Both men appear respectable, Rudy does it by offering to take a beauty queen home and Tony Kytes tries to appear respectable by taking women with him on his wagon. Both men are hampered by social rules, Tony wants to marry Hannah but her father was there so she said no to Tony. Maggies grandmother didn’t believe that Rudy was Maggies old friend so she kept asking him questions to catch him out. Rudy was too clever to be caught out and lied to Maggies grandmother very convincingly.
Maggie was quick to realise what Rudy was really like and kicked him out of the house. Rudy was to blame for being too blatant in his lying. Tony was also to blame for not having all three of the women, he could have said he could not give them a lift but he gave them all a lift and when the wagon crashed all was revealed.
Tony Kytes is from Wessex of the 1870s whereas Rudy is from a 1950s city that is north of England. Rudy is a lot more arrogant than Tony, he shows this when he said,”…and the one my eye rested on would come running into the arm of my tight-sleeved pinstripe, barrelled jacket.” Tony is deceitful but he not as cunning as Rudy, Tony like Rudy tries to get his girls by lying. Tony’s story is told by the wagon driver, the story is built up in three sections. In the first section Tony is driving down the street in the cart, on the way down he meets three of his ex-girlfriends, all three of his former girlfriends try to talk him into marrying them. In the second section the girls realise strange noises and become suspicious and in the third section the horse leaves the wagon which then tipples over into a bush, the girls notice each other and start arguing, this is how Tony’s story ends. The ending part of Tony’s story where the girls find out about him is funny. Rudy’s story is told by himself, it ends with Maggie realising how deceitful Rudy is and then throws him out of the house. The funny part of this story is the part where she shows him the door. All the women in Tony Kytes try to win his hand in marriage. Hannah is the most devious and deceitful because she was the one who was sucking up to Tony the most like when she said, ”This is nice, isn’t it Tony” or “I like riding with you”. All three of the girls use old English language from the nineteenth century.
Maggie is not really deceitful but she tells little white lies like the part when she said to her grandmother that it was only her in the house when it was in fact her and Rudy. Another time when she lied to her grandmother was when she said, “If you must know its Ernie Adams.” Apart from these two events Maggie is unlike the three girls from Tony Kytes. She seems lower in class in comparison to the other three. I figured this from the language she uses, the other three from Tony Kytes use proper English whereas Maggie uses a lot of slang. She seems a lot rougher than the others three because she unintentionally winded Rudy when she him as a joke but the other three seem to act like ladies.
The language in “Seeing a Beauty Queen Home” is more familiar to the modern day person because it is more or less the language that we use nowadays. The language in Tony Kytes is not familiar to the modern day person because the language is from over one hundred and thirty years ago. The old countryside setting is unfamiliar to us because we don’t see horse and carts anymore but the towns from the 1950s haven’t changed that much and dancehalls are still around in large numbers, there are also a lot of trams about. People are much more likely to sneak people in their houses that one hundred years ago and back in the 1870s parents were the ones who decided who their daughters marry but nowadays parents have almost no say in the matter. We see more into Rudy’s head as it is easier for the author to tell us what Rudy’s is thinking because it is Rudy himself who is telling the story. “Seeing a Beauty Queen Home” and “Tony Kytes” are comical stories both with funny endings they both show what men and women are prepared to do to get what they want. Both stories have three main sections to them.
I prefer “Seeing a Beauty Queen Home” because I find it funnier that “Tony Kytes” and it is also gives a more in-depth description to what going on. It is also less complicated which makes it easier to understand. The setting wouldn’t have to change much because it is not very different from today. I would change the dancehall scene to a party or a club because that’s what today’s youngster are into. I would change the language slightly because some of the slang used seems a bit on the old side. I wouldn’t change the style of the story because it is already original.
