John Thomas And Annie example essay topic

Tickets Please written by D.H. Lawrence is a 20th Century story. The protagonists are Annie and John Thomas a rather good-looking man who enjoys gallivanting. Annie wants her revenge on him as he drops her when she takes too much intelligent interest in him whereas in Tony Kytes, the Arch Deceiver written by Thomas Hardy the male protagonist is anxious to marry and settle down. Both stories are set in different periods. This affects the way in which the characters behave.

The girls in Tickets Please are fearless young hussies whereas Milly - a female character from Tony Kytes is a nice, light, small, tender little thing. They have a many similarities as well as differences. The main reason for this is the period it is set in. We know Tickets Please is set in WWI as the narrator mentions: Since we are in war-time Also the tram system was entirely conducted by girls - something very common for that time as men were out fighting in the war. The Co-operative Wholesale Society, Statutes fair, the hat pins John Thomas won for Annie, the quoits he threw on the table, the colliers all point to WWI. The women had many more opportunities.

They could work on trams in a masculine fashion and were incredibly fearless. They fear nobody-and everybody fears them However the women in Tony Kytes are very feminine. They had no opportunities and were obliged to get married. Hannah wore her bonnet and jacket, which was very typical of the period. Tony Kytes and Milly were thinking of giving out the banns that very week to make the engagement official. It would then be impossible for the couple to back out.

The village was very close-knit and everyone knew everybody else. It was likely for other people to know about other people personal life. For example Tonys father doesnt want a scandal about Tonys deceiving qualities: dont go driving about the country with Jol livers daughter and making a scandal In Tickets Please there is less sense of that. There wasnt the putting out of banns to make an engagement official and something, which is very contrasting, as is it wouldnt be surprising if a couple backed out of marriage.

It would be somewhat scandalous in Tony Kytes. Marriage was essential in Tony Kytes but because of the war, it was less important in Tickets Please. Instead they had short-term relationships, like sailors. Tickets Please starts off in the Midlands in the rural black industrial countryside and we are taken into the reckless swoops downhill and end up in the sordid streets of the great town.

Annie and John Thomas are first greeted at the Statutes fair. We are then taken into the dark damp fields. After Annie and John Thomas are officially broken up they arrange to meet outside the depot. We are then led from there to the final central setting where the climax arises; the cosy waiting room.

It would have most likely been in Nottingham as that was really well known for its tram service and Statutes fairs. Tony Kytes is set in Dorset. Hardy created a fictional place within it called Wessex. It is a small rural community and everyone is close knit. In both stories the journey is very important. Tickets Please is set on a long winding journey on a tram and Tony Kytes on a large horse drawn cart.

There is a great sense of community as we are taken through the journey in the wagon. We meet Tonys various lovers through out it. Then we are taken to the field with Tonys where his father is. In each story, a prominent male character is involved with a series of women. They are both very different in the way they treat their female partners. In Tickets Please the male character is John Thomas.

It is not clear why John Thomas is not fighting in the war, as it would have been necessary to be in the war due to conscription. The only conclusion I came to about this is that his job was too important as he was the chief of the tram service. He was tall and agile and good looking. John Thomas was very manly compared to Tony Kytes. He had a small brown moustache. He smokes and this is a sign of his lower working class.

His face was ruddy and the word impudent is used several times to describe his manner. This shows him as impertinent and rude. However he is gallant and notorious, as there is considerable scandal about John Thomas in a half a dozen villages. His flirtatious behaviour is well known. He is a philanderer and enjoys moving from one woman to the next: Walks out with the newcomer John Thomas has a nocturnal presence in the lives of women and the story focuses on his relationship with Annie. We are given the hint that he may be indulging in sexual relationships with the women, when the narrator mentions: The girls quit the service frequently There is no evidence in the text, but a strong suggestion he may have made these women pregnant.

In Tony Kytes there would definitely be no sex before marriage. The main reason for this is because of the community disapproved of this and parents would also not accept sex before marriage. If Tony Kytes were to live in the time of John Thomas he may have had a sexual relationship before marriage. John Thomas is a cock of the walk who adores attention from the women and is alight in the presence of women: He seemed to be sunning himself in the presence of so many damsels He belongs with the ladies because when Laura Sharp said ladies only, John Thomas replies with Thats me! John Thomas had all the arts of love making and he was especially good at holding a girl. This shows his seductive charms and how experienced he is.

