He was quite a women’s favourite, and in return for their likings he loved ‘em in shoals.”
This clarifies that the women are so desperate to marry; they’ll marry a cheater.
The title Hardy gave the short story, Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver, is appropriate to his personality.
“Oh no; ‘tis the axle…”
Here, he talks of his fiancé who made a noise, but Tony lies, trying to cover up the fact that there is another woman in the cart with him and Hannah Joliver, the lady who sits next to him at that time.
As a different lady sits next to Tony in the Cart, Tony’s mind changes about which he will marry.
“I haven’t quite promised her, I think I can get out of it”
This shows Tony to be indecisive. He can’t choose which girl, out of three, to marry. This also shows that he is easily persuaded.
“…I’ll own at last that I do like ‘ee Tony, to tell the truth; and I wouldn’t say no if you asked me – you know what.”
It doesn’t take a lot for Tony to change his mind, all he has to do is to look at the girl which sits next to him in the cart at that moment in time. But it isn’t just use his looks to get the women to persuade him to marry her.
“That I will, darling….You don’t suppose I could refuse ‘ee?”
His silver-tongued language causes the lady next to him to fall for him, causing him to change his mind about marrying the female he previously sat next to.
But unlike the male in Turned, Mr Marroner, we like Tony, mainly because of his humour.
“ …But Hannah, I've really got a couple of ferrets under there, for rabbiting, and they quarrel sometimes.”
We class him as a loveable rogue. The humour that is created in the story, cancels out all hate which forms for Tony.
Mr Marroner, however, we have a totally different attitude towards. To the reader, he is nothing but a liar, a deceiver, a cheat. This, we don’t like. In the story of Tony Kytes, the male character humours us, stopping us being totally appalled by his behaviour, but we cant say the same for Mr Marroner.
Also like Tony Kytes, he uses his language to charm.
“If I should be eliminated from your scheme of things…I do not feel that you would be an utter wreck…Your life is so comforting that no loss, even a great one would wholly cripple you”
Here, Mr Marroner talks to his wife through a letter. It is as though he is preparing her for the worst, in this case, the pregnancy of their maid.
Something that doesn’t come out so much in the character Tony Kytes, is his pride. Mr Marroner does not want to admit to anyone that his wife has left him.
“Again and again he went to the telephone – and always stopped. He could not bear to ask: ‘Do you know where my wife is?’ ”
Most males, in the time the author was writing, were used to having the upper hand, never expecting women to stand up for themselves. For a wife to leave her husband was a most absurd idea and rarely thought of. It would also bring the male down, giving the reason Mr Marroner did not want to admit his wife had left him.
Because he stays away for so long on his business trip, we can call him a coward.
“I shall be home again in three weeks – if this thing gets settled.”
He is afraid of what he has done, like Tony was. Tony, not wanting his wife-to-be or the chances with his previous girlfriend to be ruined, asks the ladies to hide from one another, without their knowing. Mr Marroner doesn’t want to return to face the consequences he knew could come and had come about. He was probably fully aware of this when he slept with the maid, Gerta, as well.
“He knew. He understood. He could fully foresee and measure the consequences of his act. He appreciated to the full the innocence, the ignorance, the grateful affection, the habitual docility, of which he deliberately took advantage.”
This shows Mr Marroner’s selfishness. He knew how weak the maid was and how she wouldn’t resist her master, wanting to be obedient.
Mr Marroner has a good relationship with his wife; we can tell that he loves her, so why did he have sleep with the maid? The answer is that he is as weak as the maid when it comes to sex. He couldn’t resist the temptation.
“Mr Marroner had frankly admired her…”
Tony couldn’t resist falling for the pretty girl next to him, just as Mr Marroner himself couldn’t resist wanting sex with a beautiful, willing maid around who was so obviously docile that he knew he could take advantage of her.
While Perkins-Gilman portrays Mr Marroner with these characteristics, she also shows his nicer side.
Even though Mr Marroner sleeps with the maid, we can tell he loves his wife.
“Mr Marroner had to go abroad for his firm, unwillingly, hating to leave his wife…”
This quote also shows, again, the above. He does love his wife, but he was weak enough to show his affections for the maid, but he does not love her.
Once he’s come home to find no one there and has found his wife, he feels sorry for himself.
