Comparing "Tony Kytes," with "Tickets Please."
Comparing "Tony Kytes," with "Tickets Please."
The two stories, "Tony Kytes, the Arch Deceiver" and "Tickets Please" were set 25 years apart around the turn of the century. These two stories show how the position of both men and women changed in this short space of time.
"Tony Kytes" was set at the end of the nineteenth century in a rural community, which seems mostly unaffected by the Industrial Revolution, remaining traditional in both the way of life and the attitudes of the people. The members of the community are very relaxed in the way that they live, riding around in the carts, being very leisurely, especially the women who did hardly any work other than in the house. "Tickets Please", set 25 years later, has a much more urban setting with a tougher, faster lifestyle, with all the danger and excitement of the tramlines shown in the assertive and self-assured behaviour of the women who work on them. The men were away at war and the women were doing jobs, which had previously been thought suitable only for men. They had been given freedom and were empowered and able to take liberties. These women were probably encouraged by the suffragettes; giving them confidence and making them examine their own lives and ambitions. They were beginning to believe that they were equal in status to men, and therefore were no longer acting in such a gentle and soft manner.
John Thomas and Tony Kytes are similar because they both have a desire and love for women. "My sweet Hannah!" "I never knowed you was so pretty before" These two quotes show how kind and loving Tony Kytes was towards women. Here are two quotes that also show us how much John Thomas loved women, "He flirts with the girl conductors in the morning." "He flirts and walks out with the newcomer." John and Tony are also similar as they are both loved by women, "He was quite the women's favourite," this is what was said about Tony. "He had all the arts of lovemaking," this quote also proves that john was loved by a lot of women. They are also similar as they both have jobs, get in trouble and are abused at the end of the story, "Never-I would sooner marry no-nobody at all!" "Who wants him?" "Nobody." This is from Tony Kytes and shows, because of the trouble he got himself in, it shows how badly at the end of the story he got abused.
Tony and John are both dissimilar, as Tony wanted a long-term relationship, "Now I'll speak out honest." But John Thomas was different: he would just go out with one girl, have a good time, then go on to another girl, this was totally different from Tony. John intended to be only a "nocturnal presence," this was different from Tony. John also "hated intelligent interest," Tony is not explained in this way. They are different as Tony lives in the country and John lives in the city, which means there are more girls available, this is different for Tony ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Tony and John are both dissimilar, as Tony wanted a long-term relationship, "Now I'll speak out honest." But John Thomas was different: he would just go out with one girl, have a good time, then go on to another girl, this was totally different from Tony. John intended to be only a "nocturnal presence," this was different from Tony. John also "hated intelligent interest," Tony is not explained in this way. They are different as Tony lives in the country and John lives in the city, which means there are more girls available, this is different for Tony in a smaller pastoral community.
The girls from "Tony Kytes": Milly Richards, unity Sallet and Hannah Jolliver and Annie stone from "Tickets Please" are similar in that hey all want a steady, faithful male partner. As Milly says in Tony Kytes, "If you like Tony," this is Milly accepting Tony's proposal for marriage and here it shows that she must want a long-term relationship. Another similarity is that all the girls are described as being very attractive, "Unity Sallet, a handsome girl." "Hannah Jolliver, another young beauty." "Milly Richards, a nice, light, small, tender little thing." All these descriptions from Tony Kytes show how he saw them, "Most of the girls are quite comely," from "Tickets Please," also stresses how attractive the girls must have been in that story. Also in Tony Kytes all the girls really wanted him but they didn't like to admit it, this is shown on the last page, "Never-I would sooner marry no-nobody at all!" but it goes to say that Hannah would have accepted him if he had asked her quietly.
