Seeing A Beauty Queen Home is a story about a man called Rudy who goes to a dance and finds himself with a woman whom he is not particularly fond of. When, however, he discovers she id a beauty queen he decides to try his luck. Rudy is a young man who is just looking for a ‘good time’ with no strings attached. Unfortunately for him, things do not go exactly the way he plans, so is left unsatisfied without getting what he wanted.
Both stories display attitudes of men towards women, but in different ways. The main difference is that Seeing A Beauty Queen Home is written as a first person narrative of the man. Therefore we hear his thoughts and feelings, so the story is from his point of view. This gives you a chance to see his foolishness but also a slight innocence in the story.
However, Tony Kytes- The Arch Deceiver is written as a third person narrative, by a male, possibly showing the attitude of men towards women at this time. An example of this is when the narrator states “he was quite the women’s’ favourite”, this telling us that he basically had women at his feet. This was quite the similar situation in ‘Seeing A Beauty Queen Home. Rudy was aware of his good looks and so used this to get women. Rudy’s foolish and arrogant side is outlined in the way he thought of himself and his effect on women “naturally the dames were all after me”, he was a show off “ I was making their weekend for them”, this also suggested that he had a very stereotypical view of women implying they were so naïve that they all wished to dance with him. Tony Kytes was not so arrogant, yet he still had the same mentality. An example of this is his reaction when his first choice, Hannah Joliver refuses to marry him “what, you won’t have me, Hannah?!”
Throughout both stories, the men constantly lie and deceive the women. They are cunning and very good liars. Rudy, for example, manages to deceive Maggie (the beauty queen) into thinking that he actually liked her by speaking to her charmingly “and you’re lovely”. He seems to go to extreme lengths to make sure he gets what he wants from Maggie. When he realises that her grandmother seems to keep interrupting them, he decides to take the situation into his own hands by deceiving her grandmother, pretending that he was someone else.
Similarly, Tony Kytes manages to deceive all three women, promising to marry them. Even at the end when he settles for his last choice, Milly Richards, (the only one of the three women to accept his proposal of marriage after she watched him ask the other two women before her) she asks “you didn’t really mean what you said to them,” and Tony, in his usual deceitful self lies right through his teeth, “not a word of it!”
The way in which Rudy deceives Maggie seriously questions whether or not he held any true regard for her feelings or for women in general.
Tony, also seemed to display a lack reverence or respect towards all three women in the story as he asks them all in turn at the end to marry him knowing full well that the others were in earshot. His lack of regard for the women’s feelings is highlighted when, after promising to marry Unity instead of Milly, he then has a conversation with Milly about their marriage, “my dear Milly- my coming wife”, fully aware that Unity was right behind them, hidden in the back of the wagon.
In Tony Kytes, 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 in his wagon and seems beguiled by the beauty of each of them. For example when the others were out of sight, he says to Unity “ I never knowed you was so pretty before.”
However, Rudy is a man who is very sure of himself, he knows exactly what he wants and so is determined to get it. He does not really seem to care for a woman who has good looks, all he cared for was his reputation as ‘the ladies man’ and having a good time. This is shown when he said, “we’d dance with the ugliest girl in town as long as she could move.” He is not looking for anything serious but knows how to get what he wants from women. Today, men who act like this are commonly known as ‘players’.
In the story of Tony Kytes, the female characters are not very diverse and they are described very superficially as stereotypes of manipulative femininity. When Unity says, “ and- can you say I’m not pretty Tony? Now look at me” we can see clear examples of this. It is often difficult to decide 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 continually acting on impulse “ in that case-ah- of course you must come along with me”, this is shown through the hesitations and pauses in his speech. The girls on the other hand act with a clear intention of securing Tony for a husband. Even when Unity and Hannah knew that Tony was set to marry Milly, they still try to compete between themselves to get their husband, Tony. The women are quite presumptuous and forward. An example is in the way Hannah Joliver practically invites herself onto Tony’s wagon “ well’ aren’t you going to be civil enough to ask me to ride home with you!” This was probably the wrong thing to do considering the context of when the prose was written. The women would have been described as ‘brazen’ because women in those times (nineteenth century) would only be alone with a man if they were married. Although the women seemed to have more control over the situation, because of the nature of a woman’s place in the society of that time, Tony ultimately had the upper hand.
In Seeing A Beauty Queen Home, Maggie seems to be a nice person who is loving towards men but is more independent and so will not go to extreme lengths to get a man. When she realises that she was being used she threw Rudy out of her house, she was completely outraged how someone could lie so cunningly. “You’re too bloody smart”, this is what Maggie had said to him, the way he had lied and deceived her grandmother probably questioned his true feelings for her or whether anything he said to her was truthful. Maggie is the most assertive and independent minded woman in both stories because she realised what Rudy was trying to do and so dealt with him. Maggie’s actions were probably typical of any woman in mid twentieth century faced with a similar situation. Women now did not need men to survive, they were able to make respectful decisions and stand on their own two feet.
The stories are both written in a style that makes it real to the reader. This is because they are written in the way that people speak rather than correct English. The use of dialect “nunny-watch” and “stumer” would have made the stories familiar to readers of the time.
In conclusion, both Rudy and Tony Kytes do not get what they want because of the way in which they treat the women in both stories. This is because they lie and deceive the women. The statement mad is probably more suitable when it comes to the story of Seeing A Beauty Queen Home. This is because the main drive for Rudy’s cunning and deceitful character is the way he thought of himself and his effect on women. Because women were attracted to him, he thought he could use them and treat them how he wanted. But he had underestimated how smart and independent women had grown and so was the reason for his unsatisfied end.
However, Tony’s actions seemed to be mainly influenced by in which the time the story was set. Women were not respected or thought of as equal to men and so he was just treating them with as much respect as he thought they deserved. The women in his story were also manipulative and seemed to throw themselves at him. He was a well meaning character who did want to settle down but found himself confused and used lying as a way to get himself out of the situation.
