Ahhh Tibbikins...

[lostumbrella]

 All right, you fans of Tibby (he does look quite cute in those John Lennon glasses), let's get him out of our system!

Henry Wilcox says: "lack of education makes people very casual." That is to say, UNeducated people are indifferent, apathetic, uncaring, flippant. Then, his conviction is that those with education are careful, thorough, concerned.

Comments

erwina :D

[anonymous]

I wouldn't place him anywhere. He's hardly in the situation, and I'd rather place Tibby seperately as an individual. But, if I have to, I'll place him almost in the middle, nearer to the Wilcoxes. Not because he's like the Wilcoxes, but because he's too different from Leonard.

He's not like the Wilcoxes because he has no desire and does not see the need to work. The Wilcoxes take pride in their work and see work as a necessity (They even sent Paul to Nigeria!). On the other hand, Tibby “prefer to be quite free of any profession”, just enjoying a leisured life with his books and concerts. And this wasn't really acceptable in their society, as seen from the conversation between Margaret and Tibby (pg 94) :

"But Mr. Vyse is rather a wretched, weedy man, don't you
think? Then there's Guy. That was a pitiful business.
Besides"--shifting to the general--" every one is the better
for some regular work."

Groans.

"… men have developed the
desire for work, and they must not starve it. It's a new
desire. It goes with a great deal that's bad, but in itself
it's good, and I hope that for women, too, 'not to work'
will soon become as shocking as 'not to be married' was a
hundred years ago."

"I have no experience of this profound desire to which
you allude," enunciated Tibby.

If you read further down the page you can see that people generally (or maybe just Margaret) thought that men should work.

Let us now compare him with Leonard. Leonard likes to play the gentleman, acquiring culture for that purpose, and is responsible. In contrast, Tibby is apathetic towards societal issues and even family issues and does not see any problem in that. He is rich and cultured, but not a gentleman (he doesn’t even want to play host though he’s the only man in the house). In addition, Leonard is a boy, though he’s trying to be a man, but Tibby has feminine qualities (like brewing tea, not smoking, not hosting…and good temper).

By the way, when I say Tibby is apathetic towards family issues I mean those like moving house and the whole Wilcox business. However when it comes to Helen’s problems about the Basts, like what Qian Wen has said, his reaction was relatively big. He also respected Helen’s decision in transferring 5000 dllars to Leonard, and also Margaret’s decision in marrying Henry. That shows that he’s noble, he could stand in other peoples’ shoes.

But Leonard is more noble because he has a strong sense of pride that drives him to do things few can do. For example, marrying and living with a woman like Jacky, volunteering to take responsibility in household matters that are usually being left to women (he’s the one that cooks), visiting Helen later in the novel to admit his mistakes etc…his strong sense of responsibility basically sums it up.