Women in Thomas Hardy's Tony Kytes The Arch Deceiver and D.H Lawrence's Tickets Please

Explore the Presentation of women in Thomas Hardy's Tony Kytes - the

arch deceiver and D.H Lawrence's Tickets Please

At the beginning of "Tony Kytes - the arch deceiver" ,by Thomas Hardy,

we first meet the character of Tony Kytes. Hardy uses a full character

description to build up a mental image of Tony Kytes before we hear of

the story. In contrast to this, the story "Tickets Please" by D. H

Lawrence begins with a setting description.

The two stories have many similar characteristics. Although they were

written with 25 years difference in them, there are many things which

are the same.

Both stories show the position of men and women at the time of

setting. In "Tony Kytes - the arch deceiver" we can tell from

descriptive sentences like "and looked at the trees, and beasts, and

birds, and insects, and at the ploughman at work in the fields" that

this is a rural community not yet hit by the industrial revolution.

The members of this village are relaxed, and a sense of tranquillity

surrounds the story, even with the defamation at the end. We can tell

this by the way Tony rides around in a cart, rather than a bicycle or

on a train. Furthermore in "Tony Kytes - the arch deceiver" the women

in the village are very leisurely, which is a big contrast to the

women in "Tickets Please".

"Tickets Please", which is set 25 years later, has much more of an

urban setting, with a tougher, faster lifestyle. The use of the trams

in this story also conveys this image. At the beginning of "Tickets

Please" D.H Lawrence uses many descriptive words to build up an image

of the city where the story is set. Words like "industrial

countryside" and "Stark, grimy cold little market places" convey this

image.

The women in "Tickets please" are definitely more confident in the

ways than the women in "Tony Kytes - The arch deceiver". This of

course has a lot to do with the changes in attitudes towards women.

Women like Annie in "Tickets Please" were probably inspired by the

suffragettes; giving them confidence and making them examine their own

lives and ambitions. The idea that women were equal to men was just

starting to become acceptable, and women for their part were not

acting as "soft" and "gentle" as they did twenty or so years

beforehand.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, England was mainly still a

"mans country" and this is reflected in both stories, although more so

in "Tony Kytes - The arch deceiver" Both stories tell us that it was

incredibly important for women to get married and settle down and they