Comparison between Tony Kytes and The Seduction

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Comparison between Tony Kytes and The Seduction

Both Tony Kytes and The Seduction deal with relationships between young men and girls. Both tell of the ways in which the men manipulate the girls, gaining what they want at the girls’ expenses. They both detail the insensitive treatment of the girls and explore the attitudes towards sex, marriage and the opposite sex from both the male and female point of views.

Tony Kytes is a humorous account of a young man called Tony and his encounter with three prospective young women whilst driving his cart back from the nearby market. The first is sly and worms her way into Tony’s affections. However his fiancée Milly appears and Tony requests Unity to hide under the tarpaulin in the back of the cart to avoid a difficult confrontation. Milly arrives and climbs aboard the cart, yet they have not travelled far before Tony spies another pretty girl, namely Hannah Jolliver. This time he persuades Milly to hide in the back of the cart and she too consents. Hannah requests a lift and openly flirts with him, making Tony wonder about who he really wants to marry.

He notices his Father, who offers some good advice – that he should marry the one girl who didn’t ask for a lift (Milly), Tony immediately disregards it. Meanwhile the horse has run off, tipping the cart over and revealing all three girls, forcing Tony to make a quick decision.       He asks Hannah, who refuses him due to her father’s presence. Unity is asked next, but she refuses him, as she was only second choice. Tony then requests Milly’s hand in marriage, she accepts; they get married shortly afterwards.

The Seduction is a rather different account of yet another encounter between a young man; this time only one female is involved. Set in Tyneside in 1980’s it describes a meeting between a young man and a young girl at a party, and the ensuing aftermath. At the party the girl is plied with alcohol, which makes her more and more relaxed, till finally the man takes her to a favourite spot of his by the river where he takes advantage of her alcohol-fuelled state.

When the girl realises she is three months pregnant she is devastated. She realises that she can no longer be the innocent girl she was and can no longer look forward to carefree summers with her friends. She recognises that she will not get to experience teenage life in the same way again and is mortified by this.

Tony Kytes is set in the 1800’s in a rural Wessex farming community. We know it is a farming community due to the references of “…the ploughmen at work in the fields”. The quote “…I’ve really a couple of ferrets in a bag under there, for rabbiting…” confirms that the people of the time rely more heavily on the land and would tend to eat more natural food. But the following quote “…’twould be called poaching” suggests that the countryside is not a free place to take what you want.

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The country scene is a romantic setting. It is much more pleasant to be looking “…at the trees, and beasts, and birds and insects, and at the ploughmen at work in the fields” than to be surrounded by “…the silver stream of traffic through the city… the blind windows of the tower blocks.” as in the Seduction. The “bricks”, “tower blocks” and “windows” are all cold, harsh objects – like the poem, which shows a cold, harsh reality; Tony Kytes uses soft and warm objects, such as “rabbits” and talking about “what a fine day it is”, which makes ...

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