Mr. Gessler
The image of Mr. Gessler is composed of image of his trade, and he himself appears before the reader “as if made from leather himself”. Everything in his appearance, with “his yellow crinkly face, and crinkly reddish hair and beard, and neat folds slanting down his cheeks to the corners of his mouth, and his guttural and one-toned voice” presents him as a “leather substance”, “stiff and slow of purpose”.
Good service
Mr. Gessler appears as a very careful and attentive shoe master. He has a personal approach to each of his clients, and the narrator remembers how “placing foot on a piece of paper, he would two or three times tickle the outer edges with a pencil and pass his nervous fingers over my toes, feeling himself into the heart of my requirements”. The image shows how responsible and reliable the master is.
Simplicity in business
The story ironically shows that industrious, diligent and hard-working masters are not always successful, and business is a field that requires much more. The Gesslers’ shop is an unremarkable and ordinary one, with “no sign upon its face”, and just “with few pairs of boots in the window”. Though the Gesslers are remarkable masters, they do not put anything into development of their business, and in the end they both die for starvation.
