This Short story is about a deceiver named Tony Kytes. Tony Kytes is person who deceives three women. Milly Richards, Unity Sallet and Hannah Joliver. The story begins in the countryside with Kytes riding his horse and wagon until he comes upon a maid-Unity Sallet who he takes on the wagon and gives her a ride. She asks Tony why she ever went out with Milly. Tony saw and admired how nice she looked, he then promised Unity marriage and asked her to hide in the wagon as he saw Milly coming his way.
He gave Milly a ride and both spoke about the future. He again told Milly to hide, as the maid coming was a bride he was supposed to marry but rejected her. He then took that maid-Hannah Joliver and then they started talking of how beautiful they were and Kytes promised yet again marriage. Soon he saw his father in the fields and told him about the mess he caught himself in. soon the three maids found about each other in the wagon and they started to quarrel.
Tony came up and said to the three that he will only marry Hannah but this time she rejected as she cut herself and the he said to Unity to be his bride, she too rejected because she wanted to be asked first and following from what his dad said he ended up with Milly whom he was first with and Milly forgave him. Tony is an arch-deceiver, he deceives three women and ends up marrying the first maid whom he was suppose to marry anyway. His face is described as a ’round, tight firm face’.
We know that Tony was good looking but thinks his face has been spoilt by ‘a seam here and there left by the small pox’, these are scars, which he had by the small pox. The book quotes when he is flirting with one of the maids, we also know that he is easily flattened as Unity tells Tony some home truths, ‘and you’ve never seen anything in me to complain about have ye Tony? Now tell me the truth’. Here Tony was struck as he looks up to Unity and saw how beautiful she was, although this is true Tony is able to flatten people himself as for example Hannah, Milly and Unity.
Tony is also conceits, he was shocked when he was rejected by Hannah and Unity as it says ‘what you won’t have me Hannah’ The book writes a simile of how Tony may have looked, ‘and Tony looking like trees struck by lighting’. Tony shows himself as a flirt as he goes, ‘that I will darling’ and goes on to say, ‘you don’t suppose I could refuse ‘ee? ‘, he spoke this out to Unity Sallet as she was the first maid to come upon Tony.
The setting of the story is in the early 19th century, although this is not mentioned in the story we know that it was set then because Tony had the marks of the small pox, which happened in the duration of his time. Another part of the story helps us in the setting as Milly was wearing a feather in her hat and women rarely wear hats except for purpose occasions such as weddings or funerals etc. We have evidence that it was then as it was set in the countryside for one reason and the second was Tony was riding a horse and wagon. This is sufficient evidence to back my work up.
The book says that Tony was in his wagon, which had been pulled by a horse, ‘and was driving home the wagon in the afternoon’, this quote does not actually tell us that it was pulled by a horse or not, but near the end of the piece just before he was about to pick up Hannah it says, ‘and he reigned the horse and waited till she’d come downstairs’. This proves that the story was set in the 19th century. Thomas Hardy uses a typical dialect and accent to produce a normal but realistic character. The difference between an accent and a dialect is that an accent produces a different pronunciation of words.
Hardy uses a lot of shortened words such as ‘it was’ to ‘t’was’. He also physically changed a physical word from ‘you’ to ‘thee’ and ‘unusual’ to ‘onusual’. Thomas Hardy also uses bad grammar. We have an example of how uses bad grammar in his book of Tony Kytes the arch-deceiver. It quotes in the book ‘had it badish’. Instead of using correct English he decides to twist the language to his satisfactory. Dialect is also used in the story. Dialect is when you use a word, which would only be understood in one part of the country.
Tony is said to use dialect near the end of the story where he is with his father and he says that he is in a ‘nunny watch. This means he is in a bit pf a state (a mess). In the story Tony Kytes The Arch-Deceiver there is quite a bit of humour. The story starts of with humour when he sings rude song in a religious manner. This amuses you as he turns a normal song and sings it like a hymn. The main part of the story is very humorous as when you see that Tony comes pass and decides to give a lift (ride) to his ex-girlfriend and his soon to be wife comes on the scene and he tells Unity to hide in the wagon.
He then chats to Milly then she hides as another maid came a person who he rejected for marriage came. This is very funny as three women came upon Tony and two hide. In the end I don’t think Tony should have the privilege to take on any of the three maids on for marriage of what he did to Milly but she decided to go back to him. Tony does not really deserve anybody. Farhaan Mahamood Tony Kytes The Arch-Deceiver English Coursework 1 Mrs Kenworthy.
