Presentation of Marriage in"Tony Kytes the Arch-Deceiver" and "The Half Brothers".

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Presentation of Marriage in

“Tony Kytes the Arch-Deceiver

and “The Half Brothers

        These short stories were both written in the same period of time and are based around the same topic. Both of the stories were written in the Victorian Times and are set in small, village communities where everyone would know one another and any news, whether good or bad, would be quickly spread. The storylines are both based around marriage and how it would not be seen upon in these times. Marriage in the Victorian Times was not as it is today and this is why these stories would be of great interest to readers or listeners both now and then.

        A marriage in the Victorian Times was true to the vows spoken upon the Wedding Day and expected to last a lifetime, no matter what. A divorce would not even be heard of, let alone spoken about. This would be the case for nearly every married couple of that time, but even still, there would be the extreme happening were this would not be the case. Someone would leave their partner and form a new relationship with a new partner elsewhere, despite the fact that they were still married or currently in a relationship.

        Victorian marriages were very unbalanced. The husband would be very submissive, and whether she wanted to or not, the wife had to oblige. Once they were married, every one of the woman’s possessions became her husbands. Even if the couple came to live apart, this would still have to happen, and could result in the woman being left with nothing and only entitled to what her husband did not want for himself and would therefore give to her.

        In 1857, when the Divorce Act was first declared as being official, the balance between the power that a husband had over his wife and her possessions was equalled out slightly. Even still, it continued to be bias towards the husband. If the woman wanted a divorce, she legally had to prove that she had been the victim of adultery and desertion, cruelty or bigamy and all that the husband or man involved had to prove, was a single case of adultery. Although it wasn’t much of an improvement, it did help to provide women with some from of security and a slightly more stable way out of the marriage.

        With this knowledge of Victorian marriages in mind, we are able to imagine what the two short stories will portray. With the short stories being written in the Victorian era, we would expect the characters to behave in a way that reflected people’s opinions towards marriage of that time, and how it was thought upon. To help make the stories more interesting, writers of this time would often write the stories in such a way that they showed the characters opposing this opinion of marriage.

        The two short stories are both written by different authors. Although they are both writing about the same topic and basing the stories on the idea of marriage, they focus on different points of society and types of people.  

        A man called Thomas Hardy wrote “Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver.” In his story, he wrote about the countryside and the people living in and around the area of Wessex. His stories would often be based around the lives of ordinary people or the ‘lower’ or ‘working class’ as they would have been known in the Victorian days. His story of “Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver” was first written as part of a compilation of stories entitled, “Life’s Little Ironies.” This compilation was first published in 1895.

        Elizabeth Gaskell wrote “The Half Brothers.” Like Thomas Hardy, she would often write about the problems that the so-called ‘working class’ would be faced with. In this story, she focuses her writing on the point of marriage, in a lot more detail than Tony Kytes. She did this by looking at the difficulties and poverty that would often come with a marriage and children. Elizabeth Gaskell’s story of “The Half Brothers,” was published 37 years previous to Thomas Hardy’s “Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver.” It was just one year after the Divorce Act was declared official.

        The two short stories are both very different, but they are based on the same topic, marriage. “The Half Brothers” and “Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver,” were both written in the Victorian Times, even though there are a rather large amount of years between each of the two publications. They focus on the lives of ordinary people of this time, and are therefore set in small village communities, as this was how the majority of people used to live.

 

        “Tony Kytes, the Arch Deceiver,” is written in a way that makes you feel as though you are actually in the story and following the characters round as each of the happenings actually take place. The main character in the story is Tony Kytes himself. As well as Tony, there are also another three main characters that are all women and a male character that we are very briefly introduced, because he is only involved for such a short period of time.

         The story begins with Tony Kytes returning home from running an errand for his father, when he comes across a young lady called Unity Sallet. Tony is already engaged and due to be married to a different lady called Milly Richards, but this does not seem to hold any effect on Tony. As Tony has always liked having many girls and previous to becoming engaged, he had formed a rather close and intense relationship with Unity, as well as another girl called Hannah. Although he is now engaged to someone else, Tony is still very tender towards both of these young ladies. When Unity asks Tony for a ride home, he readily agrees and helps her into his wagon. As Tony, with Unity sitting alongside him, continues on with his journey, he behaves very flirtatiously towards Unity, who obviously responds to this in much of the same manner. This type behaviour, even more so when it is displayed in public, would have been greatly disliked in the Victorian Times, and even more so if you were already engaged to a different woman. Tony completely ignores the fact that he is supposed to be fully committed to Milly and continues to enjoy himself and give his full attention to Unity. It is only when he notices Milly heading towards him in the distance when he realises that she nor anyone else for that matter, would approve of him riding along with Unity. By lying to Unity and filling her with empty promises, Tony manages to persuade her into hiding under some tarpaulin at the back of his wagon. Unity is especially keen to do as Tony wishes, when he tells her that by doing so he will consider marrying her instead of Milly.