“It almost brought tears to his eyes”
This shows how regretful he is about his actions. Tony is quite the opposite, probably because he ended up where he started and didn’t loose anyone.
Mr Marroner feels sorry for himself more than once.
“He put out the lights, could not bear the darkness, turned them all on again”
This doesn’t weaken the thoughts of the reader though. He is not the one who should be feeling sorry for himself, he was the selfish one, robbing the maid who is now unlikely to marry or get any other job because of the child.
It seems as though he does care for the maid, however, when he offers her money to help.
“Here is money, in case you need it. I expect to get home in a month at latest. If you ever have to go, be sure to leave your address at my office. Cheer up –be brave – I will take care of you’ ”
This says that he is willing to help the maid and his child, but another conclusion could be drawn from this. When he says, “If you ever have to go…” this sounds as though he’s trying to get rid of her, so as he doesn’t get into trouble.
Perkins-Gilman has a certain point to make. She tries to inspire women readers through her work, showing that they can be independent. If she were to write Mr Marroner in as a good guy, the affect would be ruined and her point forgotten or missed.
Overall, we can say both Tony Kytes and Mr Marroner are weak, lying, arrogant, flattering, deceitful males.
The language that the two males use is not all that different, they flatter they compliment and they charm.
“That I will Darling”
“In fact, I never knowed you was so pretty before!”
This shows Tony to be flirtatious, he is, after all, engaged to be married to another women.
“My dear Milly – my coming wife, as I may call ‘ee, ”
“…we ought to live in peace and good-will, since ‘tis almost Christmas…”
These quotes show how much of a smooth talker Tony actually is. He knows how to talk to women to get what he wants.
Mr Marroner also compliments, however it is over the top to the point of being sickly.
“And you will be looking so lovely, with that eager light in your eyes and the changing flush I know so well – and love so well!”
“We shall have to have a new honeymoon – other moons come every month, why shouldn’t the mellifluous kind?’”
Here, he talks to his wife. He is sweet talking her, probably feeling guilty because of sleeping with the maid.
Tony Kytes talks to the women almost as an equal, however Mr Marroner comes across as patronising
“‘My poor child,”
He talks down to the maid as if she were younger then eighteen.
Although we have no quotes to prove this point, we can assume that Mr Marroner sweet–talked Gerta to get her to have sex with him.
Within each short story, the females have similarities, but more so in Tony Kytes then in Turned.
There are three girls, total, in Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver, who we come across one by one. The first one is Unity Sallet. She is one of Tony’s girlfriends before his fiancé, Milly. She is described as a pretty girl.
“In fact, I never knowed you was so pretty before!”
But all the girls are not harsh on the eyes, which would probably explain why Tony fell for each one so easily.
“…and since she’s discovered I promised another, and a prettier than she…”
Here, Tony’s fiancé is talked of, however, in this section of speech, Tony is trying to get Milly to hide from another woman, so it could be that he’s flattering her so she does as he asks.
“…Tony thought over and over again how handsome Hannah was.”
But the girl who comes across as the prettiest is Hannah, another of Tony’s previous girlfriends. More then once, her prettiness is mentioned, which shows her to be more physically stunning than the other two girls.
Unity tries persuade Tony to marry her instead of Milly.
“I should have made ‘ee a finer wife, and a more loving one too.”
This shows that she’s so desperate to marry, she doesn’t care what she does to get a husband. Neither is she the only one.
“and I wouldn’t say no if you asked me – you know what.”
Hannah says this, hoping that Tony will change his mind and marry her instead of Milly. Milly doesn’t do this, though as she is already going to marry Tony.
Comparing herself to Milly is another way Unity uses of trying to get Tony to marry her.
“Prettier than she?”
This also shows how desperate she is to marry, that she’ll try and make Tony prefer her over his current girlfriend, Milly.
Milly is the weakest girl in Tony Kytes. She’s very pathetic and will accept anything from Tony.
“…it do seem as if fate had ordained that it should be you and I or nobody. And what must be must be, I suppose. Hey, Milly?’
‘If you like, Tony. You didn’t really mean what you said to them?’
‘Not a word of it!’”
She still marries Tony, even though he has just asked two other women to marry him instead of her, which makes her come across as a woman who won’t stand up for herself. The above quote also shows that she is gullible, as she believes Tony when he said he wasn’t being truthful to Hannah and Unity when he said he’d marry them.
