Girls In Tony Kytes example essay topic
' By managing to get the helpless young girl into a drunken stupor, he fulfilled his initial intentions thinking nothing more of her than a little 'slag. ' Unfortunately for the young girl the worse had dawned upon her, and the clock could not be turned back. That one night alone had cost her all of her precious teenage years. Turned is a classic short story written bu Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is set in Boston USA, and tells the story of love and deceit, two dangerous factors when used together in a love triangle. Mrs Marroner is perceived as a wealthy and admired woman, she lives well and is married to a respectable businessman, Mr Marroner.
He is often away on business, so when she receives a long awaited letter from him her first reaction is one of delight. However it quickly becomes known to her that the letter is in fact not addressed to her at all but was intended to be seen by the eyes of the house maid, Gerta. She too, had received a letter that same morning from Mr Marroner but he had made the simple error of slipping the letters into the wrong envelopes. This consequently led to uncovering the deception and betrayal that had been occurring between Mr Marroner and Gerta for some time. Tony Kytes the Arch deceiver is written by Thomas Hardy and is set in Dorset.
It tells the story of a young eligible male by the name of Tony Kytes, who is admired by many pretty young girls, but more so by himself. At the beginning of the story he is engaged to Milly Richards 'A nice, light, small, tender little thing. ' However, as the piece proceeds this soon changes as he also promises Unity Sallet, a handsome girl, one of the women he had been very tender towards before he'd got engaged to Milly. Unbelievable as it may be there is also a third young beauty of whom Tony is attracted to, Hannah Jollier. At the end of the story his true colours show when the girls all find out about one another. It resolves in two of them leaving, the sensible and respectable thing to do and Milly Richards the besotted young girl staying.
The three pieces are all written and presented in a very different fashion, The seduction- in the style of a poem, and Turned and Tony Kytes presented in the form of a short story. They are all linked together by Deception, which is the main theme recognised in all of the texts. The key issue which is apparent in all three pieces, is that the male species are the domineering sex and that women are inferior and must rely on men to simply survive. Tony Kytes is a typical example of a womanizer and does not think nor care for any ones feelings but his own. He treats a female as if it were an object, which does not experience love or emotion. He sees women as nothing more than a challenge, his aim being to see if he can win their affections, which of course clearly succeeding gaining three beautiful girls all possible candidates for marriage.
Many may class this behaviour acceptable from a young boy as he is unattached and at the age of courting, however it is still offensive and degrading to women and despite his age the female sex are human beings and should be treated respectfully. There is not however, any valid excuse to reason with Mr Marroners appalling actions in Turned. He made an oath of love and commitment when he decided to consummate his relationship by marriage, and therefore took a step knowing that Marion would be the one woman he would stay with forever. He betrayed his wife with Gerta, a loyal and close friend of Mrs Marroner in a very smutty and secretive fashion.
He too, did not care or consider that he may be hurting someone else's feelings or that his actions were in anyway wrong. The boy in the Seduction is looking to take advantage of the drunken girl. He to, in comparison to Tony Kytes and Mr Marroner portrays a very selfish and arrogant attitude as he does not consider the after affects of his actions and looks upon the girl as cheap and inferior, which is clear when he remarks 'Little slag. ' However he is different in the way of age, as he is thought to be no older than 16, 17- the age of immaturity. He gave her more and more alcohol with the intent of taking away her innocence to fulfil his sexual need, with no thought of a relationship in mind or the many emotions which she would be feeling the following morning.
All three texts were written in different periods of time and tell of different stories, however they are all based upon the deception and mistreatment of women, by a domineering male. In Tony Kytes, the women act in a very degrading manor by almost throwing themselves at Tony and answering to his every command. Unity Sallet appears in the text very early on, and flirtation on both sides is apparent at the start of the conversation. 'My dear Tony, will you give me a lift home? 'That I will darling, you don't suppose I could refuse thee?' Unity was a handsome girl who he'd been tender toward before he'd got engaged to Milly. She makes it quite known that she is attracted to him by asking 'And- can you say I'm not pretty, Tony?
And of cause she receives a predicted response by him ' I have never known you so pretty before. ' He is simply leading her on; this is obvious when Tony asks her to hide in the wagon as he can see Milly approaching. Of course, she does as he pleases and allows him to cover her with tarpaulin to prevent Milly from seeing her, a very degrading act. After talking so sweetly to Unity he does exactly the same with his future wife, totally oblivious to the fact that he has made a poor girl hiding in a dusty waggon. They passed Hannah Jolivers house on their travels, the very first woman that Ton y had fallen in love with. Unbelievably he asks Milly to do the same and creep under the empty sacks at the front of the wagon, her response being 'Certainly, dearest Tony.
