Later on in the text, where Maggie has left to marry Will, the sisters show a severe lack of strength when it comes to running the business. Without Maggie, the business is a shambles. Alice or Vickey can’t make decisions, take initiative or give commands even though they watched Maggie for years running the business. When Tubby is implying that the shop is a mess and he doesn’t know what work to do, as none seems to be set for him anymore, Alice worriedly replies, “ Oh dear! What would Miss Maggie have told you to do?” Alice is still questioning what Maggie would have told Tubby to do if she were in the shop as she fails to make decisions for herself. Maggie was never indecisive during her time in the shop, which is another difference in the sister’s characters. Even when Alice has told Tubby to go and make some clogs, she still questions if she has made the right decision,
“ I wonder if I have done right?” Maggie was the driving force in the shop, and they just can’t manage without her. Furthermore, the sisters do not have the technical skills to keep their Father’s business running smoothly. The mathematical skills that are needed to keep the shops books looking correct are seen to be sadly lacking.
Here they think that marriage is the escape, which will take away all the responsibility of running a shop. How wrong Maggie would think they are. In Maggie’s mind getting away isn’t the option out, it is the way forward to better things.
Alice and Vickey not only lack the ability to calculate maths in order to keep the business running smoothly, they also lack the ability to see potential in people. By this I mean they cannot understand Maggie’s choosing of Will Mossop as a husband. They find it difficult and are unable to appreciate Maggie’s reasons behind her choice. They feel that by Maggie choosing to marry Will, the girls will be looked down upon for having a bootmaker as a brother in law, resulting in no one wanting to marry them. They feel she is compromising her dignity and standards and as a result of this damaging their ability to make good matches in marriage.
From the text, I have found that Maggie marrying Will particularly disturbs Alice and Vickey, as it means that for the time being she will be starting “low”. This just shows how Maggie is prepared to sacrifice things for her marriage whereas the sisters expect the best of everything straight away. They are utterly horrified that Maggie is prepared to get married using a brass ring.
They are also horrified that she has set up home with furniture from a
Flat Iron Market.
I think that the question “ Where’s your pride gone too Maggie?”
is one of the most important pieces of text in the play. Here I can see that there is a huge difference between the three sisters. I can see that the sisters would start everything the right way, as they are bothered more about what other people think. However, Maggie isn’t bothered in the slightest. She can see that her sisters have greatly failed to see why Maggie is doing this with a view to achieving as much as possible for herself and Will in the future. Maggie has great visions of long-term plans in the future and she doesn’t mind making sacrifices at the beginning of the relationship, as she knows great things can grow from very humble beginnings. The difference here between Maggie’s character and her sisters’ character is that Alice and Vickey are more interested in material and other peoples opinions whereas Maggie needn’t care for either.
Ambition is certainly what drives Maggie on to make the decisions that she makes. As a woman of thirty living in the nineteenth century, she finds herself in a much more difficult position than her sisters are when it comes to finding herself a husband.
However, she does not let her Father’s remarks of her being “shelved” stop her. Ironically, she not only finds herself a husband but one for each of her sisters by using her many talents to do this.
One of Maggie’s talents is her judge of character. She has such a good understanding of how her Fathers mind works that I would say she knows him better than he knows himself. On one occasion when Hobson leaves for the Moonraker’s, she informs him that dinner will be served at one o’clock promptly. Hobson objects, as he feels very much dictated to by the women of the house.
Hobson makes it clear he doesn’t like uppishness, which means the girls are having too much control. When Hobson has left Maggie informs her sisters that dinner will be at one thirty. This shows she has understood that although her Father will want his dinner, he will come in just that little bit later to prove his point and show that he is in control. By giving him that extra half-hour, Maggie is still winning, as she understands Hobson more than anyone.
Maggie also shows good sense of character in Will Mossop. In him she can clearly see the making of a successful businessman.
And although Will claims he has no had for a business, Maggie does. Maggie is very careful about her decisions as she first of all tries and tests them like when she tells Will she has been watching him for some time.
