At the end of the story, though he was surprised at first when Unity and Hannah refused to marry him, “his jaw hanging down like a dead man’s,” he was not too thrown and turned back to Milly as though nothing had happened. He proposed to her saying, “Well, Milly, it do seem as if fate had ordained that it should be you and I, or nobody. And what must be must be, I suppose. Hey, Milly?” Showing how he wanted to get married even if it was not with who he wanted.
There is a shift throughout the story as to whether the women are stronger. At the beginning the women look to be weaker as they agree to hide in the back of the waggon. They then appear to be stronger when they refuse to marry Tony Kytes, but in the end they are weaker as they were still willing to marry him. In the end Tony Kytes wins as he gets what he wants and gets engaged.
The time in which the story has a great effect on the events that happen in the story. In the 19th century women had little rights except those through their fathers or husbands, they were expected to be good daughters and to marry, those who did not marry were considered to have ‘failed’ in life. A lot of this would have influenced the characters to do what they did, at a later date the women would have been more independent and not be so obliged to do what they were asked to by the men and so they probably would have asked more questions before hiding in the back of the waggon. Also if there was not such an emphasis on women to be good daughters, Hannah would have said yes to Tony Kytes marriage proposal, “she would not have refused Tony if he had asked her quietly, and her father had not been there. The women may not have liked Tony Kytes as much and wanted to marry him if there was not such importance on them doing so, Milly was probably influenced by peoples views on marriage otherwise she would not have agreed to marry Tony after all that had happened. In the same way Tony Kytes would not have asked Unity and Milly to hide if the story was set at a later date as there would not be as much of a problem if Tony gave another woman a lift in his waggon.
Moving on to the story ‘Tickets, Please’ and the character John Thomas I consider there are many similarities with Tony Kytes. John Thomas likes the women in the story, likes their company and likes to flirt with them. He is not looking for a proper relationship and he is selfish in the way that he dumps the women and moves on without thinking much about it. He is quite charming and uses lines to impress the women, “‘that’s me!’ said John Thomas. It was one of his favourite exclamations.”
He has control over his relationships with women; he is liked by the women in the story and so can take his pick. He likes to have the control over the women in the story and will only take the relationship further if it suits him, though if the woman wanted to take it further than he would break up with her, “When she started to take an intelligent interest I him and his life and his character, he sheered off.” John Thomas losses control over the women and situation at the end when he takes it all too far and forces the women to get revenge, though he does not give in to them and in the end gains control of the situation.
At the end of the story John Thomas is surprised at the actions of the women, though he does not give in and thinks ahead to help him gain victory over the women. He is quite cunning in the way he chooses Annie rather than anyone else as he knew that she was not like the rest of them and would not take him, this was probably because she was the one who resisted him and did not go running to him, “Annie, however, was something of a Tartar, and her sharp tongue had kept John Thomas at arm’s length for many months.” He also knew that by choosing Annie, he would turn the other women against her and she was the reason why they stood up to him, “He was cunning in his overthrow”.
There is a shift through the story as to whether the women are stronger. At first the women are weaker as they always go running to John Thomas knowing that eventually they would be dumped and he would move on, “She watched him vanquish one girl, then another,” hoping that it would be different for them. The women appear to be stronger than John Thomas towards the end when they stand up to him making him choose one of them rather than going after all of them, “Come on, John Thomas! Come on! Choose!” together they overpower him. Though at the end they are all weak apart from Annie as they all secretly wanted him to choose them even though they said they would not have him, “Yet each of them waited for him to look at her, hoped he would look at her. All except Annie, and something was broken in her.” They were still weaker than John Thomas if not physically, they were mentally as they would go to him straight away if he had asked, whereas John Thomas was stronger as he did not give in to them, thought ahead and won in the end, “He did not give in to them really –no, not if they tore him to bits.”
The time in which the story was set has a large effect on the way the characters behave. If the story was set at an earlier date when there was more of an emphasis on settling down and getting married, John Thomas would not have treated the girls the way he did. In the same way if the story had been set at a later date then he probably would not have had so much control over the women. Also, in 1922 the women gained more independence as they found themselves doing jobs that would usually be done by men, realised that they were capable and gained more confidence in themselves due to the war. This was probably why the women stood up to John Thomas, but their independence was only to a certain extent as they could not believe what they had done at the end, “The girls were all anxious to be off. They were tidying themselves hurriedly, with mute stupefied faces.”
In the two stories and between the two different times, the men’s attitudes were almost the same. They both enjoyed the women’s company and liked flirting with them, though Tony Kytes wanted to get married whereas John Thomas was not looking for a serious relationship. On the other hand the women’s attitudes had changed as the women in ‘Tickets, Please’ were less dependant on men than the women in ‘Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver.’ In both stories, the men had control over the women but Tony Kytes was easily persuaded by the women whereas John Thomas would not give in to them. There is the same irony in both stories where the women would still run to the men if they had asked again. There is also the same shift in power in both stories though at the end the women are weaker than the men.
In conclusion Tony Kytes and John Thomas use their charm to try and manipulate the women around them, but the women are not stronger than them as they still have control over them in the end.