' Both of these acts prove that Tony is the domineering sex whereas the women are weaker and far more dependant on what he requests. They feel that they must do as he asks because the girls are frightened that he will loose affection for them if they do not. Tony gave Hannah a lift home, trying to lower his voice to prevent the other girls from hearing their conversation. After a while Milly screamed out 'I am engaged to be married to him, haven't I got a right to be here?' At that point the girls all came to realise that they were not in fact alone and began squabbling over who should have Tony, whereas the normal lady like thing to do would be to question him and to simply ask what is he doing. Then Hannah Jolivers father appeared to Tony's dismay and immediately said ' My daughter is not willing Sir!' and Hannah replied ' I have spirit, and I do refuse him!' This was mainly because her father was there and knew that it would anger him if she gave any other answer. However it was also because she had come to realise that he is nothing more than a deceiver and that the respectable thing to do was to walk away.
This shows that Hannah had become a stronger character than she had been at the beginning and saw Tony in his true colours. After failing to persuade the young beauty to change her mind he decided to turn to Unity, and insensitively asked 'Well, will you, Unity dear, be mine?' She responded in a firm voice, 'Take her leavings not I!' She felt as strongly as Hannah did and Unity just simply walked away leaving Milly Richards. She inevitably stayed with him showing that she was the weaker sex, and is soul dependant upon men to survive. The girl in the Seduction can not be held wholly responsible for the incident, as she was not in a controlled frame of mind due to the consumption of alcohol. She is portrayed as a very weak character at the beginning, following and answering to the boy's wishes, which is how the girls in Tony kytes acted. 'As he brought her more drinks she fell in love', this shows a great weakness as she foolishly believed everything that the teenage boy told her even though he thought nothing more of her than ' A little slag.
' Drink is a very powerful drug and when abused can cause disastrous effects, which is clearly shown in this poem, as she becomes pregnant at a young tender age of sixteen. 'So she followed him there, all high white shoes', this is of great significance as the white symbolizes innocence and purity which was the description of the girl before, but this title of cause was abolished at the end of the night. The morning after was a very painful occasion for her, as reality had sunk in and then she knew that her teenage dreams were no more. Even though her mind was full of alcohol on that night, she still lost her innocence to a stranger and therefore knew that she had to pay the consequences, as the problem would not disappear. A quote to back this up, 'And on that day, she broke the heels of her high white shoes as she flung them at the wall', she had broken her innocence and was no longer a child.
This made her a stronger character towards the end as she finally faced the long-term responsibilities that dawned upon her. In Tony Kytes, there appears to be a very confused love triangle, involving three young girls, all besotted for one boy, Tony. He is engaged to be married to Milly Richards who is described as a 'Nice, light, small, tender little thing'. However he is also attracted and very fond of all his lady admirers and shows them all in a very flirtatious and affectionate manor that the feelings are mutual. Each girl falls for his charm, and believes that he will take them at the hand of marriage. It is clear to the reader that he does not truly care for any of the girls but m early treats it as a game in which they all play along to his rules.
Therefore, it is not true to say that there was a serious relationship developing of any kind throughout the text, maybe from the girls point of view but certainly not from Tony's. This is different in comparison to Turned as there was a relationship bonded by marriage rather than an immature, simple attraction between a circle of young people. Mr and Mrs Marroner were married for a long while, and according to the way the text is written gives the impression of a good relationship previous to the events which followed. She had a superior Boston Bred life; wealthy and married to the man she loved. Gerta Peterson the housemaid was an 18-year-old girl who lived poorly but was both admired by Mr Marroner and his wife. The two had a secretive love affair, but was considered as more of a relationship on Gerta terms than Mr Marroners as he was often away on business.
When it was revealed to Marion, she felt anger and bitterness towards her husband, but could not help but feel some sympathy towards Gerta, as she was considered the innocent party. At the end of the story Mrs Marroner leaves a simple note to her husband 'I have gone. I will care for Gerta. Goodbye. Marion'. She decided to be with Gerta and it is presumed that the two forms a loving relationship without pacifically going into detail that anything sexual was inclined.
Mr Marroner had treated her extremely badly and made her feel inferior to him as he was having a sexual relationship with another woman. Woman are human and have feelings the same as men, and no one should be expected to get away with such a terrible act of betrayal. The text gave the impression that the dreadful experience had put Marion off men and that she was looking for female companionship to share her life with which is why she turned to Gerta of whom she had been previously fond of.