The Effect of Mother Wolff on Her Family

"I've always been friendly with people and nobody can complain about me. But if it must be, I can talk plain, too. I do my duty, and that's all. And nobody in the town can say anything against me. But I won't let nobody trample on me." -Mrs. Wolff.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Wolff is a strong character. As she says and clearly demonstrates throughout the entire play "I won't let nobody trample on me." Not even Judge von Wehrhahn or the property owner Krueger, who would normally be considered her when one superiors when one looks at the social scale, can get a word in when Mother Wolff has an idea to state or an agenda to push.

Although this earns her respect with von Wehrhahn and Krueger instead of the contempt that might be expected of them, what effect does her overbearing attitude have upon her family?

The effect on her husband Julius is quite clear. Julius is the typical henpecked husband, always doing exactly what his wife says, although he makes quite a show of protesting. Mrs. Wolff is repeatedly telling him, "You're just ignorant, Julius. You've got no education at all. If it hadn't been for me, Julius, what would have become of the girls?" She is constantly bringing him down and giving him no credit for anything when he works just as hard as she does and appears to be a good husband and father. At he, unlike Mitteldorf doesn't go to the taverns against his wife's wishes. In fact, Julius doesn't seem to drink at all unless Mrs. Wolff is shoving whiskey in his hands.

Their eldest daughter, Leontine, is weak like her father. The only reason she comes home is because she doesn't want to put two loads of wood in the shed. Her employer wishes her to put the wood away so it will not get stolen; and in fact, he is quite right to want her to put the wood away because it IS stolen, and by her own mother. If Leontine displayed the kind of hard working attitude her mother says she lives for, she would have toughed out the situation at her job and not come whining.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as we can clearly see in Mrs. Wolff's second daughter Adelheid. Adelheid seems to be clever like her mother when it comes to getting things she wants. She threatens her mother by saying she knows where the deer came from at the beginning of the play, but doesn't go through with ratting her family out; she also knows about the beaver coat. She chooses instead to help her mother get away with the crime this time, but Mrs. Wolff had better watch out in the future should she ever cross her daughter. It does not feel out of character for Adelheid to use her knowledge of the illegal goings on at her own home to gain something for herself. When she enters the home with an orange, claiming it was a gift, how does the audience know she didn't steal it herself, taking after her mother's example?

The impact Mrs. Wolff has on her family can be clearly seen. Her husband and eldest daughter have weak personalities and are easy to walk over. Her youngest daughter seems to have picked up on her thieving and conniving ways. Though she doesn't reap any bad consequences this time around, Mrs. Wolff had better watch her family because one day they might betray her, either through weakness or spite.