Is it true to say that women dominate men in Hobson's Choice? Why is this significant in the context of the play? Give examples to support your view.
In the play Hobson's Choice I believe that women do dominate the men greatly, although it is Maggie Hobson who strengthens this theory, throughout the play.Maggie Hobson is confident and has a very strong-minded character. Throughout the play she stands up for herself against everyone who does not believe in her, especially her arrogant father, Henry Horatio Hobson. She is unlike her two younger sisters, Vickey and Alice, who are very flirtatious, proud and snobbish."It's the fashion to wear bustles""We shall continue to dress fashionably, father"They are also very n�ive, particularly towards their father's business. It is Maggie who runs the shop and generally keeps the house in order and the business going.
Hobson takes advantage of his daughters and does not pay them any wages."Wages? Do you think I pay my own daughters wages? I'm not a fool"Hobson also does not want his daughters to marry if it means paying settlements."From the moment you breathed the word 'settlements' it was dead off"Hobson is a drunk who spends the earnings of his boot shop on drink every lunchtime and at every other available opportunity. He has become an alcoholic.
Even at the beginning of the play, it is not fair to say that the men dominated the women, because they ran both the house and business without any financial or moral support from their father. To some extend even Hobson's life was run for him by his daughters. When Hobson offended hiseldest daughter Maggie, the role that she had played in his life for so many years is clearly shown after she leaves him and the family home. He said to Maggie that she was too old to marry, and that no one would want to marry her anyway.
"... You're past the marrying age. You're a proper old maid, Maggie, if ever there was one"I think that this angered Maggie more than it upset her, and it was then that she made the decision that she would marry, and soon, if only to spite her father.
It is at this part of the play where it has become obvious that the women really do take over the male domination.After leaving her father and her sisters to run the house and shop on their own Maggie went on to marry Will Mossop, Hobson's old boot hand. Hobson is disgraced over Maggie's choice of husband for several reasons. These include the fact that it would mean losing Maggie and her sales-woman talent but also the fact that Will Mossop was his old boot-hand and is lower in class.
This is another example of Horatio Hobson's great snobbery along with the incident with Mrs Hepworth earlier."... But if there is anything wrong I assure you I'm capable of making the man suffer for it. I'll -"After buying a low-class basement to both live and work in Will started up his own shoe business with Maggie.
Vickey and Alice also married their desired husbands - with the help of their sister, and Hobson lost them all. A year later when Hobson is diagnosed as having chronic alcohol poisoning, Maggie returns home to look after him, although only after agreeing harsh conditions, and Hobson and Will go into partnership under Will's conditions. By now Hobson knows that he has lost and must give in to Maggie but more than ever before, her husband, William Mossop.
