Comparing And Contrasting D.H. Lawrence Short Stories

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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.
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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 ...

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