Still John Thomas is shallow and lacks commitment. He was consciously working his way through the women working on the trams and left them distraught. He had no sense of commitment, which shows him to be the opposite of Tony Kytes. John Thomas hated intelligent interest and he intended to remain a nocturnal presence. There was an imperious refusal to share Annies affections.

John Thomas didnt want to become an individual to Annie. He never has to face any consequences until Annie. Still he shows Annie that he has moved on to his next women by his actions: Letting her see by the movement of his head that he had gone away to somebody else for the time being The mother of one of the ex-workers - C easy Meakin disapproved of John Thomas as she made her leave the tram service: Her mother made her leave There is a similarity in Tony Kytes as Mr Jollier-Hannah father disapproves of Tony Kytes. When John Thomas and Annie are at the Statutes fair he sits on the horse Black Bess.

This could describe him as a shady character. The key way in which Tony Kytes is different to John Thomas is the way in which he treats the women. Tony Kytes genuinely likes all three of the women: Would have kissed them all round John Thomas just uses them for his own pleasure. Tony Kytes wasnt a philanderer but he was still the womens favourite. He is more boyish looking and doesnt have the manly features like the moustache which John Thomas has: There was no more sign of a whisker or beard on Tony Kytes face than on the palm of my hand He had a little, round, firm, tight face and also had scars from small pox. Still he is handsome, as it hasnt hurt his looks in a womans eye.

His surname being Kytes shows he is easily swayed like a kite and he falls for every woman, he sees: I never know ed you was so pretty before Tony Kytes is polite and respectful and he addresses them using endearments such as darling coming wife and dear Hannah. He speaks more tender and tender He doesnt want to consciously hurt them whereas John Thomas is consciously hurting them as he has a brash and a more abrupt manner. He lacks pleasantness and chivalry to women. Tony Kytes would have been brought up to be respectful to women - we know he doesnt like to humiliate the women, Tony Kytes lies to spare the feelings of the woman. For example he says to Hannah he is whispering because he has a 'kind of hoarseness' when the real reason for his whispering is for the reason that he has Milly and Unity hiding in the back of the wagon and he doesn't want them to hear the endearments he is using towards Hannah: How low you talk, Tony But as the story is concluding his manner is lacking and he slips into a humiliating behaviour by proposing to them individually as well as covering Unity over with the tarpaulin: Let me cover you over with the tarpaulin Nevertheless he is following the ritual of courtship. Another thing both of the men have very much in difference is that John Thomas is only interested in short-term relationships whereas Tony Kytes wants commitment and marriage.

Overall both men enjoy their success with women. Now I will be comparing Annie Stone from Tickets Please and Milly Richards from Tony Kytes. Annie is well built and manly. She is 'perfectly at ease,' independent and makes a good job of working on the trams. She was assertive, forward, liberated, strong and powerful as she 'defied convention. She is someone peremptory suspicious and 'ready to hit first'.

She will 'pounce on youths' and 'push off the men. ' The tram car step is her 'thermopylae'. Annie is a tartar as she unexpectedly turns onto John Thomas. She was a leader and at Annie's signal 'they all flew at him.

' She is a hussite and an organiser. Milly however is very feminine, passive and obliging. When she was asked to crawl under the sacking she replies: "I don't mind to oblige you, Tony" Crawling under the sack for a woman in the 1840's was a very appalling thing to do but because Milly has a polite manner she obeys him. She calls him 'Mr Tony' and is eager to please as well as being fragile and delicate. The social and historical forces shape the lives of these women that is why the women in Tickets Please took on non-traditional jobs such as working on the trams and Milly would have worked on the farms. There is a strong bond of co-operation between the women in Tickets Please.

