Albert Prosser brings Maggie the action for trespass against Hobson. Maggie knows her father’s strong feelings about lawyers and intends to use the situation for her own ends. Maggie makes Albert push the hand-cart to Oldfield Road. He isn’t happy at the thought of anyone seeing him pushing a handcart but obeys. After a brief word with Willie, when she gives him the chance of backing out if he really does not want to marry her, they all leave for the wedding. Maggie again has the last word in the scene. When Vickey asks Willie if he’s got the ring, Maggie comments tartly, ‘I have.
Do you think I’d trust him to remember? ‘ In this scene, we again see what a commanding character Maggie is. Albert Prosser, a lawyer, and Freddy Beenstock, the son of a successful business man, both defer to her and do as she tells them. ACT THREE Scene One When Act Three opens, Maggie and Willie are married. They are back at Oldfield Road, celebrating with their guests. Willie makes a toast and has obviously been carefully coached by Maggie. ‘I’ve been learning a lot lately’ he says. Maggie’s sisters are genuinely surprised at the progress Willie has made.
Maggie is increasingly keen to push Willie forward, to defer to him as the master of the house. She quickly corrects Albert when he asks where she got the capital from to start the shop. ‘You mustn’t call it my shop’ she says, ‘It’s his’. Maggie is determined to see Willie treated with respect. When Albert and Freddy laugh, she makes them help Willie with the washing up. Willie is obviously nervous about being left alone with Maggie on his wedding night. He tries to delay Freddy and Albert but they are having none of it. The guests are about to leave when there is a knock at the door and Hobson’s voice is heard off stage.
Maggie makes her sisters, Freddy and Albert go into the bedroom and then answers the door to her father. Scene Two When her father arrives, Maggie is keen to advance Willie’s position. She refers to him as the master of the house and asks Will if she is to let her father come in. She is referring to Willie in the way that the expected customs of the time dictated. Although Hobson is suffering from a hangover and is distressed about the possibility of having to go to court, Maggie makes him go through the ritual of sociability and eat a piece of wedding cake.
The depth and complexity of Maggie’s character can be seen here as she admits it may be foolishness but still wants to have her father sitting at her table on her wedding day eating her wedding cake. She makes the pretence of not knowing what he has come and about and when he tells her that he is in trouble, she proposes leaving the room to let him discuss his problem with her husband. This play acting is to establish the position that there are no secrets from Willie and that he is now part of the family. This is also why she insists Willie calls Hobson, father.
