‘My dear Tony, will you give me a lift home?’
The words ‘ My dear’ shows how Unity Manipulates Tony Kytes. ‘My dear’ is very possessive and suggests the Tony belongs to her. Ultimately this is Unity’s’ aim: to marry Tony. Tony Kytes then tries to flirts back with Unity and is successful.
‘That I will, darling…’
Tony Kytes has fallen for Unity and is not willing to commit to Milly as the expression ‘darling’ clearly shows us. Milly is the second female in the story to manipulate Tony and is in a similar way to Unity as you can see below.
‘My dear Tony!’
Both females try to control Tony by using the same possessive language – ‘My dear’. As Tony has Unity hiding in the back his wagon, Tony tries to get rid of Milly. He resorts to lying.
‘…And she looked as if she might be expecting ee’
This is another quality example of what sort of person Tony is. He lies to his fiancé to be with another woman, he is very disrespectable towards all women. Tony sees another dashing women called Hannah.
‘…Much more dashing girl than Milly’
This quote backs up my point of Tony’s loyalty to women which is he will never be able to commit if a more attractive girl becomes available. This is seen in how he uses Milly.
‘My coming wife…’
This is a promise to Milly fro Tony and shows respect to Milly. This is ironic as he is being unlawful as he is trying to persuade Milly to hide in the back of his wagon. Because of his flattery Milly does what Tony wants and hides in the back of the wagon. Tony is cunning and wishes Milly to hide, as Hannah would think he is alone.
‘She tosses her head a little disdainful and smiled off-hand’
Hannah is the most spirited of the three females. By tossing her hair this makes Hannah the most manipulative towards Tony than the other females.
‘I like riding with you’
Hannah flirts tremendously with Tony and immediately flirts back with her.
‘And I with you’
This proves how disrespectful Tony Kytes is towards women as he flirts openly with Hannah whilst his wife to be is listening from the back of his wagon. This also shows his lack of commitment.
In contrast John Thomas treats his women in the same manor as you can see by his actions.
‘…He flirts and walks out with the newcomer’
John Thomas is slightly different to Tony Kytes, as he does not betray his women in ‘Tickets Please’. John Thomas uses his women and later disguards them like rubbish. John Thomas dates the newcomers as the newcomers is most vulnerable and do not know what sort of person John Thomas is. He seduces them and abandons them and then moves onto his next victim. Annie is introduced into the story. Annie is an important character in ‘Tickets Please’. Annie works on the trams as a ticket conductor and John Thomas is her supervisor. Annie is aware of John Thomas reputation as has seen the girl’s come and go. However John Thomas still tries to manipulate Annie and they court.
‘Like the gallant he was’
The word gallant means gentlemanly which is ironic as John Thomas is certainly not gentlemanly as his intentions are not honourable.
As Annie is aware of John Thomas’s reputation we assume Annie will be different to all the other girls John has dated. Annie also thinks that she herself will be treated differently. However, as we can see from the quote below this is not he case.
‘He sheered off’
As soon as Annie wanted commitment: John Thomas broke off and abandoned her. Annie is familiar to all the females in Tony Kytes The Arched Deceiver as they are all possessive.
‘The possessive female was aroused in Annie. And so he left her.
This quote proves that Annie is also possessive like the three females in Tony Kytes The Arched Deceiver. The quote clearly shows us that Annie does not want to share John Thomas with anyone. ‘And so he left her’ describes to us how frightened of commitment John Thomas is so he tries to punish Annie for trying to make him commit.
Throughout the story John Thomas is undoubtedly in control of the females he dates. His sense of control over the females is greater than we think as his control over women affects them not only while they are dating but also at work as he is their boss. This is where Tony Kytes is different to John Thomas as Tony Kytes has a lack of control over all three females in Tony Kytes The Arched Deceiver as you can see below
‘The more he looked at her the more he liked her’
The quote above shows exactly how Tony Kytes falls for another person’s beauty, even though Tony Kytes is engaged. This also shows us Tony Kytes lack of control over women and himself.
At the end of Tony Kytes The Arched Deceiver, Tony Kytes faces an ultimatum. All three females find out that Tony Kytes has lied to them and they don’t want to know him. Due to this he asks Hannah to go out with him but she states she wouldn’t
Have anything to do with him. As Hannah has said no he turns to Unity to be his. Like Hannah, Unity’s actions are the same.
‘Take her leavings? Not I!’
Hannah would of said yes to Tony if he asked her first but said no to him as she was his second pick. Unity decides to follow Hannah and leave Tony.
‘…To see if he was following her’
Like Hannah, Unity looks behind her when walking away, whishing Tony was following her but he wasn’t. As the two females he initially chosen have rejected him he turns to the final female, whish is ironically is Milly his original fiancé. This is ironic as Tony is engaged to Milly and is meant to love her with all his heart but picks her two other females before her. We expect Milly to turn Tony down for the way he has treated her but it shows that Milly loves Tony dearly as she does not turn him down. The reason for this is because of Tony’s actions.
‘…You didn’t really mean what you said to them?’
Milly confronts Tony and asks him the truth and he disrespects Milly again by lying back to her.
‘Not a word of it …’
Tony persuades Milly that he did not mean what he said and so Milly takes him back. We see that Milly is very weak.
I think Tony is in control at the end of the story as he persuades his fiancé, who he humiliated, to take him back even though Hannah and Unity walked away from him, he was still in control as they both turned back whishing he was following them.
The end of Tickets Please has similarities in plot and character development to Tony Kytes The Ached Deceiver as John Thomas is also faces with an ultimatum as like Tony Kytes. John Thomas was invited into a room full of females who works for him and whom he dated. When John Thomas first enters the room he is pampered with tea and compliments. This makes John Thomas feel superior to the women.
‘He seemed to be sunning himself in the presence of so many damsels’
This quote from Tickets Please explains exactly how smug John Thomas feels in the comfort of so many females but John Thomas’s attitude rapidly changes.
‘I’m toddling, said he, rising and reaching for his overcoat’
John Thomas starts to feel uneasy and wants to leave as he can feel an atmosphere between the girls and him.
‘Laughing uneasy’
This quote proves the previous explanation of how un-easy John Thomas was feeling. The actions of the women scare John Thomas. The atmosphere had changed to a tense atmosphere very quickly. The women asked John which one of them he was going to marry. He tried to leave the room but the angry women wouldn’t let him leave which leads to violence.
‘… Pulling and tearing and beating him’
There is a lot of animal imagery of the women attacking John Thomas.
‘They pounced on him’
This animal imagery shows what the women were like as we understand that they stalked there prey and pounced on him when the time was right just like an animal and its prey.
The females in the room have lost control of themselves and others. They have lost their temper just because John will not choose one of them to be his wife. Annie is the ringleader and so everyone is deeply hocked and upset when John regains his control and announces he chooses Annie to marry him.
‘I choose Annie’
In just three words John Thomas manages to regain control and this is good for him, as the beating has stopped. All the women are upset, as he did not choose them. In contrast Annie is also not happy or joyful but angry. Annie is angry, as she did not want to be picked.
‘I don’t want him’
This shows exactly Annie’s Feelings. John only chose Annie as he knew Annie would say no as she would not give him a second chance no matter what. This makes John Thomas seem clever and makes John Thomas the most controlling person in the room and story.
In conclusion, even though the two stories are written at different periods the two stories are very similar. Both men in each story both end up in control and dominating the females around them as they both finish victorious.