They all work together and as a team to get their revenge on John Thomas. In contrast the women in Tony Kytes are all competing against each other to win Tony Kytes: " I should have made 'ee a finer wife" This is because of the importance of marriage in the 1840's. These women had to be virgins if they wanted a chance to get married but women like Annie and Nora had personal and sexual freedom because of the darkness and lawlessness of wartime Annie wanted to move the relationship further with John Thomas and wanted to 'consider him a person' whereas in Tony Kytes the women did not worry about the 'intelligent interest'. Marriage was the issue rather than the choice of partner. It was more of a social custom. In Tony Kytes Hannah is 'most dashing' and 'handsome'.

Her tone is more forceful and aggressive as she calls Tony Kytes 'stupid'. Still her father plays a vital role in her life as he decides for her: "My daughter is not willing" Here, parents play an important part in their lives. Tony Kyte's father makes it very clear that if a respectable woman mounted on the horse and wagon without invitation she was not worth marrying. Tony Kytes however disregards the opinions of his father. In Tickets Please the women earn a living.

They are forceful as they can control a whole tram car packed full of colliers who are notorious for their rowdy behaviour and bad language. Although the women had to work extremely hard on the farms they didnt earn a living from it. They were expected to work on the farms for their fathers and husbands. Still the girls in the time of Tony Kytes are weak and feeble as Hannah cant even control the reins of the horse and she totally lacks control of the horse and wagon. In Tickets Please the narrator frowns on the womens short skirts and shapeless old peaked caps.

The women in Tony Kytes had to dress more modestly. The dress, which they would have been expected to wear, would include long dresses and hats. Both women Annie and Milly have very different reactions to being turned down. Annie is staggered and she then weepy with fury, indignation, desolation and misery.

Finally she felt despair towards him before feeling vicious, angry vindictive and maybe even regretful as she tells the girls to shut up. Annie was allowed to show her emotions. She didnt need to rely on men for her safety and security. Millys expression of annoyance goes as far as a little pout- a slight look of bother. If she expresses how annoyed and angry she really is she could jeopardise her chance of marriage.

Milly has an immense amount of respect for Tony, as even when he tells Hannah that he hasnt quite promised her yet: Settled it I dont think I have! And then bursting out My sweet Hannah! Milly gives a little screaming squeak. Annie is very careful as she has a boy of her own.

When she was pursuing John Thomas she still kept her own boy dangling in the distance. To a great extent she is a hypocrite herself because she is disloyal to both John Thomas as well as her own boy. As she was a plump, quick alive little creature she was quite exited and happy. Annie feels obliged to let John Thomas draw himself closer: She could hardly for shame repulse him when he put his arm around her She feels this because he has paid for all of her rides and she feels she can be complaisant.

This attitude shows how the women used to melt in his presence. Even though Annie knew John Thomas she was foolish enough to pride herself that he could not leave her. When he did leave, she was determined to have her own back. When John Thomas arrived at the waiting room Muriel says Shut the door, boy. She is treating him like a child.

Usually it would be John Thomas giving the orders, as he is the chief. The women overall in Tony Kytes are submissive, timid, nave and typical of the period as they almost swooned, then screeched and sobbed. They are different to the women in Tickets Please because the girls in Tickets Please want brutal and aggressive revenge. They have a lot of vengeance in them. Hannah, Milly and Unity dont bother about revenge. It is out of the question for them.

Annie and Milly share one thing in particular. They both end up getting chosen. Annie refuses partly because of her independence whereas Milly accepts even though it may seem pathetic, weak and stupid to the modern women - the circumstances forced Milly to no other decision. When John Thomas was leaving the waiting room Nora told him not to bear a grudge, but if anyone is bearing a grudge it is the women. The climax in the story is when both male leading roles are faced with the situation that they have to choose one of the female characters. The choosing takes place in a rough but cosy waiting room and is significantly longer than what Tony Kytes faced.

Tickets Please is very vengeful, violent and vindictive and the women are very ruthless. The brutality shown towards John Thomas is very hard hitting and either upsetting or satisfying depending on the reader. The women seem to behave hysterically as they start to giggle wildly and helplessly. This shows them loosing their power. In some way they treat it like a game when they make him turn to the wall and choose one of them to touch him. They were tittering as he looked so comical and like kids, they shout out youre looking.

