Laura Watts

Hobson's Choice

Hobson’s Choice was written in the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The play was written by a man called Harold Brighouse and it is set in a shoe shop in Salford. During this era different events were happening in reality. These events are listed below:

During this period of time it was customary to follow certain traditions because people didn’t like changes in their life style. These customary traditions are broken in Hobson’s Choice. The conventions that are broken are those of gender, class, love, marriage, money and the law. One of the first traditions to be shattered was a reverse in patriarchy. This convention was upset by Maggie. Maggie’s character reminds me of Emeline Pankhurst because like Emeline Pankhurst, Maggie did what she wanted to do and not what the traditions were at that time. She sticks up for herself, she in very powerful and dominates everyone. Maggie’s character is very strong she is very persuasive, hardworking, determined, manipulative and conniving.

It was traditional that back in the early twentieth century men were the ones that went to work and earned a decent wage to support his wife and children. The women were treated as slaves and they were the ones stuck at home performing all of the domestic duties. In those days the women had no ambition and just obeyed their husbands who thought that the women’s place was in the home, the women were very subordinate.

This doesn’t seem to happen in Hobson’s Choice as Maggie seems to dominate everyone and she seems to be the patriarch.

Maggie seems to have full control over all of the men in her life including her father. An incident that shows she is in full control is when her father really puts her down. His remark is,

"You’re a proper old maid Maggie. Aye, thirty and shelved."

This was the response she got when she asked her father if he was going to find a husband for her. Despite his observation she later told her father she was going to marry Will Mossop! Will Mossop was one of her father’s employees and when he heard this he was very stunned and upset. He thought that because he said she wasn’t to get married she would obey his decision and not talk about the subject any longer.

Another circumstance that also shows how Maggie is in control is when she informs her father that his dinner will be ready at one o’clock. His moaning to this is,

"I set the hours at this house. It’s one o’clock because I say it is and not because you do." Just before he proceeded to leave, he declares,

"Dinner is when I come in for it. I’m master here."

Nevertheless he returns at the time Maggie stated but just to get him more worked up she makes sure the dinner is not ready until half past one. She does this just to spite him.

An example of her having full authority of other members of the opposite sex apart from her father is after her Wedding Day. After the wedding day her family retired to her home and have some cake. Maggie then orders Albert and Freddie to help Will with the washing up. She expresses,

"And you and Fred can just lend him a hand with the washing up, Albert." He replies,

"Me wash pots."

Albert and Freddie were really shocked when she asked them to do this but they both for filled her wishes and proceeded to do what she commanded.

Another convention that has been destroyed in Hobson’s Choice is the convention of marriage. This convention is broken because the traditional procedure for marriage is you court before even thinking of marriage. When the time comes the man will normally ask the woman for her hand in marriage. If the woman’s response is yes, they will then proceed to get engaged, to show they are engaged the lady will receive a diamond ring. They may celebrate their engagement with a party and may receive gifts from their family and friends. They will normally get married in a church, where they each receive a ring that looks like a gold band. The married couple will then hold a wedding reception to celebrate and then they will conform their marriage by going on a honeymoon.

This traditional way of marriage does not take place in Hobson’s Choice. Maggie asked Will to marry her and he was set against the idea at first because he was in love with a lady called Ada. Maggie only asks him for his hand in marriage because she sees him as a good business in the shape of a husband as Will is a very gifted shoe and boot maker. Here are some quotations to back this up.

Maggie demands,

"You’re going to wed me, Will." His reply to this is,

"I’d really rather wed Ada, Maggie, if it’s all the same to you."

Maggie is discussed at this reply and as Maggie always does she gets her own way. She states to him.

"You’ll get lose and quick."

They don’t proceed to have an engagement party and they both go straight into marriage. Their marriage is not very romantic because Maggie buys her own wedding ring and it is a brass one at that. Her sisters are horrified when they end up selling her a brass ring; their responses are,

"Wedded with a brass ring!"

The couple get married in a church but very few people attend. After the wedding the few people that attended go back to Maggie’s and Will’s home in Oldfield Road where they each have some cake and Will proposes a toast.

Love is another tradition that was broken it is normal to marry someone you are in love with but love is not an emotion that can be forced on. The only reason Maggie wants to marries Will is because she thinks he will be a great business venture and Will only marries Maggie because she in very dominant and will not accept his answer when he replies no. When Maggie is asking him to marry her she explains,

"To invest in. You’re a business idea in the shape of a man."

