Marshall

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Rollercoaster1

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Only three characters are mentioned in the play 'Progress' Written by St. John Greer Ervine as shown in one of the pictures below. I wonder who (the) Marshall is?
I looked up the word in a few dictionaries and found different definitions. below are the definitions of the word 'Marshall' by Meriem-Webster.

1. an officer of the highest rank in one of the military forces

2. an administrative officer having duties similar to those of a sheriff

3. the head of a division of a police or fire department

4. a person who arranges and directs ceremonies or parades

I wonder which of these is the one mentioned in the play.
 
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I can't see any pictures.
 
Rover_KE said:
I can't see any pictures.
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I am using a mobile device. I did upload the pics but they don't show up in my thread. I had this issue before.
 
Below are the characters and a few dialogues from the play.

Prof. Henry Corrie - D.Sc
Hannah - a lady servant
Mrs. Meldon - Prof. Corrie's sister

Corrie: Has she (sister) got back?
Hannah: Yes, sir. She expected you to meet her at the station, sir. She waited a long time in the cold, and then got Marshall to drive her up here.
Corrie: I meant to go, but I was busy, and then I forgot. But she is quite capable of coming home by herself.
 
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Please number the options listed. Your common sense should enable you to rule out two of them.

It would help to know in what country and period the action takes place.
 
Rover_KE said:
Please number the options listed. Your common sense should enable you to rule out two of them.

It would help to know in what country and period the action takes place.
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It took place in Britain and, if I am not wrong, over a century ago.
 
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Piscean said:
As the word begins with a capital letter, it could also denote 'a member of the Marshall family'. Without more information, we would only be guessing.
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As I said in post 1, There are only three characters mentioned in the book. Marshall is mentioned only once on the first page when he drives Mrs. Meldon home from the railway station. I tried to upload pics of the pages but it didn't work. It happens when I upload via phone.
 
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Rollercoaster1 said:
As I said in post 1, There are only three characters mentioned in the book. Marshall is mentioned only once on the first page when he drives Mrs. Meldon home from the railway station. I tried to upload pics of the pages but it didn't. It happens when I upload via phone.
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Read the passage again. "Marshall" isn't the character's name.
 
Piscean said:
In the version I found here, there is no article before the word 'Marshall'. That strongly suggests it is a person's name.

Please make sure that you copy exactly when you are quoting in future.
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Did you read through post 4? Also, the link you sent contains some other language I don't understand.
 
I agree with Piscean. It's a person's name. (It says, "She got Marshall to drive her up.")
:up:
 
Tarheel said:
I agree with Piscean. It's a person's name. (It says, "She got Marshall to drive her up.")
:up:
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I take it it was just a person, maybe Corrie's relative, who drove his sister home.
 
Piscean said:
We are given no indication that Marshall is Corrie's relative.
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Maybe a family friend. I don't think Mrs. Meldon would casually name someone she came with in his car.
 
Rollercoaster1 said:
Maybe a family friend. I don't think Mrs. Meldon would casually name someone she came with in his car.
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Considering when the text was written, it could be a very close friend, a family member, or a servant. If it was the latter, it would have been the servant's last name.
 
Marshall would have been a lower class male, either the chauffeur or the driver of a hired car. Hannah was a servant so would not have referred to a family member or one of their class by surname. The only females referred to by surname would have been indoor domestic servants.

Clearly Downton Abbey didn't make these distinctions clear enough.
 
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PeterCW said:
Clearly Downton Abbey didn't make these distinctions clear enough.
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I've never seen Downton Abbey but its predecessor in the genre, Upstairs Downstairs, was always scrupulously accurate about such distinctions. The butler, for example, was simply Hudson to the family that employed him, but Mr Hudson to everyone else.
 
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probus said:
I've never seen Downton Abbey but its predecessor in the genre, Upstairs Downstairs, was always scrupulously accurate about such distinctions. The butler, for example, was simply Hudson to the family that employed him, but Mr Hudson to everyone else.
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That is where my knowledge comes from as well. The hierarchy among the servants in a big house was far more rigid than in the outside world.
 
See how it's capitalized? We don't capitalize common nouns unless they're the first word of a sentence.

It's the driver's name. He's not a marshall.
 
Charlie Bernstein said:
See how it's capitalized? We don't capitalize common nouns unless they're the first word of a sentence.

It's the driver's name. He's not a marshall.
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Do you mean it's a synonym for the word 'driver'?
 
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