John Thomas is forced to choose as he struggled in a wild frenzy of fury and terror. At this time it is very unusual that he lacks control as he is the chief and even though he tries to speak with official authority to get the girls to open the blasted door, he is forced to take his pick: Youve got to choose In Tickets Please the whole being in control is the opposite. The eponymous hero has full control of the situation. He is not forced to choose and feels self-assured in choosing Hannah to be his wife. There is no poetic justice because he will not loose out whichever one of he three women he chooses. He chooses Hannah first, but she refuses which was because at that time, her father was there which greatly influenced her decision.

She was still hoping he would ask again. Even in Tickets please all of the women hoped he would look at her. They all secretly wish to be chosen. Milly accepts however Annie declines. It would be humiliating for Annie to accept as she feels she has to decline for the girls as the whole point of beating John Thomas was so they could prove a point to him and to accept John Thomas would undermine it all. Whoever John Thomas chose, they would have to refuse.

They knew that nobody would marry him and still they made him choose The only reason why John Thomas chose Annie was so he could get himself out of the situation. He knew that by choosing Annie he would gain a victory and from his vulnerable position he chooses Annie. He knows that she will never accept as he chooses her in malice, Annie immediately let go off him like he was a hot coal. She felt a kind of agony in her as something was broken in her. The girls have lost control and are stupefied by their unnatural behaviour.

Even after all the taunting, tormenting and goading John Thomas they make him chose: Cody, youve got to choose John Thomas asserting his authority while being cornered like an animal gets him nowhere but by choosing Annie he turns the tables. Despite the sheer violence they thought would ensure a victory, they are very wrong. This leads Annie to feel very undermined. John Thomas uniform is something he takes pride in. When his tunic was torn and his jacket was stripped off- so was his authority. Tony Kytes has no violent behaviour or mass hysteria whatsoever.

The climax in the text is well organised and the tension is of a much different order. For example the tension in Tickets Please is what is going to happen to John Thomas when he is being beaten up whereas in Tony Kytes we want to know how he is going to explain himself to all three women. Hannah and Unity do not want revenge on Tony - and the way in which they show their fury is by not going to Tonys wedding. Milly is asked last by Tony and when she is finally asked she responds by saying: You didnt really mean what you said to them Tony declares not a word of it. Once again he is deceiving Milly and his charms get the better of her as she accepts him. But we know the circumstances forced her to that decision.

Tickets Please is left open-ended. The reader is shocked by the immense violence and we are left wondering if John Thomas has learnt his lesson and will he resign or maybe settle down into a permanent relationship. The women proved their point and they feel they may have tamed him but because he has always been a philanderer he may never change. In Tony Kytes we are satisfied with the closed ending, even though the modern feminist reader would pity Millys decision we are left knowing that they did end up getting married.

There is a bit of poetic justice as he didnt get his first choice but as he is genuine to all three of the women he wouldve been happy with either women. Dialect is used throughout Tickets Please. It shows the typical early 20th century working class Nottinghamshire people and their identity. The narration in Tickets Please is Standard English but the characters start lapsing into dialect when they are in conversation with one another. For example why tha does, Ay, he will and come on me old duck. In Tony Kytes we are given the rural class dialect.

It is not Standard English and is much less formal. For example the narrator describes Tony Kytes facial features in dialect: twas a little round face This is the cart driver speaking and he would have been using dialect because he would have not been educated. He said Tony Kytes had small pox bad dish. It is 19th century West Country dialect, when Tony says that he doesnt want to kick up a bit of a miff the modern day translation would be to break out into a quarrel.

Even though both authors Hardy and Lawrence are educated they use dialect in their texts. They do this so they can add authenticity to the story. The cart driver in Tony Kytes would have not been educated, so Hardy needed to give us a real feeling to the characters. It makes them sound more genuine and real to the period. We can clearly visualise the characters and it gives us a local flavour.

In both of the texts there are many individual and unique features that are worth commenting on. In Tickets Please the long sentences at the beginning of the story mimics the journey and the movement of the tram. We feel we are being taken through the journey ourselves. We pass through the regional landmarks such as the Co-op, the market place and there are many more throughout the passage. By mentioning these, we feel a real sense of place. There are several of commas, colons and semi-colons to break up the passage and to fix it into place.

