of the trap door in which he is seen as a figure of fun. Through out the first half of the play he is a well-meaning, but slow-witted underling. We see him grow from this abject creature to become the ‘strongest man’ in the play, showing the way he works his way up the Victorian class system. Yet at his most masterful he never ceases to be likeable. As he shows out his routed sister-in-law who once patronized him;
“Nay, come, there’s no ill will.”
When he has his final victory over Hobson he says;
“He’s crushed-like Maggie, I’m afraid I bore in him too hard.”
Mrs Heptworth classed as landed gentry, in a respected ‘woman’ in this play. Mrs Heptworth is the only real customer seen in the play yet function is to bring about out introduction to Willie and later, to finance Willie and Maggie’s business. This relevance state the fact of Mrs Heptworth also not being one of the typical Victorian women as she is looked up to by men.
Jim Heeler is Hobson’s bosom friend and confidant. He discusses ‘settlements’ with Hobson and tries to express his opinion, Hobson doesn’t criticise him as he would criticise his daughter due to sex and generation.
Timothy Wadlow, (Tubby) is used later to show the deterioration in Hobson’s business. At his working class level, he is one of the lowest class members of the caste even though he is ‘male’.
Albert Prosser and Fred Beenstock are Alice and Vickey’s suitors and, through careful plotting, are also a lawyer and trade respectively working on the professional side, each of whom have a part to play in Maggie’s plotting against her father.
Brighhouse uses his characters to show the portrayal of male and female characters in the play, by showing an amusing comedy of women dominating men, which seemed quite barbaric in Victorian times. I don’t think this play would be successful as it was then, due to the fact of it being general life, seeming to be nothing new for us. As we have ‘equal rights’ and the generation today has more freedom.
I do believe that the play would have been successful overall, as I think people would be interested and amused by people’s opinions in the Victorian era. As it contains a fair amount of stereo types, conflict and comedy,
