Almost a child who has no idea what to do in this story, Tony Kytes struggles to think of a way to get around the situation. The story is based around this one character; every other is a ‘mere player’ in it.
Not much can be said about each and every girl, since only a few words describe each. This is why I describe them as a whole. They have all fallen madly for Tony, what they don’t know is that there are others like them laying a few feet away whether it is under a sandbag or a seat.
Tony can get along with any girl, the relationship between them are very strong bonded that can never break up, very hard to pull away. Their affection of love is greatly needed for each other. Some of the girls may not do enough for Tony he was not fair to them after the wagon incident. Milly, she was very kind and lovable, actually agreeing to marry him, even though she was the last choice. This is the best wife that Tony could ever find after being the type of man he was, playing with women.
The reason why Tony went through finding woman and treating them like toys was because he just wanted to find the right bride for himself and that was Milly as she gave all her heart to him, knowing she can live with this man for the rest of her life, while Hannah and Unity didn’t take any of the drama that was happening and walked away, with disrespect, but were hoping Tony would repeat his question “will you marry me” to them again. This story is very strange as women these days would leave the man, giving a back hand slap across their face, but these young ladies just accept what he has done, two walk away and one decides to spend the rest of her life with him. This shows that Milly is capable of trusting him again and make sure that he would not repeat his mistake again.
When Hannah and Unity ask for a ride home with him, he seemed to have no objection to it, even though he is engaged to Milly. This was very unthoughful of him as he was not thinking how it could affect his relationship with Milly and the outside world. He had used romantic words e.g. darling, dear, pretty just to impress the 3 ladies. When the ladies say “you don’t expect me to walk home do you?”
Tony says “You don’t suppose I could refuse ‘ee?” meaning that he wouldn’t ever refuse and will do anything that they wish for. Through out the story, Tony seems to impress the ladies in different ways, but at the same time he changes his mind about them, until the accident occurred at Long puddle.
He seems to be very attracted to Hannah when she first sat in the wagon “Tony’s eyes were rested on her, and her’s on his,” they both seem very passionate here, eventually they began to sat even closer to each other. Tony then started to say “ Hannah” in a tender voice, at this point it seem that Tony is very comfortable and wants to carry on with the romantic affection in his heart that he is feeling.
Tony has chosen his bride and that is Milly. He is dumped by all except for one mistress. He was dumped by the other females because of the accident and what he had done to them, acting sneaky. It shows that Milly and Tony were meant to be together as it was shown my destiny “Well Milly, it do seem as if fate had ordained that it should be you and I, or nobody.” When he says nobody it seems that he won’t accept anyone else if he is rejected by Milly as he may not get another girl in his life again.
Overall the author shows women to be a little weak and easily led by a little flattery or a compliment, seeking only a husband, family and happy ever after life. The author shows the man being able to pick and chose his women according to his mood and not have much sensitivity, choosing the women who he is left with.
The story ‘Seeing a Beauty Queen’ is similar to Tony Kytes in the world of romance and girls. There is a great difference between how the girls are treated and how the boy is treated in both stories.
The story starts off with Rudy at a club, dancing on the dance floor. He seems the type of guy that is popular and can eye up any chick he wants and they come running into his arms the next minute. “Naturally all dames are after me,” at this point he is saying that woman just adore him the way he is and think he is stunning that they have to meet and spend time with him on the dance floor.
The girl Maggie, who was “heavy-legged” said Rudy to his mate, is to be known as the ‘Cotton Town Beauty Queen’. She had been dancing with Rudy very fast that his toes were not touching the floor. Rudy didn’t mind the fact that she was ugly, as long as she was a beauty queen, as in those days beauty queens were accepted as babes. Rudy wasn’t really that interested in her at first, until his friend Eddie had told him she was a beauty queen, he expected to take Maggie home, as that is what all the guys did. At this point, it seems Rudy is the type of man that uses a woman and then dumps her, this shows no respect for Maggie, also it seems that he doesn’t have any responsibilities for the feeling of other people.