        With Unity hiding in the back of his wagon, Tony invited Milly to step into his wagon and offered her to ride back home with him. Unaware that Unity is hiding in the back, Milly accepts this offer. As he drove on with Milly next to him and Unity under the tarpaulin, Tony noticed another lady up in the distance. This time, it was Hannah Jolliver, one of the girls that Tony had been very close and affectionate to before meeting Milly. Well aware of his past relationship with Hannah and the lies that he had probably filled her with, he could not drive past and let her see him with Milly. By saying that he loved her greatly and how she was soon to be his loving wife, so should therefore be willing to oblige, he manages to persuade Milly into hiding under some sacks, but at the front of the wagon, so that she didn’t meet up with Unity hiding at the back. He then rode on to meet Hannah. When he met her, she asked him for a ride home, and unable to refuse without having to tell her the truth about Unity and Milly, Tony offered her the seat next to him and continued on with the journey. Like he had with Milly and Unity, Tony now started to tell Hannah how much he loved her and wished that he could marry her and how much prettier than Milly she was.  He continued on his journey with Milly hiding at the front under some sacks, Unity hiding at the back under some tarpaulin and Hannah sitting next to him, when he came across a third person. This time however, it was not another woman whom Tony had had a previous relationship with, it was in fact his father.  

At this point in time, Tony has three women in his wagon, each of which he wishes to marry. As he is unable to decide for himself, Tony decided to leave Hannah in control of the horses and go and speak to his father in hope that he would be able to tell him whom he should marry. His father sticks to society’s opinion of marriage and tells Tony to marry whichever girl did not ask for the ride. As it so happens, the only girl to be invited by Tony, was Milly.

        As Tony was talking to his father, Milly and Unity had come across each other hiding in the wagon. As she was not used to riding a wagon, Hannah had lost control of the horses causing the wagon to fall over and each of the girls to topple out of it. Tony could not believe what had happened, and new that he now had no choice but to ask one of the three girls to marry him. Ignoring all of the advice that he had just been given from his father, Tony asked Hannah to marry him. Unfortunately for both Tony and Hannah, Hannah's father had arrived. He refused for her daughter to marry Tony and led her away. Having just had Hannah refuse his offer, Tony turned to Unity and asked her to marry him instead. Unity refused to be second best for anyone and left Tony having turned down his proposal. With no other choice, Tony turned to Milly, and asked her if she still wanted to marry him. After filling her with even more lies about not meaning what he had said to Unity and Hannah, Milly agreed to marry Tony and their banns were put up the following Sunday.

        This story of Tony Kytes, opposes nearly all of the Victorian opinions of marriage. Tony was not yet ready for marriage but was going along with what society expected a man of his age to do. As he was not yet ready, he could not decide whom he wanted for himself and continually changed his mind. This resulted in him getting into a lot of trouble and although he loved Milly and wanted to marry her he also wanted to marry Hannah and Unity. Tony continually deceived Milly and each of the other girls throughout their relationships and it was through this deceit that Tony ended up getting himself into such a big mess.

During the Victorian era, once you had committed yourself to a woman, you were expected to stay with her throughout the rest of your life and anyone who did not do this, was thought to be very disrespectful. It was because of this, that Hannah’s father was so disgusted with Tony and therefore forbade his daughter to marry him.

        “The Half Brothers,” is written in the third person by one of the main characters. Even though he is the central character and tells us the story, we never find out his name and are therefore only able to refer to him as the narrator or brother. He briefly describes events that took place before he was born or when he was too young to remember, as how other people had explained them to him. This is how he describes his mother to us. There are five main characters in this story, three adults and two children, the half brothers.  

        The story begins with the narrator describing his mother, Helen, to us. She was a widower at the age of twenty-one and had been left a single mother of one with another child on the way and no money. This would often happen to many women in the same position as Helen. The child she is pregnant with later turns out to be known as Gregory and the narrator’s half brother. Sadly, a fortnight before Gregory was born, the other child died of scarlet fever. Even though she had lost a child, Helen never cried once, even when the child’s funeral took place, she did not attend and remained at home as dry-eyed as ever. It was only when she had given birth to Gregory and he was lying in her arms, that she shed her first tear. Helen’s sister, Gregory’s Aunt Fanny came to stay with them and helped to try and earn the family some money. She also helped to look after Gregory and take care of the housework for Helen. The two sisters, managed to get jobs working in the great Glasgow sewing merchants. This managed to earn them just enough money to survive on, but gradually, Helen’s eyesight begun to fail and she could no longer work. With Helen being unable to work, the family had to survive on Aunt Fanny’s wages alone. It was shortly after this, when William Preston came along.           

        Preston made many visits to see Helen, and then one Sunday after Church, he asked her to marry him. Although she knew that she didn’t love him, Helen agreed to marry Preston because she knew that he would be able to provide for her and Gregory. She was sorry that she had agreed but knew that she would not be able to provide for Gregory herself and it would be better for him in the long run. She tried as hard as possible to please Preston and be the dutiful wife that he wanted, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not love him. Her lack of love for Preston increased her love for Gregory and he did not like this. Helen’s love for Gregory caused Preston to grow to hate him more and more and in despair of trying to make Helen love him, he ended up trying to make her love her son less. During this time, Helen had become pregnant with Preston’s child, and one day after an argument with Preston she became ill and took to her bed. That was when she gave birth to the narrator. Preston was overjoyed at having a new son, but he was also devastated about the state that he had caused his wife to fall into. Eventually, Helen died and Aunt Fanny moved in to look after the house and take care of the children. The loss of his wife caused Preston’s hatred and anger towards Gregory to grow even more. Even the narrator with whom he shared a mother grew up disliking him.  

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        One afternoon, Gregory was doing some shepherding work on the farm with his dog, when his father sent the narrator on an errand. He was told not to return by the Fells, as it would be growing dark. Laziness and lack of obedience for his father, cause the narrator to ignore what his father had told him and returned home across the Fells. It was a cold, dark night, and the narrator was soon lost in the heart of the Fells. When he failed to return home his father and Aunt Fanny began to become increasingly worried and didn’t know ...

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