Also, the language used by the two stories differs a lot. ‘Turned’ uses long, complex and sophisticated words like, “I never saw anyone so docile… it is perfection in a servant, but almost a defect in character”. These words also show that Mrs. Marroner is very sophisticated and highly educated. There is also an extended metaphor such as, “and then came the deluge” and “floods rising around”. This shows us that Mrs. Marroner is very strong, who can control her feelings and anger. Other features which show that ‘Turned’ has a more complicated language than ‘Tony Kytes’ are similes, like “primal earth spirit” and compound adjectives, like “thick-curtained”. But, ‘Tony Kytes’ uses a lot of non-standard English like “ee” and Hardy uses 19 century dialect like “nunny-watch” and “kick a bit of a miff”. Hardy also writes words to show the characters’ punctuation. For example “handsome”, this shows that a character which is Unity is strong, masculine and beautiful.
The social and historical context in ‘Turned’ is shown by class distinctions, which are much more important than in ‘Tony Kytes’, like Mrs. Marroner who is a rich women, lives in a luxurious house in Boston and Gerta is a poor servant. Of course, power was in money, and who ever had it, that person had control over someone else like Mr. Marroner who sleeps with Gerta a sends her $50 and she is an immigrant like many thousands of others who has a hopeless future.
However, the two stories are both concerned with the relationships between men and women. For example Tony, a young country man, who is “unsmiling” and is called “the arch deceiver”. Is he or not the arch deceiver? No, he is not and this is very ironic, because he is weak-willed, cannot resist a woman and gets easily manipulated and deceived by them. Tony hasn’t got a respectful attitude to women, as he makes them look humiliated by hiding in the wagon under the sacks and tarpaulin and promises that he will marry one of them very soon if he breaks up with Milly. Tony also loves women in “shoals”, this word suggests that Tony thinks women are like fish because if one leaves him he has another one, and he also calls them “ferrets”, as if they are very dangerous to control. On the other hand, Mr. Marroner, a rich, wealthy business man with a good reputation, forces Gerta, an innocent young woman, to sleep with him because she is being obedient and doing her job. Mr. Marroner knows what the consequences will be, but still he sleeps with her, hurting both his wife who loved and trusted him and Gerta. Mr. Marroner might have been away for such a long time and writing letters to his wife that they should have a new honey moon when he comes back out of shame, because he new that his wife will be angry that Gerta became pregnant. And when his wife leaves him, he blames Gerta that she came between him and his wife, ruining their relationship and forgets about his child which he calls “all that”.
This shows the reader that men are irresponsible, selfish, self-centered and do not care about other people like Mr. Marroner, who arrives home after his trip and asks himself if his wife might have died when he finds the house empty. “If she had gone-should he announce it himself to friends and family?” This shows that Mr. Marroner is afraid telling anyone that his wife left because he doesn’t want his reputation and family name to be blackened. Simply put it this way, Gilman is being biased against men because they cause many troubles and the women are always victims of men’s actions.
Also, the main character in ‘Turned’ is Mrs. Marroner, who an ideal woman for Gilman. The reason for this is that Mrs. Marroner is a strong, perhaps tough woman who can control her feelings, and anger and turning them into “thoughts” and “stiffen them into words” like she did in the beginning of the story, and perhaps the parallel openings had a reason which was to show how Mrs. Marroner does that and overcomes pain. She is also highly educated and has a Ph.D. Simply put it like this, Mrs. Marroner is a perfect woman. When she was hurt by Mr. Marroner, she goes against him and convincing herself that he is an enemy who cannot be trusted. She also goes against society and tries to help Gerta by leaving her house, filthy pointless husband and goes living in a small town later on in the story and helps Gerta with the upbringing of the child.
In conclusion, Hardy is being objective about the relationships between men and women. However, Gilman who is a feminist will always argue with men and whose story shows that women can gain freedom and equality, if they put their mind to it. ‘Turned’ will be more effective then ‘Tony Kytes’ because it is didactic and people can learn from it. The ending of ‘Turned’ is open, but ends with “what have you got to say to us”? This might show if Mr. Marroner has learnt his lesson. However, ‘Tony Kytes’ has an ambiguous ending because the people don’t know whether Tony learnt his lesson or is he still deceiving Milly after they got married because Hardy describes it as a “rare party” at the end of the story and it can be predictable and can looked at with a optimistic or pessimistic perspective.
