‘This is a shop you know. We’re not here to let people go without buying’ Act one
It is very unlikely that Mr Prosser did not know that it was a shop rather Maggie is showing irony by reminding him that the shop is there to sell things not to be walked in and out. Also she shows that she has more control over the situation because she pushes Mr Albert back into a seat
‘(pushing him): Sit down, Mr Prosser. You can’t go through the streets in odd boots.’ Act one
Women did not push around men in Victorian times rather it was the other way round. Maggie’s characteristics show is that she more likely to get the job done and that she controls most things that happen at home and the business. She sets the dinner time and after a little protest from Mr Hobson she has the last say in the subject.
‘One o’clock dinner, father.’ ‘See here Maggie. I set the hours at this house. It is one o’clock dinner because I say it is, and not because you do’ Act one
He knows that he really is not in charge of the house hours; he just says it so that he does not lose face in his battle against Maggie Hobson.
Mr Hobson believes that his daughter Maggie is past the marrying age. It was presumed that if a woman exceeded or reached the age of 30 then she had passed the age of marriage. It was common that women got married at a really young age. Sometimes the young women would get married to men older than themselves.
‘But if you want the brutal truth, your past the marrying age’ Act one
At the age of 30 Maggie was well past the age of marriage in Victorian times. She decides to prove her father wrong by marrying the young and honest Willie Mossop the boot maker. At first he tries to protest against the marriage. Harold Brighouse portrays Will as a held back young man who is not very confident in talk. When Maggie tells him she wants to get married to him he says that he is ‘tokened to Ada Figgins’ she says that she can deal with her.
‘You are going to wed me, Will’ ‘nay, I’m not. Really I can’t do that, Maggie. I can see that I’m disturbing your arrangements’
The pause that Maggie makes it seem like that she is slightly hesitating in her speech and this may also show that she is thinking about what she says next. Maggie’s personality tells us that she is not usually a person who is held back rather she will firmly put her point across.
In my opinion the play ‘Hobson’s Choice’ shows that women are as good as men but because of the sexist views of men in the 19th century disabled them from accomplishing their dreams. However the start of the 20th century brought forward better news for men worldwide. The suffragettes helped women to get the right to vote and this was a gate that opened many new doors for women.