Relationships between men and women are a perennial subject of interest.
English Wide Reading Task
Relationships between men and women are a perennial subject of interest. Examine how this topic in treated in short stories of two different periods.
For this task, I chose "Tony Kytes: Arch Deceiver" by Thomas Hardy, and "Tickets, Please" by D. H. Lawrence. These short stories are excellent for comparison, as "Tony Kytes" is pre-20th century, while "Tickets, Please" is from World War 1, when female empowerment came about.
In the story "Tony Kytes: Arch Deceiver", the main male character is called Tony Kytes. His character is very likeable, being very human, reacting realistically to the situation at hand, for example, when the three maidens in the wagon tumble out as the horse walks into a ditch. He is very quick-witted, being able to invent stories to tell the three to keep them on good terms. He is described as being handsome, with a "little, round, firm, tight face", and being very popular with women, being "quite the women's favourite".
As the story progresses, you can see Tony Kytes' character in more and more detail. At the beginning, you can see that he's a kind and gentle person, shown by his giving a ride to Unity even though he's engaged to be married. In those days, this wasn't done, and this shows that he goes against accepted, conventional behaviour to help unity. This also shows that he's a complete flirt, flattering a girl that is not his fiancée, shown by the fact that he says: "I never knowed you was so pretty before!". We can also see that he's not completely frank, hiding Unity in his 'waggon' when Milly comes around the corner. Milly is his fiancée, and, as Tony doesn't have time to get Unity off the 'waggon', he hides her, giving her a truthful explanation but not saying anything to Milly. And again, later in the story, when he meets a third girl, he hides Milly in his wagon as well, saying that he's "afeard of (Hannah's) temper", as she wanted to marry him as well, and would her angry of she saw Milly with him. He used flattery, in the form of praise of Milly's looks, to get her to co-operate with him.
Tony Kytes is also a 'fast-' and 'sweet-talker', able to talk people into things, and is able to make up stories on the spot very quickly. This is demonstrated by the explanations offered to Milly and Unity for hiding them in his wagon. He is also, to some degree, thoughtless, worrying about Unity's and Milly's feelings only so far, then forgetting about them when talking to Hannah. This is exemplified by his words to Hannah, while Unity and Milly are still in the wagon: "My sweet Hannah!...Settled (marriage with Milly)? I don't think I have!" He doesn't seem to be bothered that both Unity and Milly are in the wagon, and would be extremely hurt at these words. Hannah occupies his thoughts completely, and he was reconsidering his plans with Milly: "...why he had said a word of marriage to Milly or Unity while Hannah Jolliver was in question."
The women in the story are all like each other, in that they all accept his stories and explanations, exposing their gullibility. They are very simple characters, all being in love with Tony and all wanting to marry him. Unity and Hannah are, we think, jealous of Milly, as Milly is engaged to be married to him. Evidence of this comes from Hannah's words: "You've settled it with Milly by this time, I suppose," The words of this sentence tell us of Hannah's love and jealousy, the sentence almost containing tangible evidence of jealousy in the tone in ...
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The women in the story are all like each other, in that they all accept his stories and explanations, exposing their gullibility. They are very simple characters, all being in love with Tony and all wanting to marry him. Unity and Hannah are, we think, jealous of Milly, as Milly is engaged to be married to him. Evidence of this comes from Hannah's words: "You've settled it with Milly by this time, I suppose," The words of this sentence tell us of Hannah's love and jealousy, the sentence almost containing tangible evidence of jealousy in the tone in which it could be said. Unity's jealousy is shown by the words: "...why did you desert me for that other one?" You can tell she is bitter, just from that sentence.
And, at the end, we see that only Milly knows Tony well enough to accept him straight away, accepting his apologies and explanations. Unity and Hannah, on the other hand, refuse, all the while hoping that Tony will propose to them later, in private.
Tony and the women have a very flirtatious relationship, with all the women loving Tony and him loving them back. Unity, Milly and Hannah try to gain favours with him, asking to ride with him, all except Milly, who Tony invites, so they some time alone with him.
Towards the end, you can see the mess Tony has got into, when he talks to his father, telling him of all the women in the wagon. This is where some humour is introduced into the proceedings as Tony relates the story to his father. The situation is very funny, and you try and wonder how Tony is going to get out of this. When all three women have been pitched into a ditch after the horse turned too quickly as Hannah couldn't hold the reins properly, you can see that Tony wants to marry Hannah first, then Unity, and Milly last, this partly explained by his father's recommendation of Milly. As he doesn't want to do anything his father wants him to do, he doesn't ask Milly to marry him first.
