“Maggie Hobson and Willie Mossop are symbols of how determination and education can overcome disadvantage” Discuss Maggie Hobson, a seemingly hardheaded and unsentimental woman and Willie Mossop, an uneducated boot maker are both ordinary people who come across difficulties throughout their lives. The aim of this essay therefore is to discuss how hard-work and sheer force of willpower changes these two people lives for the better.
Maggie Hobson, daughter of Henry Horatio Hobson is thirty years old and different from most women of her age of those times as she is unmarried: “you’re past the marrying age. You’re a proper old maid, Maggie”. This line shows Hobson reminding his daughter Maggie, that she is too old to get married. However, it can be seen that Hobson’s refusal of Maggie getting married is not only due to the reason that she is “past the marrying age” but the reason being that Maggie is Hobson’s most valuable daughter.
Maggie’s strength of character is firstly illustrated when she hassles Albert Prosser, a young lawyer, who comes to court Alice, into purchasing a pair of boots at Hobson’s shop: “This is a shop, you know. We’re not here to let people go out without buying”. Maggie is shown here to be bossy and intimidating as she forces a man of a higher class than of hers to purchase boots from her father’s shop.
Maggie may seem different and extraordinary when compared to the other characters in the play, but there are times in the play when she is shown to be like an ordinary person: “See that slipper with a fancy buckle on to make it pretty? Courting’s like that, my lass. All glitter and no use to nobody” Maggie shows that she can be down-to-earth as she has a serious discussion with her younger sister, Alice. This also shows Maggie’s strength of character, as she shows that she is prepared to make a point even though other people will disagree with it.