When the patients halt at the loops; it creates a sense of impatience. The use of wee hurray increases the readers participation. The tram drivers, rush at the reckless swoops and to ride on these cars is always an adventure because the drivers have the spirit of the devil in them. They have this attitude because they are loosing out in the excitement and participation of the war so they want to feel some sort of satisfaction. At the start of the story it is all in the present tense.

This creates a sense of timelessness as the work mens houses, cinemas and fat gas works will always be there. It will always be a feature of life. There is no consistency, whereas the story of the characters is told in the past tense. It gives us a sense of their fleeting lives. In Tony Kytes the scene is set in a very different way. Straight away we are introduced to the eponymous hero.

We start off with the narrators point of view and we immediately feel that the narrator is indulgent and lenient towards Tony Kytes. Further on in the story we know that he is indulgent towards Tony Kytes because he still gets a wife at the end. A feminist writer in favour of the women would have ended it much more differently by being less light-hearted towards him. The story in whole is light-hearted and there is no moral to the story. We are not meant to feel any anger towards Tony Kytes. It is meant to be humorous.

We should treat him like a rogue and forgive him. Female readers in general would feel a slight annoyance, whereas the male audience generally would go along with the writers point of view and enjoy the humour of these typical 18th century women falling for all of his lies. In Tickets Please there are many groups of metaphors that Lawrence uses, for example he compares the women to reckless sailors. He uses navel ship images and descriptions: Careering vessel of a tram car They are in peril, rocking on the waves of a stormy land and live abroad gives them a sailors dash. Because they are compared to sailors it gives us the impression that they indulge in casual sex, like sailors having a woman at every port. Sailors in general are reckless like the girls in Tickets Please and they have the bouche d attitude.

The tram car is the ship and the depot is the port. The women have a carpe diam attitude. Unlike the women in Tony Kytes who need to think about their future and not have the live for the day attitude. It was the war that allowed the women like Annie to have these attitudes. Throughout the text there are also many wartime references, which include: Outside was the darkness and lawlessness of war-time Lawrence mocks the characters by comparing Annie to a tartar. A tartar was a warrior figure of the Mongolia race who were famous for conquering many lands, whereas Annie was just a working class Nottinghamshire ticket collector.

The only similarity Annie could have had with a tartar is that she turned the tables on John Thomas. Similarly a tartar turns the tables on their assailant. There is also another reference: thermopylae. It was a pass between the sea and the mountains where a famous battle took place.

Again there is a mocking tone as the tram car step isnt a place where something famous had taken place like a great battle. Lawrence also uses many metaphors to describe John Thomas and the women, which are linked with animals. The women are predators whereas John Thomas is the prey. Annie was a swift cat and John Thomas was now their sport. We visualise hunting images as John Thomas lay like an animal as he was at the mercy of the captor.

The women were wild creatures and John Thomas started to struggle like an animal might. The girls had a supernatural strength but as soon as he chose Annie she became a dazed creature. The women get hysterical with their wild frenzy of fury. They are very vicious and have lack of control. They are acting on their instincts because they had mute stupefied faces. They couldnt believe the supernatural strength they had.

An animal would act on instincts - not humans. When Annie and John Thomas share their first kiss Annie has to keep justifying her behaviour. There is a repetition of after all several times: After all it was pleasant John Thomas kisses were soft and slow and searching. This uses the rule of three and the's sounds represent the movement of the kissing. In Tony Kytes Hardy uses rural metaphors to describe Milly and Tonys reactions.

Milly was crying in watery streams and Tony looked like a tree struck by lightning. As a modern day feminist reader I much preferred Tickets Please, as there was a strong sense of sweet revenge. I felt Milly from Tony Kytes was too pathetic and passive for her own good. Her life is worthless and has no meaning to the feminist reader. But while reading the story we have to constantly keep reminding ourselves that Milly needed to be passive and obliging so she could secure herself a husband. If Milly was living in Annies time or in the 21st century, then she too may have been forward and liberated like Annie.

If I were to re-write Tony Kytes, as a female writer and reader I would make sure that other female readers would not respond to the text with annoyance just because the narrator has been indulgent towards Tony. Tony would get his full poetic justice, like John Thomas got his.