Hobson's Choice Summary

Hobson makes the girls leave the shop and go into the rooms at the back. He wants to talk to Jim Heeler privately about his girls and his problems with them. He firstly complains that his daughters don’t respect him, that they regard him as a ‘windbag’. Jim advises Hobson to get his girls married and that he shouldn’t be too fussy as he has 3 to get married. Hobson is quick to point out that he doesn’t want Maggie to get married and when Jim points out Hobson will need to make money settlements for the girls to get married, Hobson drops the idea.

Essay Example on Hobson’s Choice Summary

Hobson reveals his attitudes to women in this scene. He comments that he was grateful when his wife died because his life was quieter without her. Hobson also shows he has a high opinion of himself. He agrees with Jim when Jim tells him is the best debater in the Moonraker’s Inn.

The mean streak in Hobson is also developed in this scene. He doesn’t want to let Maggie leave because she is too important to the business and he won’t provide money for marriage settlements. He acknowledges that his daughters are not expensive to keep and he reveals that he doesn’t pay them any wages.

As soon as her father and Jim have left, Maggie raises the trap-door and tells Willie Mossop to come up into the shop. Maggie tries to make Willie understand how valuable he is to the business.

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She makes the point that Hobson’s stays in profit because of her selling skills and partly because Willie is such a fine bootmaker. As Maggie talks, Willie starts to realise that she is asking him to marry her. Willie is amazed and shaken because there is a difference in class between them. Note the way that Maggie generally speaks in a forceful but educated manner whilst Willie’s speech often betrays his lack of education.

Willie uses dialect terms e. g. ‘I thought you were axing me to wed you’. Maggie has obviously been planning this for some time, ‘six months I’ve counted on you’. He is concerned about what Hobson would say and points out that he is already ‘tokened’ to Ada Figgins. When Ada arrives with Willie’s dinner, Maggie tells her that she intends to marry Willie. Ada is no match for Maggie and says she’ll set her mother on Willie when he gets home. Willie is obviously scared of Ada’s mother. Maggie has everything arranged. She tells him that he can lodge with Tubby Wadlow and to put the banns up in church right away.

Willie goes along with everything but is not quite ready to kiss Maggie when she tells him to. At this stage, Maggie is in charge. Willie still speaks his mind though and tells Maggie that he doesn’t love her. Ada is not really treated very well. Willie may be scared of Ada’s mother but Maggie isn’t. This may, to some extent, be the result of Maggie’s superior social position. As a middle-class daughter of a successful business man, she is able, instinctively, to bully those of a lower social class and to get her own way.