Maggie in Hobson's Choice by Harold Brighouse

Brighouse presents Maggie as a very determined, business woman in act 1, at the same time that Hobson deals out husbands for Alice and Vicky because he thinks Maggie is too old and she's a maid. Brighouse puts across a message of how women didn't get paid so they were thought to be lower class than men. This could be why Maggie is so determined to get married, this is why she forces Willie to marry her later on in the story.

For the audience they would be able to tell her determined attitude. Hobson has a very dominating approach to his three daughters. It is noticeable that he is only bothered about what time he needs to be back from moon rakers to have dinner. This is when Maggie gets tired of being old and a maid and sets out to marry Will Mossop, the boot maker.

Will Mossop is very shocked at the idea at first, but then slowly gets dragged in by Maggie and her persuasion.

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Then later on in the story this links because they get married and then set up a rival boot maker shop, in a cellar. At the time of the play, there was a division between classes, lower, middle and high. My thoughts of Maggie are she's a very determined, persuasive, successful business woman. For example, when Albert Prosser comes to see Alice, Maggie stands up and says "what can we do for you, Mr Prosser" and then she tells him that they do not like people who come in and not buy anything so she proceeds to ask him to buy boots, although he only wants boot laces, and then pushes him to sit down to try them on, this would have been surprising because men were dominant over woman but her she is being dominant over him and physically pushing.

This shows her persuasive sales techniques. Albert doesn't go against Maggie because the way he acts shows the audience that he is slightly scared of her. After he buys the boots she suggests that he gets his old boots mended. This is more of Maggie's technique to get more money into the shop.

When Hobson is dealing husbands to Alice and Vicky, he suggests that Maggie is "too ripe for marriage" this is when Mrs Hepworth enters the scene as Hobson is just about to leave to moon rakers. She insists to see the boot maker so Mr Hobson try's to sound good by saying it was him, in the end Will Mossop is the one. This is when Maggie gets an idea of who she wants to marry. Maggie try's to discourage her younger sisters form marriage by saying for example in the play "See that slipper with fancy buckle on to make it pretty? Courting's like that, my lass. All glitter and no use to nobody." During this Hobson is with Jim at Moon Rakers talking about Alice and Vicky and marriage.

After this Maggie calls Willie upstairs looks at his hands tells him they are clever and then asks him when he is going to leave Hobson's. This shows the audience that she has a plan. Willie is very scared to talk to Maggie and starts quickly saying "not me, I've been at Hobson's all my life" he can tell she is pressuring him to do something he doesn't want to do. He is showing a not very confident man, even though men were meant to be dominant over woman.