Comparing And Contrasting D.H. Lawrence Short Stories
Comparing And Contrasting D.H. Lawrence Short Stories
In my opinion, the main and most significant difference between the two stories is that the first, 'Strike Pay' is mainly concerned with a male-only excursion, which shows male dominance and strength of mind. 'Tickets, Please', however, shows female strength and power over men.
'Strike Pay' is the story of a group of four men who, after receiving their strike pay, walk to the nearest town to watch a football match. The event becomes a very stereotypical male outing, involving betting, sports and consumption of alcohol, as similar outings do today. This, in contrast to 'Tickets, Please', shows very conventional male behaviour. 'Tickets, Please' shows very dominant, albeit not conventional or stereotypical, female behaviour. An example of which is the line "He was uneasy mistrusting them. Yet he had not the courage to break away," shows the dominance that the female characters have in the story line, as the line describes the only male character's suffering in the hands of seven female characters, who trap him in a room and violently attack him.
'Strike Pay', however, includes lines such as: a male character addressing his wife: "Are you goin 'ter gi' e me ony bloody tea'', which shows the male dominance.
'Tickets, Please' uses sexual subtexts to establish the female dominance. For example, the main male character is named John Thomas, a term which Lawrence also used as an synonym for the word 'penis'. This suggests that the female characters were used as a metaphor for women-kind world-wide, and were struggling to battle objectification as sex-objects by men. This is strengthened by the fact that the story is set ...
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'Strike Pay', however, includes lines such as: a male character addressing his wife: "Are you goin 'ter gi' e me ony bloody tea'', which shows the male dominance.
'Tickets, Please' uses sexual subtexts to establish the female dominance. For example, the main male character is named John Thomas, a term which Lawrence also used as an synonym for the word 'penis'. This suggests that the female characters were used as a metaphor for women-kind world-wide, and were struggling to battle objectification as sex-objects by men. This is strengthened by the fact that the story is set in a world where men are not part of society, suggesting that Lawrence felt that women should revolt against the male dominance, which is hugely present in 'Strike Pay', and become as important as men in society. This is further augmented by the fact that the women are employed in a stereotypically male job.
Lawrence uses stereotypes strongly in both novels, in my opinion, to show that the characters are metaphors for, in 'Strike Pay' man-kind and, in 'Tickets, Please', women-kind. For example, the typically male excursion in 'Strike Pay' and, in 'Tickets, Please' , the fact that the women became emotionally attached to John Thomas, but he did not return the affection. Also, in the two stories, a contrast is made between the description of the open land in 'Strike Pay' as a 'drying ground for many women's washing' and the fact that the main character's wife's only purpose in life is to serve her husband and the female dominance and lack of necessary male presence in 'Tickets, Please'.
Another striking contrast between the stories is the fact that 'Strike Pay' contains a huge amount of regional dialect. For example, the quote used previously is an example of how the characters speak using strong regional and periodical dialect of Derbyshire in the late 19th Century. 'Tickets, Please', however, as it is set during the First World War, only uses phrases from the time, rather than those used in specific areas of the country. This also shows how communications had increased at the time as the country was strongly united rather than set into very specific regions, as was the time period of 'Strike Pay'.
Both of the short stories use either animal imagery or actual animals, which, coupled with poems such as 'Snake' show Lawrence's passion for the animal world. This maybe significant as many of his stories use very primal, sexual overtones. In 'Strike Pay', the group of men encounter a group of horses which also work in the mines. The rendezvous ends with huge sadness for the main character, Ephraim Wharmby as he loses his strike pay. This may have mimicked a feeling of sadness that Lawrence had experienced as a result of an animal, or even a primal feeling which he used as a metaphor. Also, the horses, having worked in the claustrophobic environment of the mine, feel agoraphobic in the exposed surroundings of an open field. This may echo Wharmby's feelings of agitation because of his change in surroundings. The animal metaphors in 'Tickets, Please' are more frequent and usually describe the aboriginal feelings and impulses that the characters experience. For example, the group of girls that attack John Thomas are described as a 'flock' that the male character 'casts his eyes over.' John Thomas, in my opinion, assumes the role of a wolf eyeing the flock of sheep before attacking, maybe to pick out the (emotionally) weak or solitary. This mimics his 'predatory' role in the story, hunting down and capturing the innocent young sheep or lambs, which are often poetically female to echo feminine innocence and purity.
In short, I feel that the main contrast between the two short stories is the fact that 'Strike Pay' shows male dominance in a society where women are little more than housewives, while 'Tickets, Please', shows very strong female strength to overcome the evils of male restraints.
James Vella 11B