Maggie only wants to marry him so that she will become very well off and show her father what she can do and what she has achieved in her life. She also does this for him as she thinks he is very talented and she thinks he is not earning the money could be. She tells him he is a loyal fool because he wouldn’t even dream of leaving Hobson’s unless he was made to. He states,

"Not me. I’ve been at Hobson’s all my life, and I’m not leaving till I’m made."

The only love Maggie has for him is the love for money. Will is not in love with Maggie because he would prefer to marry Ada.

Maggie is not very excited about the wedding as she comes in and tells her sisters than says is dinner nearly ready and the marriage is discussed no longer.

Just before they proceed to get married, Will says the following statement to Maggie,

"You’re growing on me lass."

Maybe this is a sign that he really is beginning to fall in love with her even though he has been forced into it.

Hobson likes to think he is very important and he is always telling his daughters what to do, he is sexist, stubborn, doesn’t pay his daughters, miserly and spends money to make money. He likes his daughters to be presentable as opposed to tarts and he pays ten pounds for each of them to look every year. He does this because he says it is good for business. This is an example of him spending money to make money. He remarks,

"It pleases the eye and it’s good for trade."

Hobson is not at all happy that his eldest daughter will be marrying Will Mossop he has a few reasons for this, he doesn’t like the idea of his daughter marrying someone in a class below himself and his daughter. He states,

"Why, lass, his father was a workhouse brat. A come-by-chance." After this he also states,

"I’d be the laughing-stock of the place if I allowed it."

Maggie doesn’t listen to any of this and is not put of the idea by her father.

The law is also brought into the play. This happens when Mr Hobson is feeling very sorry for himself so he turns to drink. This is to try and get shut of all of his problems. While he is out he gets really drunk and when he was on his way home he falls through a trapdoor and ends up a companies cellar. It is there where he falls to sleep and doesn’t awake until later on the next day. While he is sleeping in the cellar one of the employees sees him and he then goes to tell Maggie. Maggie then has an ingenious idea. She knows her father will not let Alice and Vickey get married because of the cost so she gets the money off him another way. She gets it by tricking him. She sends him a letter informing him that he is being sued for trespassing and damages by the company.

When he received the letter he came to see Maggie for help. Hobson doesn’t want the story to get to the papers so he is prepared to pay for the damages and settle it all out of court.

He doesn’t want the story to get to the papers because he knows he will loose a lot of trade. Hobson and the lawyers meet at Maggie’s house where it is settled that Hobson will pay the company five hundred pounds for the damages. Maggie then informs him,

"It’s not going out of the family, father."

He is puzzled at this remark and Maggie then explains what is going to happen. Alice and Vickey will receive two hundred and fifty pounds each for their weddings. Hobson rises and rebels,

"I’ve been diddled. It’s a plant."

He is disgusted and tells them all that he will run the shop alone and that he doesn’t need any women to help make the business a success. He states,

"I’m rid of ye, and it’s a lasting riddance, mind."

The resolution of the play was very simple; Will Mossop became very important. He became more confident, states his point and is no longer shy. He became the owner of a business and did very well money wise. On the other hand Hobson started off very important but at the end of the play he had nothing. His daughters left home because they got married and they left him to run the business by himself. He became an alcoholic and Maggie and her husband had to move back in with him so Maggie could look after him. Will took over his business and Hobson became a sleeping partner. At the end Will was giving orders to Hobson whereas at the beginning of the play Hobson was ordering Will about.

I think Harold Brighouse wanted us to learn the value of money. When writing Hobson’s character he made him wealthy because of this Hobson thought he could treat everyone how he wanted. He treated his employees with no respect as he thought he was a cut above them all. As we get into the play Maggie leaves and takes Will with her because they left, the business started to loose out on a lot of the high class trade and Hobson’s business and wealth started to descend.

Brighouse wanted us to learn the value of equality. He believes very strongly in this and he has Maggie as ‘The Prime Mover’ in the play. He believes women should have been treated with the same respect that the men got. He doesn’t believe that women should be treated as slaves and stuck at home performing domestic duties while their husbands went to work and were very highly thought of. 

Harold Brighouse also wanted us to learn about class. He doesn’t believe in having different classes, he believes that everyone should be treated and spoke to in the same respect. He believes that it is all right if someone of the middle class marries someone of a lower class. He doesn’t think this is wrong in anyway even though back in the twentieth century people thought it was disgraceful. An example of this today is mixed racial and religious marriages. People don’t like the idea of a white person marrying a black or a Catholic marrying a Protestant. Nowadays this is thought bad.