Next of the characters in Tony Kytes The Arch Deceiver is Hannah Jolliver she is seen as a very bossy girl we can identify this when she says,
“How can you be so stupid, Tony”
You can tell Hannah is bossy in this quote because of the manner in which she speaks to Tony in. Hannah Jolliver is also a proud and dignified girl,
“in a tantrum because a scar maybe left on her face”
Hannah gets in to a tantrum because she is a pretty and proud of her beauty but gets a scratch on her face and is terrified of getting a scar on her face as it will ruin and damage her appearance.
Finally the last of the women characters in Tony Kytes the Arch Deceiver is Milly Richards.
She is a sweet natured and mellow character of the girls we can see this when she says,
“I don’t mind to oblige you, Tony”
She does what Tony says and does not argue with him. Even though Tony is inviting another girl in to the wagon. Milly is also an easy to please girl,
“If you like Tony, you didn’t really mean what
you said to them ?”
Despite the fact that Tony has asked the other two girls to marry him. Milly still accepts his proposal.
In Eveline the character is nineteen years old. She is a very confused character as she has a big decision to either go to Buenos Ayres with her boyfriend or stay at home with her family. Eveline is also a very responsible and dependable character we can identify this as in the story there is a quote that tells us this,
“She had hard work to keep the house together and
to see that the two children who had been left in her
charge went to school regularly and got their meals”
Eveline has to care for the children, do the shopping, and go to work, make the dinner and put up with her abusive father. In the story Eveline says she had to keep her promise to her mother.
In the Tony Kytes story the women have to decide whether to marry Tony or not .Tony has betrayed them all in some way or another. Tony has also embarrassed him self while doing it.
In Eveline she has to choose between staying in Dublin with her abusive and mean father and going to Buenos Ayres with her husband to be Frank to start a new life.
The women have a choice to marry Tony and settle down or to refuse to marry him and find another man or live alone.
Hannah refused to marry Tony because her father was there and she was scratched on her face. Hannah did not want to make her father think that she is weak and pathetic enough to marry a man who cant keep his promises but in a way Hannah was forced to say no because her father was there. I don’t think she was being truthful to herself.
Unity refused Tony’s offer and walked off down the street but looked back at Tony when she reached the end of the street, this shows she was unsure about her decision.
But when Tony asks Milly to marry him she says yes and accepts his proposal despite him asking her last and her being the last for him.
But on the other hand Eveline has two choices too. They are to stay at home with her abusive father and look after her family or to go to Buenos Ayres with Frank, a man she does not know very well. But at the last minute Eveline does not get on the boat and has to live life back at home with her father and family.
The language Tony Kytes was written in a language that mirrors the time and place. The story of Tony Kytes uses words like ‘twas’ ,’ee’ and ‘thee’.
These words show that the story was set in the 1900s. An example of this language in the story is,
Twas a little, round, firm, tight face with a seam here and there”
The words are also peculiar to a certain region. In the Tony Kytes story it’s the West Country. The words also place the story in the nineteenth century.
In the Eveline, James Joyce uses admirable metaphors to show Evelines emotions and situation.
“a bell clanged upon her heart”
This metaphor shows that it’s a warning signal. It shows how emotional she is. It may suggest that her feelings are strong and her heart is spiritually deep as when you hear a bell it’s usually a very deep and strong sound.
In my opinion the strongest of the women characters is Eveline as she is living in a patriarchal society with her penny pinching father. She also made her decision without anyone's help. She also chose to stay with her father and look after her family instead of leaving her family in a struggle while she lives her lover, Frank.
“But she wanted to live .Why should she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness. Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her”
The weakest of the women is Milly as she accepts Tony offer to marry him even though he asked the other two to marry him right in front of her and she is asked last. But Milly got what she wanted in the end. But Eveline made her own decision and had no help to make her decision.
The woman’s choices tell you that the position of the women in that society was not balanced. Women did have many restrictions as they were not allowed to continue their education like men. So their only option was marriage and having to look after the next generation of children. Eveline did not have anyone to help her make her decision.
In the Tony Kytes story Milly would get married at any cost. Women in the nineteenth century did not have many choices and marriage was only one of their choices to lead a happy and full life.
The position of women has changed drastically since the time of the stories as nowadays women can vote, have equal pay, have careers that were normally dominated by men and they can have the choice to get married.
By Prema Jadavji