He doesn’t seem to be keen with Maggie at all, and thinks she is a waste. Still he goes to her house and they make out on the way, acting like boyfriend and girlfriend. At this point, he is surely using her for something. He didn’t seem to like the kiss when he had to tip-toe; it shows that he regrets missing his tram to go home. They carry on walking to her house; he gets abit worried what if somebody is in the house, because he doesn’t want to get caught for anything. Maggie had warned him saying her grandma is in, but sleeping. She seems very generous to ask him to come inside for a cocoa, but he refuses. It seems he is starting to like her even though she doesn’t have the looks that those types of guys would expect.
Once at the house, they both seem to get close with each other in front of the fire; Rudy looks round the house, recognising if she is a tidy person. Maggie insists on making a cup of cocoa and toast with cheese for both of them, while she was doing that, her grandma comes down and thinks Rudy is Ernie (Maggie old friend), The conversation with the grandma shows Rudy trying to escape from all the dodgy questions that grandma was asking him, instead asking about matters of grandma’s health and leg problem.
At the end of this story, Maggie seems to realise how clever Rudy can be. After Grandmas conversation she makes him leave even though “it’s pouring down” and he has “no Mac.” She seems to have realised that there is no long term relationship on after and Rudy is clever enough to get anything he wants. She thought that he got away with Grandma but not me.
The story ‘News of the Engagement’, does not involve young love in the same way as the other two stories. It is more the relationship between mother and son, and their chosen partners. The sons name is Philip; he had come to visit his mother in Bursley for Christmas. He has tremendous news to tell her that he is engaged to Agnes.
The relationship between the mother and son is a very strong bond and nothing can separate it. They seem to love each other dearly and just want the best for each other. The mother seems to have an amazing sense of passion for her son, she knows when her son is close to her “opened me up, having doubtless watch me down the road from the bay-window.” She is keen to meet her son, so she watches him from a window and waits for him to return to her home.
The mother looks happy before she has even met her son, Philip thinks that his mother knows about the engagement, but she just isn’t telling him that she knows. When he sees the dinner table set up for three, he thinks that Agnes is coming over for supper, but just didn’t tell him, every time the door bell rang, mother would go running to the door.
The only reason she went running to the door, is to see if her own sweetheart has arrived for supper, Mr Nixon, but Philip does not know this. He does wonder why Mr Nixon is here for supper. Philip was hoping to tell his mother about the engagement privately not in front of Mr Nixon. He thought he would wait for a while and then tell her after Mr Nixon leaves.
It turns out that he doesn’t and the two men end up talking about their personal lives. “What do you think if me as your stepfather Philip?” Mr Nixon had asked, Philip was surprised and didn’t know what to think. He thought for a moment that his mum and Mr Nixon are a couple, he was right, they are a couple and soon to be engaged. In the story, there are two engagements happening in one family, with mother and son, and both had kept a secret because they had wanted to confess to him face to face.
Philip was pleased for his mother and Mr Nixon because he wanted his mum to be happy. Philip had left his exciting news for the next day because he did not want to spoil his mum’s mood, as he did not know if she would object or be happy for him. Here he had thought about his mum, thinking how happy she is and that he wouldn’t intrude his joys on hers.
These three stories are involved love, romance and desire of men and women.
Each story shows a different side of this. In Tony Kytes the women are shown a looking for a husband and a good fairytale family life. The author shows that only one girl is capable of dealing with Tony and his charming ways.
In the second story the author also portrays a charmer in Rudy but this girl is a bit smarter. She realises that Rudy does not seek a commitment and she throws him out.
In the final story the ‘love’ is more the unconditional mother/son relationship. Both are shown as caring and respecting the needs and feelings of each other.
These authors show the relationship between man and woman can be many and varied not just ‘love’ and ‘marriage.’ Only in the ‘News of the Engagement’ are we clearly shown a love of a deeper kind that between mother and son.
The first two stories show the man seeking to fulfil his own needs in obtaining a woman to be by his side. In the third although we are shown Philip has this need his love for his mother and her happiness causes him to hold back his news, showing real love.
