Tony Kytes the Arch Deceiver" is a hilarious story of an afternoon when Tony was driving home from the market in his wagon. A pretty girl called Unity to whom he was quite close before he met his present fiancé stopped him and asked him to give her a lift home. They were riding along, having a flirtatious conversation, when Tony saw Milly, his fiancée. Fearing her displeasure on seeing Unity riding with him on the wagon, he manages to persuade Unity to hide at the back of the wagon. Extraordinarily, later in the journey Tony manages to persuade Milly to do the same thing when he sees yet another young lady, this time called Hannah. Inevitably, at the end of the journey the three young ladies discover each other's presence. After a brief period of mayhem, Milly and Tony are alone again, planning their wedding.
Both stories have been written in quite different times when society was very different to nowadays. The reason I am studying these stories are because I want to see how women were treated in that time and how they are portrayed in them. ‘Of Mice and Men’ is more recent than The Arch Deceiver, so the women in both stories are portrayed differently. In our society nowadays women are treated equally to men. Men do now have that control that they used to have over women in the 1800’s. Women can do anything they want in this time and I think that is quite fair.
Firstly I'll be looking at ‘Of Mice and Men‘. Not a lot of females are mentioned in this story. The most we hear about is Curley’s wife. Its is surprising that she doesn't have a name. She is just called Curley’s wife, as if she belonged to Curley and was only his possession. She’s an attractive woman who flaunts herself in front of the ranch-hands in inappropriate clothing and flirts with them at every opportunity. She seems conscious of the effects this has on the men. Her constant search for attention eventually leads to her accidental death at the hands of Lennie. She is not seen as an individual but is seen by various characters as a symbol of other things- a temptress, a sex-object, or a piece of jail bait. She had dreams of a better, more fulfilling life, but these are based on glossy film magazines and the easy promises from men she has know in her past. We do not know for sure how far she would go with the men in the ranch if she were given the chance. Our only opportunity to find this out is when she meets Lennie in the barn alone. Steinbeck describes this with very skilful ambiguity. It is quite hard to presume what is to happen next.
Curley is proud of his new wife, particularly when she makes others envious of him. The implication of ‘Glove fulla Vaseline’ shows him keeping his hand soft in order he may ‘pet’ his wife. Steinbeck has already established a frightening connection between Lennie, ‘petting’, and death. A confrontation between Lennie and Curley already looks dangerous. Candy, one of the older workers there, thinks Curley’s wife is a tart. Most of the ranch men thought of her like that. However Lennie was fascinated by her and this was not good because it shows that something bad is going to happen. George senses imminent danger and tries to warn Lennie about the kind of woman Curley’s Wife is. He calls her ‘jailbait’ although in fact the consequences of her contact with Lennie will be far worse than any jail sentence, George seems to have a very biased and basic view of women. He sees them as only instruments to relieve certain physical urges. He does not express the need for and female companionship beyond this and his lack of trust further illustrated by the fact that women are not included in his picture of a ‘dream’. By seeing how other people react towards her you can see that they don't want to mess with her because they know that they will get in trouble with Curley. They know that Curley’s wife is ‘jailbait’.
The female characters are not very diverse in the Tony Kytes story, and they are described very superficially as stereotypes of manipulative feminine whiles as when Unity says "and-can you say I'm not pretty, Tony? Now look at me!" In the story there were six characters, the four main ones being Tony and the three young ladies. The one we get to know best of all is Tony. Through his conversation with the girls, he reveals himself as being an indecisive, weak but well meaning character. He finds it difficult to refuse any of the women a lift, and seems beguiled by the beauty of each of them when the others were out of sight as when he says to Unity "I never knowed you was so pretty before!" At the time in which it was written, all women were expected to marry. There was little opportunity for them to work and become financially independent and so a woman's father literally "gave her away" in the marriage service to become her husband's financial responsibility. Women, therefore, directed all their energies into finding a husband using whatever cunning was necessary. Today the situation is different and women are under no pressure to marry. It is difficult to say who is being more manipulative, Tony or the girls. Tony seems to be in less command of the situation than any of the girls. As he is constantly acting on impulse. The girls on the other hand are each acting with the clear intention of securing Tony for a husband. However, because of the nature of a woman's place in the society of the time, Tony ultimately has the upper hand. The women must wait to be chosen. Even at the climax of the story, when all the girls have discovered each other's existence Tony merely says "Don't ye quarrel my dears-don't ye!"
The type of language used in both stories is quite different as well. Steinbeck uses more of the language which is commonly used nowadays, whilst in Hardy’s story the character spoke a dialect which would have been barely understood in this time.
Both pieces of writing show how young women can be misled by somewhat more experienced men. This is shown by their innocence and tendency to follow the male initiatives, to the extent that the young ladies in the Tony Kytes story are willing to suspend common sense and ludicrously conceal themselves beneath tarpaulin. The differences between the two pieces of text lie inherently in the period in which they were written, whilst the girls in the Tony Kytes story merely suffer some injury to their dignity. On the other hand, Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men seemed to be more clever and sophisticated.
The theme running through both the stories is one of the subtle and delicate balances of power in the relationships between men and women.
Both stories are really interesting to read. There are a lot of differences between them. The story I think I have enjoyed most would have to be Of Mice and Men. The simple reason is that I found it much more realistic and interesting. It seemed more of this time then the Tony Kytes story. That story seemed too made up and it didn't make me feel like, ‘yeah this is a good book'. But when I read Of Mice and Men I knew that this could be a book that you could like.
