Discuss and compare the differences of the portrayal and male and female characters within ‘Tony Kytes the arch deceiver’ and ‘The Seduction’ ?

"I never know you were so pretty before!"

Tony pays compliments to charm the women, whereas the boy in the seduction succeeds in his attempts to charm the girl with alcohol.

"He handed her the vodka"

It is safe to say that the men the two pieces of text pay no attention to the consequences of their actions. Both of the males are representatives of their era. Tony is polite, attentive and always charming, and the boy in the seduction is left nameless as he could easily represent most boys in the 1980's.

To make a fair argument, consideration of the women's behaviour must be considered. The boy uses the girl for his own enjoyment and then dumped her, with the obvious consequence of becoming pregnant. However, the girl did not have to agree with the final act and she certainly did not have to get drunk. The girl in the poem is guilty of being naïve, gullible and confusing lust with love. Evidence of this can be seen where she believes what she has seen:

"And she stifled a giggle, reminded of numerous stories from teenage magazines"

The girl wants to believe the tabloids. She either never looked at the problem page or she is a victim of 'it will never happen to me.' She was under pressure from social expectations for the time. It is interesting to see how the girl becomes drunk through contrasting thoughts. Firstly, the girl thinks that the boys

"Kiss tasted of nicotine," and then later she changes her mind by thinking:

"His kiss was scented by Listerine"

Unity and Hannah take advantage of Tony's weak character and encourage Tony to flatter and deceive through the two women being very flirtatious.

"And can you say I'm not pretty, Tony? Now look at me!"

At the time it was a social expectation to get married. The women were afraid of becoming thought of as too old and being 'placed on the shelf'. Milly is most like the girl in the seduction as she is gullible. She believes what Tony has told her, even though she has been witness to Tony proposing to marry two other women before her.

"Did you really mean what you said to them Tony?"

Milly too is a victim of social expectations. She has no dignity.

The setting for the poem reflects the event that takes place. The polluted surroundings of the Liverpool docks reflect how the boy had no consideration at all for the girl.

"The Mersey, green as a septic wound"

The consequences are terrible, just like the polluted docks.

Language is used to help show when the stories were wrote, as well as creating the right impression upon the reader. In the story, language is used which was used in that period. For example, the use of words such as 'Hark' and 'nunny watch', whereas in 'the Seduction' words such as 'little slag' are used. They show just how much things have changed within one hundred years. One more thing which greatly helps to show when the poem was set is the use of the metaphor:

"Silver stream of traffic",

And the use of the personification:

"Blind windows of the tower blocks."

These are both widely recognised as modern items.

Hardy attempts to make his story humorous by writing that the women hide, one under some sacks and one under a piece of tarpaulin. The only humour in McCauley's poem is in the title - 'The Seduction'. The humour is that it is very ironic. There is no seduction in this poem. Even though Hardy tries to make his story humorous, both pieces of text portray a very serious idea, the idea of betrayal and deceiving.

In conclusion, the women in the story and the poem are similar because of their vulnerability of being a woman trying to have a relationship with a man.i

By Shaun Campbell