The differences between the girls are that in the earlier story the girls wanted a long-term relationship, We can see this on the last page of the story, as although the girls refuse him, "she looked back when she'd gone some way, to see if he was following her," here we see how desperate unity for a long-term relationship. But in "Tickets Please" the girls just want a man to have sex with an don't really want a long-term relationship, as they move on from man to man. The other difference is that their jobs were "probably" different as Annie Stone was a tramcar conductor and the girls from Tony Kytes; Milly, unity and Hannah were probably low paid farm workers. Another difference was that Annie Stone wanted an, "Intelligent interest" and the 1896 weren't bothered about this: they just wanted a husband.
The similarities between the seriousness of the relationships in each story is that in both stories the women are desperate for a man, "I should have made "ee a finer wife, and more loving one too." This is a quote from Tony Kytes," which really does show how desperate Unity is for a relationship. "She was very glad too have a boy," this is how Annie feels, so this shows how serious she is taking the relationship as well. Another similarity between the two stories are that women would do anything to find a man or convince the man to have a relationship with them, "Think how long we've known each other-ever since we were children almost-now haven't we Tony?" This is Unity' in Tony Kytes," trying to convince Tony to refuse Milly and marry herself and therefore have a permanent relationship with Tony.
The differences between the seriousness of the relationships in each story are that at the end of the story in 'Tickets Please John Thomas is actually beaten up and called names, "He remained lying on the floor, with his torn clothes and bleeding, averted face," this shows how badly he had been beaten up. So in 'Tickets Please,' John's relationships troubles in the end cause him physical injury and verbal insult: in the end John is left with no one. 'Tony Kytes,' is just refused by the two girls he wants, but still ends up marring Milly, so he finds a relationship, out of it in the end. The two girls who refused him, really did want him, "She would not have refused Tony if he had asked her quietly." "She looked back when she'd gone some way, to see if he was following her." So the differences are that Tony, gets a relationship and John doesn't, even though both men are dissatisfied. Tony is very unfaithful and disloyal, "That I will darling," "You don't suppose I could refuse 'ee?" here he is giving Unity a lift home, where he should say no, as he is meant to be in a serious relationship with Milly.
In 'Tickets Please,' D H Lawrence starts off with a long sentence using adventurous, lively words like, "boldly," "high and noble, "wild," "gloomy," he does this because he wants his readers to carry on reading the story, so by putting in a long first sentence, with lively words, this will make his readers interested straight away, therefore they would want to read on. I think this is a good and successful way of keeping the readers interested. In 'Tony Kytes,' Thomas Hardy starts of with a small sentence, "I shall never forget Tony's face," this also I feel is a very good sentence as
straight away you will want to read on and find out why you should "never forget Tony's face." So both stories used a different technique of starting the story and I think both are excellent ways of starting a story. In the earlier story Thomas Hardy uses a lot of colloquialisms as a form of language such as; "'ee," "'em," "ye," "Tisn't," "Ay." Colloquialisms are used to shorten words. This then affects our response to the story as we think that it isn't that serious and is more of a comical story. At the end of the story Thomas Hardy used the sentence, "Everybody in Longpuddle was there almost." He deliberately altered the normal word order and used 'almost' as the last word; he does this to show that the story wasn't all comical and humorous, and that there was a bit of seriousness in it. The later story was more serious than the earlier one and is told in the 3rd person. During the whole story D H Lawrence used lots of different images. For example he calls John Thomas, 'Coddy,' sometimes.
In Tony Kytes the women really followed Tony around, as they wanted a man for respected and love. The women were not really allowed to do much if they didn't have a husband. Also the women had minor jobs. But in the later story the women had good jobs and independence as the time had changed. In this story John Thomas followed the women but in the earlier story it was different, it was the women following the man. Also in the later story the women beat up John Thomas, but in the earlier story the girls would have never have done this.
I have compared the two stories and have come to a decision that the relationships between men and women haven't changed. Women want one partner who will be faithful and stay with them all the time. Men want more than one woman at a time, as long as the women understand. Wars may be won or lost and time may pass, women's fashions may change, but the essential nature of men and women does not alter: men want to be a 'nocturnal presence' and women want an 'intelligent interest.'
