"Unity Sallet, a handsome girl, one of the young women he'd been very tender toward before he'd got engaged to Milly"
He uses woman as a way to cover up the reality of himself, the reality that he is lonely, despite his various affairs with women. He is not in control of his life, and treating women with little respect give him control over something. He is an indecisive womaniser, but underneath his cocky image, he longs for someone to love.
Rudy, like Tony Kytes is cocky when it comes to women.
"I might say lend us your body baby, but no more than that"
He knows he can have the pick of the ladies and uses this to his advantage when it comes to picking "the lucky lady". His arrogance towards women is almost unreal, and his bigheaded approach to the lady in the story shows how little respect he has for women in general. He thinks that he is in control, however he is really just barrelling toward a lifetime of loneliness, once the women see him for who he really is.
Both stories focus mainly on the men's deception of the ladies. In seeing a beauty queen home, Rudy deceives the lady in the story beyond belief, feeding her lines such as:
"Now I don’t want to get you into any bother"
Actually Rudy doesn’t care if she gets in trouble, he only has one thing on his mind. He does a list of thing, which is all meant to lead to getting his wicked way. He deliberately misses his train, in order to invite himself back to the beauty queen's house
"Suppose I miss it?" I said
"You'll have to walk,” she said
"Oh let it go,” I said
He uses his way with the words to his advantage, and does a lot of sweet-talking in order to get what he wants. He doesn't only lie to the lady he is trying to trick into bed however, he pretends to be someone he isn’t when he is confronted by the lady's grandma
"Course I’ve changed, what do you expect"
His deception continues and he actually believes that his plan is going to work, but this is just another way in which he deceives not only people around him, but himself.
Tony also fills the people around him with lies. The ladies in the story are blissfully unaware of the other two women in Tony's life, and he tells each of them in turn that he loves them. His deception does not end at telling lies to the ladies, even when he is faced with the opportunity to confess what he has done he lies. He tells ladies that they are the only one for him, and then proposes each of them with marriage. His charm towards the ladies makes him irresistible, which of course adds to the deception.
Both men feel that they are in control of the situation although they couldn't be further from the truth. Tony Kytes feels he is in control of his predicament at the beginning of the story, as he is getting away with hiding the three women from each other. He feels he has a master plan, which will not fall through. That is until the cart, which he is driving, tipples over, and all three women are introduced to each other. He then messes thing up further by asking each woman to marry him. His indecisiveness catches up with him, and his inability to make a commitment leaves him alone and lonely. Rudy also thinks he is in control of the situation he is in and his relationship, and up to a point the audience believe it as well, however his dreams of bedding the beauty queen are crushed when he is refused. As the beauty queen put it he is
"Too bloody smart"
He has been refused because of his cocky attitude.
The stories teach us a lesson for life,
"What a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive"
Both men could benefit greatly by telling the truth to the ladies they are after, and although at the end of the stories I see both men as being taught a lesson, I can't help but feel sorry for them as neither men set out to deliberately hurt the ladies in their life. Each character has changed throughout the story at the. At the beginning of the story we are in awe of their way with the ladies, however at the end of the story, we laugh at their pathetic attempts to cover up the mistakes they have made.