Once Maggie has made one of her decisions, she lets nothing and no one stand in her way. Anything or anyone who does pose an obstacle is crushed inn her path. An example of an obstacle that she knows will object to the proposal of her marrying Will is her Father.
Here Maggie’s character is so strong and forward. The sisters could never dream of being like that, they just wouldn’t dare.
She is totally confident that Willie will go along with her plan and resultantly goes to no great effort in persuading him. She simply tells him her plan that she has decided and simply expects him to go along with it.
Maggie certainly doesn’t employ any romance or flattery of any kind. She is quite the opposite. She tells Will that apart from making boots, “ You’re a natural born fool at all else.” On the subject of Ada Figgins, who Will is currently taken too, she tells Will that if she weds her, he’ll be an “eighteen shilling a week bootmaker all the days of your life.” By using realistic points, she convinces Will that he’ll be “slave, and a contended slave.”
Unlike her sisters, Maggie shows real initiative and is also very resourceful. An example of this is when Will is unable to go back to stay at Mrs Figgins because of the broken engagement to her daughter, Ada. Maggie again shows her talent of thinking quickly and provides the answer that Will can stay at Tubby Wadlow’s. Maggie never once doubts that Tubby won’t comply with her wishes and even if he did disagree, Maggie wouldn’t take any of his nonsense and would persuade him to agree.
Maggie is quite open about the fact that Will has been pushed into marrying her but she doesn’t seem to dwell on the matter. She moves swiftly onto talking about dinner, as Maggie doesn’t think of it as a big deal whereas the sisters and her Father think of it as huge. Once she has broken the news to al who need to be told, including the groom, she sticks by her conviction and has every faith in her decision. She is prepared to put everything it takes into making sure that things work out and she insists that Will gets the respect he deserves by getting her sisters to kiss him as a sign of him being accepted into the family. She also tells him to refer to them by their Christian names and not as misses to emphasise that he is their equal. Just because he makes boots for his living, Maggie doesn’t expect him to be looked down upon. Another example of Will being accepted into the family is Maggie making him call Hobson “Father” and her insisting nothing should be kept private from him.
She takes every opportunity to boost his image and also his self-confidence. She helps him with his learning, even after their wedding day. She knows and hopes that in twenty years time, Will and her will be greater than either of her brothers in law.
One might consider what she does to be unromantic, calculating and settling for second best. However, another way of looking at her ways is that is a realist. She knows that there is no “knight in shining armour waiting to sweep her off her feet” so instead when she sees her “best chance slipping from her” she does not “stay lazy” but does everything in her power to grab it no matter what. She doesn’t allow herself to be held back by the conventional notion that courting should come before marriage. She refers to it being like a decorative buckle on a shoe, being ornamental but of no real use. She means courting needn’t come first. There’s no rule.
In addition to getting everything she wants, she also has the satisfaction of proving the point to her Father that he cant do without her. He needs all the help he can get in the boot shop and also on a personal level. Basically, she is necessary to his survival, especially as he is drinking himself to his death at the end of the play. She knows how his mind works and is still very loyal to him as she compromises with Will to partly own the business with Hobson.
In conclusion, everything so far has confirmed that Maggie is an excellent businesswoman. Another thing that makes her so achievable is her cunning quick thinking and her ability to form a workable plan. She manages to get her Father to sign a piece of paper allowing Alice and Vickey to get married and to also provide them a sum of money.
Overall, the difference in the three girls’ characters is incredible. There’s Alice and Vickey who are much more interested in materials and worry too much about other people’s opinions. They are weak and are not prepared to stand up to their Father and they rely on people to get them through their lives and are easily dominated as they don’t share their opinions. But then there’s Maggie, the definite leader of the play. She is strong headed powerful ambitious and domineering in a good way. The main difference between the sisters is that Maggie always knew what she was aiming at in life unlike her two sisters. We saw her conjure up a plan over many weeks to get Will to marry her and she did everything in her power to make it a success. I think it is safe to say to say that she certainly did that.