Another likeness behind the two stories is the characterisations. Both writers -but especially Hardy- create realistic characters through language, using dialect words such as “ Twas,” “ee,” and “tist’t.” In Lawrence, story he uses informal or conversation language, “she was very glad to have a ‘boy’. “This is an example of informal language and gives the effect that the story is being told from the character’s point of view. The informal language also reflects the characters class. Another language method used in both stories to create a realistic character is to use Archaic speech, word like “hussies “ in “Tickets Please” and “ nunnywatch “ in “ Tony Kytes,” are words form time and give the plays a time setting. Appearance also reflects the time, because it shows traditions. In both stories the women are expected to wear “bonnets “ when outdoors. In “ Tickets Please,” Annie, was worried, “her hat was on one side,” this shows how important traditional appearance was to people at this time. It hadn’t changed from when Hardy was writing.
In both stories there is a male central character, in both stories they are ladies men, though in return for their likings he loved “em in shoals.” This entails that he was a good- looking man and he took advantage of that by having many girlfriends. John Thomas in “ Tickets Please” “ flirts with the girl conductors and also has a reputation for playing the field. The similarities in the male character’s lifestyles, indicates to me that even though women and the world around them had changed. Between the two stories the males have been coherent throughout. However, John Thomas possibly had the confidence to do this because it was “war time” and “ cripples and hunch backs…“ were not at war. Although behaviour like this was seen as shocking -yet tolerated of the men- the reaction of the women is very different. In Thomas Hardy’s peaceful pre-industrial revolutionised countryside, there is a happy ending for the men. Even though two women refuse Tony Kytes proposals, Milly is still happy to be third choice. She shows lots of innocence here rather than independence, “You didn’t really mean what you said to them?” Whereas in “Tickets Please” the women take revenge on John Thomas by “pulling and tearing and beating “him because he was a ladies man.
Women played major parts in both “Tony Kytes” and “Tickets Please” even through the main characters are dominant males. Hardy describes women as “nice, light, small and tender, “ but the women in the wartime story, become violent and wild, “they were rather horrifying to him “ This is maybe a message to all men, saying if we give women more freedom they wont need men anymore. When the women in “Tony Kytes “ are overconfident in their flirting. This would be seen as radical behaviour for that time.
As unity is riding on the wagon with Tony Kytes, she speaks “in a sort if tender chide,” which means she is teasingly telling him three women all desperate to marry him, and even when they all find out about each other Tony Kytes still manages to find a wife. This dose not say much for the women of the time; it portrays them as really desperate to find a man.. The final comparison that can be made is the endings. All women finding out about the man womanising, them however, the stories go in completely different directions because of their time settings. The sub- text of Hardy’s story suggests that all three women still want Tony Kytes, “ for she would not have refused Tony id he has asked her quietly, “ despite what he has done to them”.
In summary I believe it is plain to see that both short stories strongly reflect the time they were written. Hardy, with his perfect countryside and happy ending, along with less independent women. This play was obviously written purely for entertainment. “ Tickets Please “ on the other hand is much more serious. It starts off as fun but becomes deadly serious due to violence. This violence could possibly relate to the war, which is a backdrop to the story.