Tony Kytes is deceitful and lies to all the women he apparently loves with no remorse. He tells them all lies if they would help him. He tells Hannah that he has “not exactly” settled marriage with Milly. This is a straight lie and only says it because he realises if he does he may get the opportunity to marry Hannah. Tony also tells Milly that if Hannah saw her she would be angry because she is “prettier than her” and he is “rather afeard of her temper.” This again is a total lie and shows the lengths that Tony would go to place himself in the best possible solution, even if it means lying to and manipulating the women he loves.
The tricky situation Tony finds himself at the end of the story is a culmination of all his characteristics. Due to his flirtatious good looks, manipulation, deceit and foolishness he has to choose between three women he would want to marry. “He could not marry all three as he longed to” and has to choose. All three women are disgraced and angry to hear what Tony is doing. In turn he asks Hannah then Unity and finally Milly. All turn him down except for Milly, she alone accepts him for what he is even though both Unity and Hannah want to marry him.
Tony Kytes the Arch Deceiver is written in the nineteenth century and the presentation of marriage is very different to what it is now. The men and women did not usually court for long and the main aim of marriage was to establish social standing and to create a stable income. The men however, were more interested in the physical part of relationship that marriage enabled. This is clearly apparent in Tony Kytes. Tony attempts to marry all three women and this is something unheard now. The courting time is very short and both the women and men want to marry as soon as possible.
In Tickets Please by DH. Lawrence John Thomas a young flirtatious tram inspector finds himself in a situation where the women he has been manipulating, seek revenge by abusing him. The power struggle between the two genders and how John Thomas handles the situation show both him and the women to be manipulative.
John Thomas is a similar man to Tony Kytes. He is popular with women and he has the ability to manipulate them to get what he wants from them. Both men see women as being beneath them. They have a demeaning attitude towards them and only see them as objects of affection rather than fellow human beings
John Thomas is also “tall and agile” and “good looking”. John Thomas is very manly compared to Tony Kytes. He has a “small brown moustache”. He “smokes” and this is a sign of him being part of the lower working class. His face is “ruddy” and the word “impudent” is used several times to describe his character. This shows him as impertinent and rude. However he is daring and notorious, as there is “considerable scandal about John Thomas in a half a dozen villages”. His flirtatious behaviour is well known. He is a good looking who enjoys moving from one woman to the next.
John Thomas is daring, adventurous and slightly dangerous. He is a young man who is well educated in the art of courtship and is warm when he needs to be. The way in which he holds Annie in “a very warm and cuddly manner” shows how superficial, but well educated he is when it comes to courting. John Thomas in contrast to Tony Kytes is in no rush to get married. Because of the unphysical manner of courting in the nineteenth century, John Thomas is able to have a number of physical relationships without being married. When a deeper relationship and the idea of marriage is brought forth by Annie he “sheers off”. The idea of being restricted to one woman does not appeal to him. He would much rather is a “nocturnal figure” than to be in an intelligent and intimate relationship. John Thomas is a daring and attractive young man. Because of this he finds himself in a number of different relationships with different women. However in contrast to Tony Kytes he refrains from being in a deep and intimate relationship.
In contrast to Tony Kytes, Tickets Please is set in an urban area. This has an affect on a number of things. The modern and urban setting is based on the mention of the war, industry and cinema. The two stories contrast because the “close-knit” community of the rural area in Tony Kytes is different to the more open community of “Tickets Please”. Tickets Please urban setting is most likely in the midlands and because of the city setting John Thomas is able to court many women without needing to worry about the reactions of others. In both stories the journey is very important. Tickets Please is set on a long winding journey on a tram and Tony Kytes on a ‘large horse drawn cart’. There is a great sense of community as we are taken through the journey in the wagon. In contrast the tram journey at the beginning of Tickets Please is isolated and the words described are sinister, ‘reckless swoops downhill’ and this shows the tram personified as animal or a roller coaster.
As well as being set in different places they are also set in different time periods. This affects the way in which the characters behave. Due to the liberation of the war for women there was a greater affect in their role of society. Unlike the men little has changed. The girls in Tickets Please are ‘fearless young hussies’ whereas Milly - a female character from Tony Kytes is a ‘nice, light, small, tender little thing’. They have a many similarities as well as differences. The main reason for this is the period it is set in. We know Tickets Please is set in WW1 as the narrator mentions that they “are in war-time” In the beginning of the story the narrator makes a historical reference to tram drivers who have the “spirit of the devil” within them. This phrase is describing how men who were unable to participate in the war had to become aggressive to fight off the criticism of not going to war.
