This story is 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 woman’ favourite”, this telling us that he basically had women at his knees. I also believe that in this story the women maybe at Tony’s “mercy”, but they are also in control, as they all easily persuade him to be theirs. I admit to having a slight amount of sympathy for Tony, as he does not get the lady he wants, and the fact he is drawn in by the women’s persuasive flirtatious powers, but I believe that I cannot give him that much sympathy as he treats these women with such inequality (the way he asks them to marry him, in order), and treats them with no respect what so ever. You could argue that he did not deserve any to these women, and came out lucky, but you could also say that he was unlucky to loose the woman he really wanted, Hannah Joliver. Tony Kytes did care about the three women, he just couldn’t choose which one he wanted, there is no crime in that.
The next story I wish to explore, is “Tickets Please”, this was set in the world war one ere, around 1922. Most men were away in battle, and women were gaining more power because of this. John Thomas, the ticket inspector, was one of the few men who decided to stay at home excluding the option of joining the army. I believe this was for either two reasons, he was scared, or he wanted the women, or perhaps both?. Now I know one thing for sure, that he knew he could now have most women he wanted now the rest of the males were away. The man owned two children, who he did not care much for; people would call him “Coddy”, knowing that he hated it.
He perhaps believed that these women were desperate, he may have been right. The mans was described as a womanising sexist male, wearing his long dark cloak, with buttons reaching right down to the bottom, a strangely shaped hat, I believe that this description of his clothing, could be a metaphor for his dark discriminating personality. I think this because in the way the author expresses the description. One night, many women who John had slept with and beaten up, were planning some revenge, I think this was down to the power they believed they had in this period of their lives. As most men were away.
These women ganged up on John, almost beating him to death. John was left a complete wreck, his man-hood had been destroyed, and he was nothing. The women walked away with their heads high, happy that they had fulfilled their vendetta.
This story was also written in a third person narrative, by a female this time. This means that we could only see the man’s attitude towards women, in his actions and speech, which I believe I did. The women in this story are a lot more strict on the male, than on Tony Kytes, the women in tickets please, view themselves differently, as they have men’s jobs, and more power. They take matters into their own hands, and punish a man for trying to do what Tony Kytes would have liked to have been able to. John Thomas deals with a much stronger group of females. Still my sympathy for John is very limited, I believe he gets exactly what he deserves, he treat women a lot worse than how Tony Kytes did, and he was way less of a gentleman, than Tony Kytes.
My next story is “Seeing A Beauty Queen Home”, this story was set in the 1950’s, women these days were more equal to men, as they were allowed to vote. In this particular story women were giving the cotton mill in Bolton, where the story was set, this gave women the feel of more power, as in Tickets Please.
This story is about a man called “Rudy”, a well dressed woman fanatic, and he would always visit the floral hall each week, his objective in taking home a beautiful lady. One night, Rudy arrived at the floral hall with his usual partner, Eddy, the slick follower who was never as good at picking up the women, perhaps because of his weaker dancing skills. This Saturday night Rudy and Eddy were checking out the women in order to find themselves a second dance, Rudy spots a lady, Maggie her name, his isn’t that fond of her until Eddy points out that she is a beauty queen, this more or less forces Rudy right up top her, they danced all night and finally it came to the closing stages of the dancing when Rudy offered to take Maggie home, they shared a romantic kiss in a back alley, which Rudy did not enjoy, along with her dancing, but then again in Rudy’s eyes, she was a beauty queen,. They came up to the far away location of Maggie’s home, where she shared her house with her fast asleep grandma, they both entered the house, Maggie made Rudy some coco, and they seemed to be getting along fine, until Maggie’s grandma shouted down the stairs, she was convinced that someone was in the house with her, now considering the context of when this story was set, the grandma would have been very traditional into not allowing her granddaughter to invite any stranger back to her house, especially when the grandma is present in the home, but anyway, Maggie ended up admitting to having strangers, but she lied to her grandma, telling her that is was an old friend from school, Ernie Adams, the grandma was curious to see the grown up fake, so she came downstairs and had a questioning chat to Rudy, Rudy, used all his knowledge of Ernie to play along with the very curious grandma, Maggie was realising that the grandma was getting too suspicious of Rudy, and sent the poor confused old lady back to bed. Rudy then thought his deed was done, and that perhaps now he was expecting a pleasant reward form Maggie, but he only found himself at the receiving end of some shouting and disgust, and was thrown outside, far form his house, in the pouring rain, Maggie, was furious. Now I ask myself, did Rudy deserve this, I mean after all, Maggie also lied to her grandma.
Now this story is written as a first person perspective of the man, so we hear his thoughts, and feelings. It is from his point of view. Which is why I believe we get to see his foolishness but also slight innocence, in the situation.
Proof that Rudy was a show off, “he was making their weekend” and the fact that he’d never asked a woman to dance, and “Many a chap would give anything to be in my shoes” suggesting that the women are so naive that they all wish to dance with him. It shows that Rudy thinks of women in a very stereotypical way.
All three stories display the attitudes of the men, towards the women, but in different ways. In conclusion, I think that as the authors are all male, a biased is placed on the stories and the attitudes to women that are displayed. The authors also seem to be on one of the characters “sides”. An example is when in 'Tickets Please' the author attempts to qualify Annie’s actions with John Thomas by writing things such as 'She could hardly for shame repulse him’. The other authors are less clear in their bias, for instance in 'Tony Kytes: The Arch Deceiver' near the end the author tries to inspire pity for Tony Kytes but is subtle in the way he does it. In 'Seeing A Beauty Queen Home' there is no clear bias but the author may have intended to show the woman as having more power than the man by throwing him out of her house. So the answer to this question, I think that John Thomas, is the man I have the least sympathy for, simply because he treat woman with no respect what so ever, beat them, overall, used them. Unlike Tony Kytes, who actually cared for the women, and Rudy, who simply had the personality of being a pig headed womaniser, but still did not have it in him to beat and betray women, like John. I also think that the context of each story had a effect on my decision, by looking at each context, I think that Rudy, was the only man who did not go against, the context he was living in. But John Thomas, considering all the men were out fighting for their country, and he was still at home, made me think what a selfish coward he is.
My decision is final and will in no way, be changed. I feel I made the right decision.
By Michael Richardson
