Compare the male characters in 'Tony Kytes' the arch deceiver and Spiv in love consider their personalities and their relationships with the women in the stories. Refer to social, cultural and historical contexts of the stories.

           The setting of the story in my opinion is not highly important as the same scenes could have been set in a town or a city compared with the village, however the period itself is vital because it is difficult to imagine such naivety in women of today like the 3 female characters shown within the arch deceiver. On the other hand Spiv in love is set in the East end of London and the dialect differs from that of rural Dorset and the terms used play an important role in the story. Relating to the historical purpose of the story all women of this period were expected to marry and there was little opportunity for them to work this then meant the pressure was on the husband to find the income so the females would find a husband using any cunning manipulation they could think of. In the story it is difficult to determine who is more manipulative weather it be Tony himself or the 3 girls because Tony seems to be in less command of the situation compared to the girls who are there waiting to be chosen.

  The tone throughout Tony Kytes is highly humorous and Tony’s antics involving the women descend further into farce for example when the story starts coming to a climax when all the girls find out about each others existence all Tony has to say is "Don't ye quarrel my dears-don't ye!" this then shows how he feels about the women and hasn’t got the strength to tell two of them they are not wanted.

        Spiv in love was written by Bill Norton and written in the late 50’s but is set further along in time compared to Tony Kytes in the 1800’s. The story is set around 3 characters Myra, Eunice and of coarse Spiv the male figure in the story. Spiv is a man who likes to have many women just like Tony Kytes and he is very conscious of his clothes and the way he looks, however the most important part to his character is that his girlfriend whoever it may be must be a show off to all his friends and family. The two stories contrast in the sense that one is set in a rural area and the other in completely the opposite in the busy city of London.

           In the Tony Kytes story it is clear that the narrator is the cart driver himself and is the one who collects the women along his journey on the cart. When Tony first meets Milly it is clear that his behavior shows that he doesn’t want to lose his strong bond with Milly, however because he had already previously promised Unity a ride he wants to be rid of her with minimal effect yet at the same time protect their friendship they have had since they were young, Having said this because of his weak character and love for women he allows her onto the cart which in addition shows he is easily led by women and suggests he doesn’t mind liking more than one women as both Milly and Unity are together on the cart. This highlights his weak and deteriorating will power and easily gives in to the voice of a women and instead of refusing as he should do allows them to take control of him and in a sense let him become even more unstable than he was before they had arrived on the cart. Another important factor that shows his desire for the women when he is supposedly late when meeting Milly, this statement is misleading as he is in fact not late because he has his other companion with him, Unity. When he starts getting question again his weak personality takes over and allows Milly to manipulate his thoughts by her women like ways, which Tony adores. She says “ and I’ve come to meet you as you asked me to do” at this point he has become so involved with her he cannot refuse another women’s company and allows her onboard. Compared to the story Spiv in love, Spiv wanted all of his women both Myra and Eunice to be the ideal girl and can be likened to Tony Kytes as they both like their women, yet in the end of both stories the male characters prove to be weaker than the females mainly because of their tendencies to be thoughtless and un-caring towards the ladies. Spiv wanted the women to portray his love for his clothes by using them as an object rather than a person, he longs to find a girl that he can show off yet when he does come across a women he still treats them with the same unfairness as does Tony kytes except with Tony Kytes he doesn’t directly mistreat them only in the sense that he is going along with 3 ladies at one time. Spiv however cannot see how this mistreating is wrong, instead of showing love towards Myra he only wants her to be a true reflection of him and nothing else this suggests he isn’t really interested in her only as an idol of possessions. “and a bloke cant show em’ off to his mates, which I like to do” from this you can see his lack of respect as he refers to the ladies as em meaning them and it shows he ‘uses’ women as a source of attention another point showing this can be seen when he says “I have no intention of sticking with her”, this complete lack of respect towards both Myra and Eunice all adds up to the cunning and self loved character that Spiv is. Tony Kytes however is the same sort of person but underneath, his feelings for women and in his case all 3 of them have the same meaning as Spivs in the sense that he has no respect or no love for any one of them but would rather treat all of them the same and have 3 compared to one, both male characters do this and cannot decide which women they want.