Ahhh Tibbikins...
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. ( Read more... )
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. ( Read more... )
I mentioned that Henry had been casual, and this is evident from his recklessness and lack of introspection when he became Jacky's lover. The incident of him dismissing his earlier confident comment about the Porphyrion with ease also shows a lack of situational awareness, his casual attitude towards the poor (since he does not care about the effect of his one-off remark about Porphyrion on Leonard) and also the careless way in which he treats his speech and actions.
Moving on...
I agree with Erwina about Leonard's sense of responsibility majorly contributing to him being noble. Regarding Qianwen's point about Leonard not being noble since he had an affair with Helen while still being with Jacky: I feel that that should not immediately strip Leonard off the noble label. One has to consider the other push and pull factors that prompted him to become involved with Helen, as I do not think that it was purely a matter of eroded morality and poor character (which should then make Leonard less noble). Note that Leonard had been feeling frustrated before that, and Helen being encouraging and all would have appealed to Leonard quite a lot. However, I am not saying that this then raises Leonard closer to the pedestal, but simply that it should not be seen as very influential to our judgement of his nobility. (Furthermore, didn't Leonard feel a sense of responsibility and guilt, unlike Henry towards Jacky, and wanted to apologise afterwards?)
Also, I view Tibby's act of transferring money for Helen as less of stemming from some inner heartstring being tugged at. Rather, it appears to me of more of a formal and correct act during a crisis (somewhat). In Chapter 30, we know that Tibby "had never been interested in human beings" and his "attention wandered when 'personal relations' came under discussion." Therefore I had intepreted Tibby's doing so as being due to his apathetic nature towards personal relations. As he had never cared much about personal relations, I do not think that he had taken into serious account that Helen was being 'outrageous' by entrusting him with the task and rather he had gone ahead with it because it was not a huge bother to him. That goes the same for Margaret's marriage to Henry as well.
(Oops this almost seems like a mini attack against Qianwen but I promise it isn't.)
My perception is that Tibby has never displayed any notable noble behaviour, and Leonard is more noble. As Jodie pointed out, Tibby's indifference to the personal life makes him not as noble. True, he may have given in after his sisters chided him for not playing the host and subsequently put in effort to host, but to me that is more of being polite and kind to his sisters rather than being proof of some existence of an elevated character that forced him to ignore an immense objection to playing host (which he does not possess).
What is more, Tibby is rather indolent and self-indulgent, and with books being of greater concern than most things, he does not show much consideration and sincere concern for others (which are fundamental foundation for a good character?) when books are on his mind. For example, in Chapter 30, he simply carries on with his lunch, while Helen is weeping in front of him, before taking up his Chinese grammar. Is putting personal indulgences above providing some kind of support/consideration for others noble? I don't think so.
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