Another example of women’s new-found liberation is the way in which the girls appear self-confident when in charge of the trams. The tram system was entirely conducted by girls - something very common for that time as men were out fighting in the war. The’ Co-operative Wholesale Society’, ‘Statutes fair’, the ‘hat pins’ John Thomas won for Annie’ all point to WW1. The women had many more opportunities. As many of the men were at war then the women had the responsibility of making sure that everything carried on at home. The war allowed a large amount of restrictions that can be seen in Tony Kytes do not exist in Tickets Please. These changes can be particularly seen in the description of women in the two stories.
The relationships between men and women in Tickets Please would have been very different to what it was in the nineteenth century during Tony Kytes time. There was more of an emphasis put on the physical part of the relationship. This was because you did not have to be married to be intimate, as was the case in the nineteenth century. Because of this courting lasted much longer, and not so much importance was put on marriage. The freedom given to women by the world war meant they were not so dependent on men. Therefore they did not have to marry for social reasons and for stability. The war gave a lot more opportunity to women and that is why we see they have power and control in this story, that was not seen in Tony Kytes. The twentieth century girls are described as being "fearless young hussies". This is a total change of descriptions of women in Tony Kytes. The fact that these women "fear nobody" shows how female equality to men has greatly improved. Milly in contrast to someone like Annie shows how women changed from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.
The differences between the women are clear, but it is particularly clear when comparing Annie to Milly. Annie is 'perfectly at ease,' independent and makes a good job of working on the trams. She is assertive, forward, liberated, strong and powerful as she 'defied convention.’ She was a leader and someone who was respected by all her peers on the tram service. She is a ‘hussie’ and an organiser. Milly however is very feminine, passive and obliging. When she was asked to crawl under the sacking she replies: "I don't mind to oblige you, Tony." A woman to crawl under a sacking for a man no only happens in extreme cases. However for respectable women of Milly’s time to do this would be appalling and just not acceptable. However Milly having polite manner she does, she obeys him. She calls him 'Mr Tony' as if in awe of him and has a large amount of respect for him. The word “Mr” creates a formal atmosphere and makes their love superficial. Throughout this same conversation they discuss very mundane topics such as beasts, insects and trees in the field. They talk about superficial objects rather than close and personal agendas such as their upcoming marriage.
The women in Tony Kytes are all different, but in essence all driven by the same thing. They understand that marriage to Tony Kytes would raise the social standing and would bring economic stability. Because of this each woman is looking to marry Tony. Milly, Tony’s fiancée at the beginning of the story is described as being “sweet-natured”, “friendly” but “easy to please”. She is also the epitome of what a good wife would have been in the nineteenth century. She is very respectful of Tony and is unlikely to cause a husband little trouble. These characteristics cause her to be easily manipulated, obliging, naïve, innocent, but probably the most practical of all the three. It is she in the end that actually stays with Tony Kytes even though the embarrassment it might bring her. The other two girls still want to be with Tony, but turn him down because of their pride. It is Milly who will have a social standing and economic stability even though her pride has been damaged. Her innocence is balanced out by her practicality.
Unity the first woman who gets on the cart is described as a “handsome girl”. However like Hannah she has the ability to manipulate Tony. She is also hypocritical and rather outspoken. Many of the women of that time like Milly would have been respectful of men and are unlikely to speak against them. Unity can be described as flirtatious, selfish, egotistical and sensitive. These characteristics which would not have been seen as good characteristics for a wife become apparent when she realises Tony has been manipulating her.
Hannah is described as being bossy and having an attitude. She tells Tony “how can you be so stupid.” This would not have normally been said by women of that time. She is also manipulative, flirtatious and rather forward. The way she “looks into his eyes” and the fact that she says “I like riding with” Tony implies this. From these characteristics she seems hard to please, flirtatious, conceited and has a large amount of bravado. Some may say because of that her forwardness and bravado make her seem forward for her time. Hannah is the type of woman more suited to the twentieth century. Annie and her have a number of similarities in the way in which they handle the situation with men. They both believe they have control of the situation, this maybe due to their strong characters however at the end of the story they find they are losing control and desiring the men after rejecting them.
Both women Annie and Milly have very different reactions to being turned down. Annie is “staggered” and she then weepy with “fury, indignation, desolation and misery”. Once the feeling of misery starts to subside before feeling vicious, angry vindictive and maybe even regretful emotions start to come out. Unlike Milly, Annie is allowed to show her emotions. She did not need to rely on men for economic reasons or security. Milly’s expression of her anger is a “little pout”. If she were to express how annoyed and angry she really is she could jeopardise her chance of marriage and this would have been catastrophic. Milly has an enormous amount of respect for Tony, as even when he tells Hannah that he has not “quite promised her” to marry her yet she does nothing. When he bursts out “My sweet Hannah!” Milly gives a “little screaming squeak”. This shows how the women from different times are so different.