Hannah refuses him, partly because of hurt pride, as she scratched her face on a bramble as she fell, and partly because her father, who walked up to them, encouraged her to "have spirit enough to refuse him". Unity also refuses, like Hannah, because she's "in a tantrum because of (their) discovery". Milly, who is last to be asked to marry Tony, accepts. This is a surprising reaction, as we would expect her to be outraged at the fact that even though they are engaged, he asked her to marry him last, first choosing to ask Hannah and Unity. She then asks him if he meant a word of what he said to the others. With an emphatic gesture, he denies it, and she believes him. Our first impression of this is that she is gullible. But then we realise that, in a way, Milly has won Tony. The other two walked off, hoping in vain that he would follow them, or propose later, in private. Milly is the only one who accepts him the first time, probably thinking that if she refused, he would ask one of the other two. And again, Tony is not completely frank, when he says that he didn't mean what he said to the others. He is desperate (I think) when his two main choices refuse, and will probably say anything to get Milly to marry him. I think he is scared of her refusing, even though she is engaged to him. Evidence of this comes from the words: "...fate had ordained that it should be you and I, or nobody" The 'you and I, or nobody' part is very interesting as he gives Milly an ultimatum, also trying to make her feel guilty that if she refused, he wouldn't marry anyone else. In those days, it was considered respectable to get married early in life, for men and women.
In the story "Tickets, Please" by D.H. Lawrence, the plot is much more intricate, and is also darker and deeper. This atmosphere is created by the fact that the female characters seriously injure the single male character towards the end. The fact that this story is from the First World War should be kept in mind. This story is a complete contrast to "Tony Kytes", which is a light-hearted and humourous tale. "Tickets, Please" shows the darker side of the relationships between men and women.
In this story, the main character is called John Thomas Raynor. He's very similar to Tony Kytes, in that he's an incorrigible flirt: he "flirts with the girl conductors", "...flirts and walks of with the (new girls conductors)" The difference between Tony Kytes and John Thomas Raynor is that John Thomas is not easily manipulated by the women in the story. He falls in love with them on his own, only backing off when they showed "an intelligent interest". He also seems to have an interest in the new conductors, going out with them "always providing (they were) sufficiently attractive". He is also, to some degree, thoughtless, very like Tony Kytes. He doesn't seem to care about the feelings of the girls he has dumped, like Annie, immediately picking another girl without a second thought, exhibited by the fact that when he came onto Annie's car, he let "her see by the movement of his head that he had gone away to somebody else for the time being...". He doesn't seem to think that Annie has any feelings, and that she's hurt over his backing off from her.
There are many female characters in "Tickets, Please", and they are very different to the women in "Tony Kytes". The women in "Tony Kytes" are very calm and controlled and very feminine, while the women in this story are described as "fearless young hussies" who "fear nobody" and "everybody fears them". The element of fear of the women conductors is repeated, as if to stress the point that these are no ordinary women. All of them are young, ("There are no grey heads") which makes perfect pickings for John Thomas' character. The women are also "peremptory, suspicious and ready to hit first". This is very un-woman-like behaviour, as the story is set in the First World War. They should follow the same conventions as the women from "Tony Kytes", but this is not the case, as exhibited by the violent beating of John Thomas at the end.
Unlike "Tony Kytes", there is only one main female character, who is called Annie. She is very like the rest of the female characters, in that she's "fearless" and all the rest, and used to be in love with John Thomas, and, like most of the rest of the girls, has been rejected by him. She hates him, exhibited by her emotions: "she wept with fury, indignation, desolation and misery". So she is the one who sets out to get revenge, and is the ringleader. She is the one who gets some of the others to join her in "dropping him down a peg or two". Apparently, when there are no new choices for John Thomas, he thinks of Annie ("He cast his eyes over the old flock. And his eyes lighted on Annie", "Besides, he liked her")
Towards the end of this story, you begin to see the seeds that John Thomas has planted begin to take root. All the girls now want revenge on him for dumping them. When Annie and the other girls attack John Thomas, they get very violent, almost sadistic. The "strange, wild creatures" that were "slapping him, pinching him, pulling his hair..." made him "see red". John Thomas is then made to make a decision on which girl he wants to marry: "You've got to choose". This is very like "Tony Kytes", where Tony Kytes has to make a choice on whom to marry, and here a similar situation arises. But the difference is that the girls here are trying to genuinely hurt him, and one of the girls, Nora, strangling him. The sense of sadism on the part of the girls is further heightened when three of the girls, Polly, Emma and Muriel, start laughing at his prone form, with torn tunic and "torn wrists", and even though it isn't sinister laughter, what sort of person laughs at that kind of sight? John Thomas finally chooses Annie, probably thinking that, as she is the leader, the others will probably turn on her, as she organised this and is counting on their jealousy as none of them got to marry him, but Annie did. Annie refuses to touch him, and rejects his forced proposal. This is unlike "Tony Kytes", where at least Tony marries one of them, while John Thomas doesn't.
Both stories throw a completely different light on the subject of men-women relations. "Tony Kytes: Arch Deceiver" shows the relationships in an amusing way, while "Tickets, Please" tackles the darker side of relationships.
