SOURCE: Ramadier, Bernard-Jean. “Dubious Progress in D. H. Lawrence's ‘Tickets, Please’.” Journal of the Short Story in English, no. 35 (autumn 2000): 43-54.

In the following essay, Ramadier maintains that in “Tickets, Please,” the “incidental effects of progress on humanity are shown through the Lawrentian central theme of the relationship between men and women.”

“Tickets, Please” is one of the short stories in the collection England, My England [England My England, and Other Stories], published in 1922. It is a simple anecdote told in deceptively simple language; a young inspector of the tramway system seduces all the conductresses on the Midlands line. One of them, Annie, eventually falls for him on a special occasion, but she wants more than a flirtation. As she becomes more and more possessive, the young man lets her down and picks up another girl: Annie then decides to take revenge. As all the other conductresses more...