Tickets, Please

1: Lawrence creates the impression that the world of tramways is dangerous and exciting by numerous ways. The setting of the mood at the beginning, first from the title- “Tickets, Please”

Sounds too formal and the reader is expected to read a formal story. The first line starts off –

” There is in the Midlands single-line tramway system…”

Which follows the formal idea but then a feeling of being in a tram begins to commence.

“… which boldly leaves the county town and plunges off into the black industrial countryside…

Due to the sentence structure, a rhythm develops and entices you to read on, a cold chill appears in the mind as gloomy, depressing descriptions of buildings- stark, grimy cold little market places. The rhythm made by DH Lawrence compromised of three long sentences wielded to make the drastic journey of the expeditious tram; full stops deciphered to be the actual tram stops and commas to change the direction and mood of the tram. We read about the buildings but in our minds, they just flick past as if like on a real tram where everything is continuos and nothing is still. DH Lawrence personificates the tram by saying it purrs, suggesting some form of cat and somewhat daredevil. There is a notion of a race against time as

“But in a few minutes- the Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Shops gives us the time- and away it starts once more on the adventure.”

The language is mostly compromised of short mono/disyllabic adjectives and nouns giving us the quick and sharp effect when the tram is in the city but when it enters the country; the words become longer polysyllabic producing a long sound. I feel DH Lawrence wanted us to imagine that in the country, the background is far away from you and you can see it longer but in the city everything is close to you so they just whiz by. The adjectives are more dangerous- “reckless swoops” and “precipitous drop”. The Imagery is vivid- “green as a jaunty sprig of parsley out of a black colliery garden”

– this shows us the struggle and conflict it had to deal with to escape the cars unbruised.

2: The girls are expressed as daredevil sort as –

“This, the most dangerous tram service in England, as the authorities declare themselves, with pride, is entirely conducted by girls.”

A dangerous job being led by women was strange but due to the shortage of men, women had be tomboys and had to bury their feminine feelings.

The authorities being proud of the women must mean that they are doing a good job and in control.

“Rash young men, a little crippled drive the tram, or by delicate young men, who creep forward in terror.”

This must mean that the women need some control and aid with their duty as men are conjoined with them.

“The girls are fearless young hussies.”

This gives us the sense that the girls are badly behaved, in their own state of mind which gives them the attitude to deal with the job in that way.

“Even in a tram packed with howling colliers, roaring hymns downstairs and a sort of antiphony of obscenities upstairs, the lasses are perfectly at their ease. They pounce on the youths who try to evade their ticket-machine. They push off the men at the end of their distance. They are not going to be done in the eye- not they. They fear nobody- and everybody fears them.”

Apart from being hussies, we get the general idea that these aren’t the women that use make-up all the time and care if they break a fingernail. They are aggressive, determined and dynamic, going through thick and thin to get the job done.

“In their ugly blue uniform, skirts up to their knees, shapeless old peaked caps on their head…”

We also get the idea that they have no self-composure/ coolness.

“they have all the sang-froid of an old non-commissioned officer.”

3: I feel the significance of the story ending in that way is to show that there is no winner in relationships between men and women.

The ending is unexpected since we have no clear answer to the relationship between John Thomas and Annie, we have a big fight but then when John Thomas chooses Annie, the fight of revenge falls apart and he has to pick up his dignity and leave.

When Annie met John at the fair, she was glad to have a “boy” as company to the fair. He took her on a Dragon ride, which could have been a metaphor for John Thomas being vicious or guarding something important like a secret. Then he takes her on a carrousel, where Annie sits on a horse called “Wildfire” – describing Annie as uncontrollable and John Thomas sat on “Black Bes” -some sort of thief.

In some way, the attack on John Thomas wasn’t planned correctly. There was no action of planning the attack in the story but we see that by signals they attack John Thomas.

In the end, when he chose Annie, they were surprised and weren’t expecting that someone would have been chosen but they were all hoping him to choose them.

In the end, I feel no one wins, as the women wanted to him to suffer pain

“You ought to be killed…” said Annie.

As he made all the women he left felt pain. In the end, he suffered but the women gained nothing

The relationship at the beginning of the story was just plain friendship but then when he met Annie in the fair, she fell for him and he dragged her into his world of fantasy and abused her.

I feel the relationship has changed but she still has feeling for him as she shouted at her friends for making fun of John Thomas. She says she hates him but the phrase- “you love the person you hate” could be true for her.

I find the ending expected but the change of the mood of love and hatred was sudden in the story that people who skim read may find it confusing.

5: I sympathise neither of the two. John Thomas fitted his description as a cock-of-the-walk, preying on new women who enter, not knowing of his selfish deeds. I do feel not compassion but distress that he may be crippled and have fighting against ~10 girls would do harm against him. He seems a strong extrusive chap who knows the tricks of the trade when handling girls. His main weakness is he doesn’t have the compassion to feel for the girl or what she feels; walking away from her, treating her like an another girl who he’d just met. No wonder his nickname was “coddy”.

Annie knew John Thomas, always keeping him at bay with her sharp tongue but even though she knew about John Thomas’s devilish deeds, she fell into his trap and got wounded

I feel the writer wants us to make us sympathetic to Annie as she is the woman and when John Thomas lets her down by not revealing his personal details, we are only given Annie’s feelings and not John Thomas. John Thomas is also criticised and called names in the story. I feel that relationships are one weakness of these “fearless hussies” who “fear no one but everyone fears them.” That they are prolonged to emotional feelings and instead of the tough ordeal they deal with on the tram. After suffering, most linger away like, but this time with the help of Annie, they use their “fearless hussies” side and gain revenge by pain and suffering.