Annie is very careful as she “has a boy of her own”. When she was pursuing John Thomas she still keeps her “own boy dangling in the distance.” To a great extent she is a hypocrite herself because she is disloyal to both John Thomas as well as her own “boy”.
As Annie and John Thomas are courting she feels obliged to let John Thomas draw himself closer:
“She could hardly for shame repulse
him when he put his arm around her”
She feels this because he has paid for all of her rides and he knows how to treat a woman. This attitude shows how the women used to melt in his presence. Even though Annie knew John Thomas she is foolish enough to “pride” herself that he could not leave her. When he did leave, she is “determined” to get her revenge.
The climax in the stories are when both male leading roles are faced with the situation that they have to choose one of the female characters. The choosing takes place in a ‘cosy’ waiting room and is significantly longer than what Tony Kytes faced. Tickets Please is very vengeful, violent and vindictive and the women are very ruthless. The brutality shown towards John Thomas is very hard hitting and a little unexpected. The women seem to behave hysterically as they start to ‘giggle wildly’ and ‘helplessly’. This shows that although they seem to be the ones in control they seem to be loosing their power. However this maybe because it is written by a biased man. In some way they treat the situation like a game when they make him turn to the wall and choose one of them to touch him. They are ‘tittering’ as he looks so ‘comical’ and like children, they shout out ‘you’re looking’. John Thomas is forced to choose as he ‘struggled in a wild frenzy of fury and terror’. At this time it is very unusual that he lacks control as he is the ‘chief’ and even though he tries to speak with ‘official authority’ to get the girls to open the ‘blasted door’, he is forced to take his pick. Once he chooses Annie she refuses. Although though she likes him and would want to have said yes, because of her strong and stubborn character she had to refuse. Although John Thomas chooses Annie, whomever he would have chosen would have refused him. They knew that nobody would marry him and still they made him choose. Although John Thomas did like Annie and that is why he chose her, he also did so he could get himself out of the situation. He knew that by choosing Annie he might be able to get out of the vulnerable position he was in. He knows that she will never accept as he chooses her in ‘malice’. Annie immediately lets go off him like he was a ‘hot coal’. She felt ‘a kind of agony in her’ as if ‘something was broken in her’. The girls had lost control and were ‘stupefied’ by their ‘unnatural behaviour’. Even after all the taunting, tormenting and goading John Thomas they make him chose. They all still wanted to be picked even though they had so much hatred for him.
In Tony Kytes the matter of control is the opposite. He is not forced to choose and feels self-assured in choosing Hannah to be his wife. There is no fairness or justice as there is in Tickets Please. This is because he will not lose out whichever one of he three women he chooses. He chooses Hannah first, but she refuses which was because at that time, her father was there which greatly influenced her decision. She is still ‘hoping he would ask again’. Even in Tickets please all of the women ‘hoped he would look at her’. They all secretly wish to be chosen. Milly accepts however Annie declines. It would be humiliating for Annie to accept as she feels she has to decline for the girls as the whole point of beating John Thomas was so they could prove a point to him and to accept John Thomas would undermine it all.
Unlike in the climax of Tickets Please there are no moments of hysteria or suspenseful decisions. The climax in the text is well organised and the tension is of a much different order. For example the tension in Tickets Please is what is going to happen to John Thomas when he is being abused whereas in Tony Kytes we want to know how he is going to explain himself to all three women.
Hannah and Unity do not want revenge on Tony - and the way in which they show their fury is by declining his offer. Milly is asked last by Tony and when she is finally asked she responds by saying:
“You didn’t really mean what you said to them”
Tony clearly says ‘not a word of it’. Once again he is deceiving Milly and I think she knows this. However the circumstances that she is in force her to make that decision.
In the end after the manipulation of Annie she comes out of the situation with nothing. She says she “does not want him” but we know that she still hopes that John Thomas wants her because she “quivered with a kind of agony”. Therefore it seems she has gone from being the manipulator to the manipulated. Annie’s strong character causes her to revenge John Thomas’s sudden dismissal of her. Although she attacks John Thomas for revenge but she never really gains that as he makes her feel vulnerable. Although she has power over him, it is not entirely clear.
The women apparently score a victory over the men, and the men seem to be weaker. However each writer presents the women as regretting the control they gain over the men. At the end of both stories although it looks as though the women have gained the power they wanted, but the men are the ones who are in a stronger position as the women are yearning for them. Although there are many differences in the stories due to the different times they were written, it is interesting that both male writers draw the same conclusions, and seem to have more sympathy with the male characters even though they are clearly the immoral ones in the stories. The women on the other hand, are all "punished" at the end as a result of attempting to control men, irrespective of the century during which the story was written.