Hannah Jolliver is definitely the boldest out of the three girls. She seems to have more about her then the other two and is portrayed as cheeky.
“‘Well, aren’t you going to be civil enough to me to ride home with you!”
This shows that she is a stronger person, whereas Milly is very weak. Unity seems to be half way between Milly and Hannah in each case.
Her father makes a comment, which makes the reader think that Hannah may have had a dubious past.
“I ask ye to have spirit enough to refuse him, if yer virtue is left to ‘ee and you run no risk?”
In the time Hardy was writing, it was a time when sex before marriage wasn’t regularly thought of, as it is now. If Hannah had never done something which could put this question into her fathers head, her father didn’t think very much of her.
Another thing in common in all three girls is their education. None of them have probably gone to school or college; their mane role in life is to find a husband. Hardy makes us thing that they’re just peasant girls who’re quite dull.
There are just two females in Turned who are as different from each other as possible. The one who is most like the three girls in Tony Kytes is the maid, Gerta Petersen.
Pretty soon on, when first introducing Gerta, it shows she is uneducated, no sharpness to her, which we can say is the same as the girls in Tony Kytes.
“ ‘I never saw anyone so docile…it is perfection in a servant, but almost a defect in character. She is so helpless and confiding.’ ”
This makes the reader think that it would not be hard for Mr Marroner to lead Gerta on. But this isn't the only reason we can’t blame Mr Marroner for sleeping with Gerta.
“…rich in womanhood without, helpless infancy within. Her braided wealth of dead-gold hair, her grave blue eyes, her mighty shoulders and long, firmly moulded limbs seemed those of a primal earth spirit…”
She is described as physically beautiful. With a maid so naïve and pretty around, we cannot blame Mr Marroner for taking advantage, but we still do.
Gerta is obviously very willing and eager to please.
“She was what is called “willing”, was unusually teachable and plastic; and Mrs Marroner, with her early habits of giving instruction, tried to educate her somewhat”
This puts another thought into the readers mind; Maybe Gerta didn’t want to stand up to Mr Marroner when he wanted to sleep with her because she didn’t want to displease her master.
However, when we meet Gerta again, at the end of the story, when she’s had the baby, we can see she’s changed.
“Gerta, holding the child as a bulwark, with a new intelligence in her face and her blue, adoring eyes fixed on her friend – not upon him.”
Gerta has learned through her experience. Mrs Marroner has probably taught Gerta that she can be independent, as well. Gerta has a new strength.
The other female in this story, Mrs Marroner is completely unlike any other female in either story. We cannot call her a girl, but a woman.
The most immediate difference that can be drawn is her education.
“In her reserved, superior, Boston-bred life she had never dreamed that it would be possible to feel so many things at once, and with such trampling intensity.”
This shows that her attitude towards life is different because of her education. She uses her education to resolve the problem, whereas the girls in Tony Kytes just argued and cried. We can tell this if we compare the beginning and the end of the story.
“She sobbed bitterly, chokingly, despairingly; her shoulders heaved and shook convulsively; her hands were tight clenched.”
“Marion, calm steady, definitely impersonal, nothing but a clear pallor to hint of inner stress.”
At the beginning, when she first realises what her husband has done, she tries to control her tears unsuccessfully, but at the end, it’s as though she is a new person.
We can also see, from these two quotes, that Mrs Marroner is very determined. She manages to keep on going, make a new life and help Gerta and her baby, even though her husband has just done this terrible thing which she knows will effect the rest of her life.
When we look at her personality on a whole, we don’t connect with her too well. Throughout the whole story, she comes across as cold, but we admire her strength.
None of Mrs Marroner’s characteristics match those of either Gerta or the females in Tony Kytes, which make her a completely new type of female. One reason for this could be because of her age. She is older than all the other females, therefore, probably, more experienced, making her act in a completely different way.
After looking carefully at the characters in each short story, I can conclude the following statements.
There are more like likenesses between the males than the females, as Mrs Marroner has thoroughly different characteristics to the other females. Gerta’s first characteristics totally match all three females from Tony Kytes, though Hannah Jolliver is slightly different again. There are slight differences between the males but not enough to say they’re utterly different.
Hardy’s intentions for his short story, Tony Kytes, was merely to entertain, however Perkins-Gilman was trying to stimulate the female population of her time, which probably answers the question of why there was such a huge difference in the one female in her story.
