There are many similarities in the characters between the three short stories that we have looked at. Unity Sallet, Hannah Jolliver and Mary Stanhope all have similar qualities such as being seemingly independent, but all are also slightly insecure. When Hannah Jolliver refuses Tony Kytes it is only, ‘partly because her father is there and partly too in a tantrum because of the discovery and the scratch on her face.’ Unity Sallet seems quite outraged when Tony Kytes asks for her hand in marriage, ‘Take her leavings? Not I! I’d Scorn it!’ she said as she walked away ‘though she looked back when she’d gone some way, to see if he was following her.’
Mary Stanhope often seems quite childish, especially the way she talks about her marriage to Mr Watts, calling it a ‘triumph over the Duttons!’ and, how she could not bear to have either of her sisters married before her. Yet she seems strong willed enough to almost refuse Mr Watts at many point in this short story.
When Mary makes her long list of demand ‘ I am to have a new carriage hung as high as the Duttons, and blue spotted with silver; and I shall expect a new saddle horse, a suit of fine lace, and an infinite number of the most valuable jewels. Diamonds such as you have never seen, and Pearls, Rubies, Emeralds, and Beads out of number. You must set up your Phaeton, which must be cream-coloured with a wreath of silver flowers round it; you must buy four of the finest Bays in the Kingdom and you must drive me in it every day. This is not all; you must entirely new furnish your house after my taste, you must hire two more footmen to attend me, two women to wait on me, must always let me do just as I please and make a very good husband.’
When Mary makes this list of demands, it seems that she is making her requirements so unattainable for Mr Watts, so that he couldn’t possibly reach them and she would be able to refuse him. However, when he refuses to give her these things she still agrees to marry him.
I can also see some similarities between Mr Watts and Tony Kytes, in the fact that Tony Kytes loves the women and has many to shoes from, and Mr Watts doesn’t seem to care who he marries, and will marry any one of the three sisters, or even one of the Duttons.
‘Tony Kytes the Arch-Deceiver’ was written in 1895 by Thomas Hardy. This short story is told in the third person, through the eyes of a passenger onboard a carrier van, named Mr Burton. The passengers onboard have all taken it in turns to tell a story about someone they know to a man named John Lackland, who is returning to the village after a 35 year absence. Mr Burton tells his tale of Tony Kytes, which is told in lively Wessex dialect. Whereas ‘Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Half-Brothers’ which is written in 1858, 37 years before ‘Tony Kytes’, has very strong morals and shows in unswerving detail the difficulties of ordinary families.
All three short stories that we have looked at were written between 108 and 211 years ago, and this comes across as very obvious in the texts. In ‘Tony Kytes’ Mr Burton mentions that Tony’s face has ‘a seam here and there left by the small-pox’. Also, Tony’s mode of transport is a wagon; both these details help us to indicate the time period in which this was set and written, because small-pox is no longer found and a wagon is now an unused mode of transport.
In ‘Three Sisters’ we are aware of the time period mainly due to the language used, as a lot of it is archaic, ‘Pray Sophy have you any mind to be married?’ and the word ‘Thus’ is used on more than one occasion. Also, the patriarchal society that it is very evident, that the characters are living in. Mr Watts seems to be marrying out of convenience and not for love; this would be frowned upon in modern day society, which tries to enforce equality for both men and women. In this short story, we hear ‘Mary Stanhope’ talking about being a chaperone to Sophy, Georgiana and the Duttons. Not only is the language archaic but also the sentence structure ‘But what has been your dispute?’ Today we would say ‘but what have you been fighting about?’
In ‘The Half-Brothers’ we again find that marriage is for convenience and not love. We become aware of the time period when the narrator speaks of how his mother lost her first husband to consumption, and her daughter to scarlet fever, neither of these diseases are any longer a problem. The language and sentence structure is again; as in all three short stories that we have looked at; archaic ‘had not seen her four-and-twentieth summer.
