little slag."
From the story, 'The Arch Deceiver' three women were seduced and deceived
whereas in Seduction only one girl was deceived in a serious matter. In Arch
Deceiver there were Milly Richard's, " a nice, light small tender thing",
Unity Sallet, "Handsome girl", who Tony was towards before he got with Milly
and Hannah, " another young beauty of the place at that time, and is the
very first women that Tony had fallen in love with". She was the one that
Tony had almost arranged to marry before Milly. Out of the three girls Milly
was the most deceived as she was going to marry Tony. She was the calmest
out of the three girls, Hannah was the strongest and a little big headed as
she asked Tony, "Well aren't you going to be civil enough to ask me to ride
home with you." The girls in this particular story are more forward.
The girl in seduction was claimed to be a, "little slag" by the deceiver.
She was used for sex and was deceived. She was getting drunk which made her
more attractive to the boy. The writer gains sympathy by focusing on the
girl, her thoughts and feelings. She is thought to be tarty as, " she
followed him their, all white high shoes". Her white shoes indicates her
innocent. Also she gained her knowledge of sex from, " stories from teenage
magazines." The magazines told her lies and deceived her as she interpreted
them, in which she thought the night she lost her virginity was romantic.
In both the story and the poem, the major priority is relationship. In both cases the boy deceives a girl. It is not just the boy’s faults for deceiving; it can also be blamed partly on the girl for being gullible. Tony deceives more than one girl but the boy in Seduction only deceives one girl as he does it in a serious matter by having sex with her whereas Tony deceives the girls in a humorous matter. The similarity between both texts is that the writers, Thomas Hardy and Eileen McAuley both give lots of sympathy towards the girls. The difference is that Tony Kytes deceives three women but in a amusing matter as he hides them one by one in the back of the cart whereas the boy in Seduction deceives one particular girl and the consequences are tragic, as, “she discovered she was 3 months gone”. This incident made her life miserable as she had a bright future. The repetition in the poem emphasizes the girls despair, “truly, truly frightened.” The alliteration, “fashion features” shows us the deceptively glamorous nature of teenage magazines, “not really glamorous meeting people from the opposite sex”. In ‘ The Arch Deceiver’, Tony Kytes spins a web of lies, however in Seduction the boy doesn’t actually make promises. This means that Tony Kytes is more deceptive.
The writer and the narrator’s attitudes to characters are both different. From Arch Deceiver the carrier does not criticize Tony in any bad way, “I shall never forget Tony’s face”. He also describes him as a likeable fella. From Seduction the writer creates sympathy for the girl as, “she sobbed in the cool locked darkness of her room”. The narrator from Arch Deceiver is in last person whereas the narrator in Seduction is in 3rd person. Both the narrator’s attitude and feelings are equally the same but however Eileen McAuley gets a bit serious towards the girl in the second part of the poem.
The structure of the story and poem is structured in chronological but the poem is structured in 2 different parts. The first part is the night of the seduction whereas the second part is the consequences of the night. The structure of the story is in a way that it allows the truth to be revealed. The poem includes ellipsis at the end of part 1 which indicates there is going to be a gap in time because of her pregnancy, in comparison Arch Deceiver, Tony Kytes deceives 3 women at a time, one by one.
From Arch Deceiver the language in it are old-fashioned words and phrases, which highlight the era of the story. The harshness of this language displays his contemptuous attitude towards the girl. Metaphors and similes are used to make a point to a more serious view of deception. “Tony looking like a tree struck by lightening” “At this time there was a real squeak…and afterward a long moan, as if something had broken its heart.” This shows that lying does have consequences and ends up hurting people permanently. McAuley also shows her unromantic attitudes compared to the girl’s enchantment as, “he enthused her about the milk cup”. McAuley creates a hard and bad boy image of the boy as, “ he spat into the river”, “sat down in the darkness, leather jacket creaking madly”, and when he “should be at school” but was not as he was bunking off.
Both the poem and the story are critical. Thomas Hardy is more critical about Tony and Milly as she is completely insane to marry him because he has deceived her a numerous times. Eileen McAuley is even more critical towards the teenage magazines as they are the ones that actually deceived the girl and created a false image about sex, as well as stories. She is also sympathetic to the girl as she had a future going but it has been destroyed. McAuley is more critical of the boy in seduction than Tony Kytes as Tony’s lies start to get away from him and out of control as he is discovered lying as his, “cart runs out of control and is eventually overturned.”
In Arch Deceiver the attitudes are conveyed not very strong as Milly accepted Tony to marry him, however there is strong attitudes in Seduction as there is a lot of sympathy for the girl. They are conveyed by the pregnancy of the girl who is deceived by the boy and as well as the teenage magazines. Tony kytes and Milly are criticized by each other as Tony flirts with other girls, whilst engaged to Milly and Milly is criticized as she is the one deceived by her own future husband.
The Arch Deceiver was set during the 19th century, whereas Seduction was set during the 1980’s in Liverpool. During the period of time, 1900’s there was a very strict moral about deceiving and in those day’s, men had to ask women to marry. If it was the other way round then it was meant to be a disgrace and awkward. During the 1980’s you needed good GCSE’s grades to be very certain of your future life and if pregnant before marriage you were supplied with bad attitudes and a very negative reputation.
From the poem and story of deceiving one another, Seduction is the most critical of deception. This is because the writer, Eileen McAuley takes deception very seriously as the boy uses the girl to have sex, which then makes her pregnant. However Thomas Hardy takes deception very amusing towards Tony Kytes as he unintelligently hides the girls one by one in the kart. Tone, content, language and symbolism help us to see who is the most critical towards deception.
BY JULAN SHAH