The story of Tony Kytes the arch deceiver which was written nearly ten decades earlier portrays a more rudimentary view of the roles of men and women. It describes in careful detail a male individual showing infidelity towards three different women. The text gives the reader a picture of how women where treated at that particular point in time by men and other women.
By looking at the texts one can understand the roles of men and women at a time period and get a clear image of how they have changed.
Both texts are presenting similar attitudes of the males towards females, they are very easily tempted to forget that they are committed to just one woman. This shows that the views of Garret and Hardy towards men and women are very similar, hence telling the readers of the text that man has remained the same even thou one hundred years have passed.
Similarly both authors use more than one woman in their texts to get their point across to the reader. In Tony Kytes the arch deceiver Tony is ‘frightened’ of what might happen if all the three women in the carriage were to find out about one another , whilst Manwatching portrays a different aspect the man has a carefree attitude ,and tries to hide what has happened by pretending that it never actually happened “I’m Bored he says , let’s go ” showing that the poet Garret has different views to Hardy.
In a like manner the two texts show women trying to attract attention from members of the opposite sex , and they do so very successfully in fact so successfully that the men forget that they are committed and they play along. In Garrets Manwatching the other woman involved is communicating visual manner “she telegraphs her flirtatious reply” she winks back at the man whom is very pleased with himself , however his girlfriend isn’t so happy “My eyes burn into your back” burn is a violent verb indicating that the woman is very stressed by the man’s actions. Conversely in Tony Kytes the arch deceiver the three women openly converse with Tony in a very flirtatious manner as indicated in the quotation “and I wouldn’t say no if you asked me you know what” clearly this is being said to arouse the mans sexual urges offering herself as an easy target for Tony, it also suggests that the women here are somewhat desperate. This is because during the socioeconomic conditions of the 1890’s women depended on men to provide financial and statutory security, whilst during the 1970’s both men and women had more sexual freedom as well as independence. This also shows the author’s views , Hardy is telling the reader how he felt women behaved during that period of time. This is contrasted by Garrets view , which indicates that women like to just play and tend not to go very far beyond that, that women don't want to compete for a man “her eyes meet mine, she backs off ”.
Both texts show that relationships between men ad women are treated seriously, in garrets poem we are showed that the girlfriend is very possessive and does not want her man to be implicated in any way with other women “my eyes burn into our back” the verb burn here describes jealousy and hatred, also the language used towards the other woman “Bye I said, Frostily “ shows that the woman can have authority over other men and women . This is in contrast to the story of Tony Kytes the arch deceiver in which the women are very indifferent towards the fact that Tony is engaged or that he is flirting with other women “would you mind terribly lying down in the back of the carriage” . Aswell as giving her woman character a sense of belonging, she is possessive, she also gives her an acute sense of security and belief in her abilities, she “knows this scene so well” and yet she is still jealous because of the simple thought that perhaps, maybe something will happen when she doesn’t pay attention. This is contrasted in Tony Kytes the arch deceiver where the one in control of the situation is Tony, the women “climb in the back” as Tony tells them , and even when all the women find out that he is cheating on them one of the women still offers to marry him.
One of the major similarities in both texts is that man’s behavior towards their relationships with women is very rude and abundant with infidelity, which as most of the reads in today’s society will recognize as not very healthy basis for relationships. This may be caused by the authors personal or indirect experiences.