The language used in all three short stories is archaic and at times in both ‘Tony Kytes’ and The Half-Brothers’ dialect, words such as nunny-watch in ‘Tony Kytes’, are used to help illustrate the setting of the short story. The sentence structure is also archaic and would not be used in modern day literature.
In all the three different societies that are exposed in the short stories, we become aware of how important marriage was. We come across three different situations in which marriage plays a major part. In ‘Tony Kytes’ I don’t see why the three women are choosing to marry, especially someone like Tony, who is a labour, the only reason that I can think of status that a married woman would receiver over those who were not married. In ‘Austen’s ‘Three Sisters’ Mary Stanhope seems to be marrying for money and status. In ‘Gaskell’s The Half-Brothers’ Helen marries to support her child, almost for survival.
There are many different kinds of relationships explored in the three short stories, Mother and Daughter in ‘Three Sisters’ Mrs Stanhope seems quite dominate over Mary as Mr Jolliver is over his daughter Hannah in ‘Tony Kytes’. However not all the parent child relationships have the parent being dominate over their child again in ‘Tony Kytes’ Mr Kytes gives his so Tony advice on who he should marry and that turns Tony away from the idea of that girl more than anything anyone else could have said or done.
There are many different kinds of relationships between men and women as well, in ‘Tony Kytes’ the protagonist get into a lot of trouble with women towards the end of the story, but during the most of the short story Tony seems to charm each of the three women he comes across on his travels. When Tony meets Unity Sallet and she asks him for a lift home, Tony replies ‘That I will darling’ Tony is engaged to be married to Milly Richards at this time, so his words lead me to believe that Tony is a bit o a lady’s man. With each woman he comes across he proceeds to compliment all of them and offer to marry each. This is quite similar to Mr Watts in ‘Three Sisters’ in the way that he almost doesn’t seem to care who he marries as long as he get married at the end of it all.
I think that in ‘Tony Kytes’ Hardy was trying to be humorous, and make readers laugh at the trouble Tony Kytes got himself into, though I think that at times pity and anger were meant to be felt. Anger at Tony for almost using all three women, pity because he didn’t really know what he was doing and humour at the situation.
In ‘Three Sisters’ I think that ‘Austen’ tried to invoke laughter in her readers, at Mary Stanhope’s shallow, and amusing ways of speaking of Mr Watts and of her marriage. I think that Austen was also trying to show the stresses imposed on women in marriage.
In ‘The Half-Brothers’ Gaskell invokes sorrow, and at times grief, in her melancholy atmosphere. I think that this is quite a moving tale. We feel a lot of pity for Helen and Gregory. And we can sympathise with the narrator. I think that the narrator represents the reader, and all the times we have done something or saying something to someone and have later on regretted our actions.
I think that Thomas Hardy intended us to like Tony Kytes because he is such an amusing character to read and review. Jane Austen intended us to enjoy reading Mary Stanhope but not like her as a person, die to her shallow and materialistic tendencies. Elizabeth Gaskell I think intended us to connect and relate to the narrator and pity Gregory, and Helen.
I didn’t enjoy the ending to ‘Hardy’s, Tony Kytes the Arch-Deceiver’ as I found it predictable, and boring. I would have preferred a twist in Milly Richards, it would have been interesting if she had refused Tony, and shown some independence. I found the ending to ‘Austen’s, Three Sister’ amusing to say the least. Mary shows a strong willed and at times very modern woman, but her true colours shine through in the way she makes decisions. I enjoyed that we finally met the Dutton’s who had been mentioned on more than one occasion. The ending on an argument with Mr Watts was amusing and seemed to fit in with the mental image painted of Mary Stanhope and Mr Watts. ‘Gaskell’s The Half-Brothers’ has an extremely sentimental and touching ending. That I didn’t predict at all which was a welcome change from the previous stories that I found had quite predictable though amusing endings.