“There are the reckless swoops downhill, bouncing the loops, the chilly wait in the hill-top market place.
“But still perky, jaunty, somewhat dare-devil, green as a jaunty sprig of parsley out of a black colliery garden”.
“With a shriek and a trail of sparks we are clear again. To be sure, a tram often leaps the rails - but what matter! It sits still in a ditch until other trams come to haul it out.
“It is quite common for a car, parked with one solid mass of living people, to come to a dead halt in the midst of unbroken blackness, the heart of nowhere on a dark night”.
In contrast, Hardy begins with a description of Tony Kyte: -
“Twas a little, round, firm, tight face, with a seam here and there left by the smallpox, but not enough to hurt his looks in a woman’s eye, though he’d had it badish when he was a boy
“He looked very hard at a small speck in your eye when talking to ’ee”
He quickly establishes that Tony is a womaniser. “He was quite the women’s favourite and in return for their liking he loved them in shoals”.
Lawrence is just as skilful in showing his readers that John Thomas is also a womaniser. “He flirts with the girl conductors in the morning and walks out with them in the dark night … He flirts and walks out with the newcomers”.
The main difference between the two stories is that Hardy’s story is humorous but Lawrence’s has a violent ending
Tony Kyte had decided to marry Milly, meets two of his earlier girl-friends, changes his mind twice, is rejected by Unity and Hannah and ends up with Milly.
John Thomas finally seduces Annie but does not want a relationship. He wanted to be only a “nocturnal presence”, so when Annie wants more he leaves her.
To get her revenge Annie persuades his five previous lovers to join her in laying a trap for John Thomas. They lock him in the waiting room and attack him violently.
This is what happens: -
When John Thomas enters the waiting room the girls are all sitting in a circle drinking tea. They all move up and make a place for him. They give him a cup of tea and a piece of bread. Then one of the girls (Muriel Baggaley) asks him: -
“Who’re you going with tonight?’
He then says that he is going home by himself. Muriel doesn’t accept that answer and asks him to choose only one of them. He then insists that he is going alone. John then says goodbye and tries to walk out but they wont let him until he chooses. They then tell him to turn his face to the wall and say which one touches him.
I think at this point John Thomas is feeling quite scared and probably is wondering what they will do to him if he doesn’t do what they say.
John then looks round and they all start shouting at him so he turns his head away. Annie then crept up behind him and hit him. I think that she did this because she felt if she doesn’t do it know one will. After this they all started hitting him, pulling his hair, and pinching him. At this point John is scared and very furious. He fights his way through the girls to the door but the door is locked. He starts shouting at them to open the door but they wont let him until he chooses. They then carry on beating him. Annie then kneels on him and says:
“You ought to be killed”.
I think what drives her to say this is that she is so disgusted by the way he has treated all the girls and the fact that he is just lying on the floor saying nothing even though he knows he has done wrong.
They then keep shouting at him to choose one of them so he finally does he chooses Annie. Annie then gets off of him and says:
“I don’t want him – he can choose again. Every single one of the girls says that they don’t want him. I think that when Annie found out that he had chosen her she had felt a bit guilty about how they had beaten him that much. John then gathers his things together. Nora then unlocks the door and John walks silently out. When John has finally gone the girls start talking about him: -
“That’ll learn him”
“Coddy!”
Annie then says: -
“Shut up, for Gods sake!’
She says this because she feels guilty and might think he did actually feel something for her, which he didn’t feel for the others. Otherwise he wouldn’t have chosen her.
I don’t think things will ever be the same because John Thomas might have finally learnt his lesson. He probably won’t talk to them again. But I think Annie might apologise to him and start speaking to him again.
Another Difference shows how society had changed as a result of World War One 1914-1918.
Tony Kytes had three girl-friends but had not slept with any of them. Hannah’s father told her to refuse Tony’s offer of marriage as long as she was still a virgin
“I ask ye to have spirit to refuse him, if yer virtue is left to ‘ee”.
Tony replies-:
“She’s as sound as a bell. …And so’s the others”.
In Lawrence’s story it is clear that John Thomas has sex with all the young women he goes out with. He only wanted to spend the night with Annie and Lawrence tells us that the girls who set the trap “knew John Thomas only too well”. This is a euphemism for having sex.
A similarity of both stories is the use of dialect.
Hardy’s story is set in the South West of England, in Wessex (an imaginary county), amongst country people.
Here is an example of their speech, which demonstrates a country accent, as well as the dialect.
“Now, dearest Unity, will ye, to avoid all unpleasantness, which I know ye can’t bear any more than I, will ye lie down in the back part of the wagon, and let me cover you over with the tarpaulin till Milly has passed?
