How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Wilhelm thought, I must be a real jerk to sit and listen to such impossible stories. I guess I am a sucker for people who talk about the deeper things of life, even the way he does. (4.81)
Clearly, Wilhelm gets something out of his short friendship with Tamkin—something more than bad tips about the lard market, at least. What hole in Wilhelm's heart is Tamkin helping to fill?
Quote #8
Utterly confused, Wilhelm said to himself explosively, What kind of mishmash, claptrap is this! What does he want from me? Damn him to hell, he might as well hit me on the head, and lay me out, kill me. What does he give me this for? What's the purpose? Is it a deliberate test? Does he want to mix me up? He's already got me mixed up completely. (4.118)
When Tamkin gives Wilhelm the poem he's been working on, called "Mechanism vs Functionalism, Ism vs Hism," Wilhelm doesn't know what to make of it. Once again, he's forced to confront the possibility that all of Tamkin's talk about "the deeper things of life" may be garbage after all; a schism in the ism and the hism, as Tamkin might say.
Quote #9
Did Tamkin have dependents? He had everything that it was possible for a man to have—science, Greek, chemistry, poetry, and now dependents too. That beautiful girl with epilepsy, perhaps. He often said that she was a pure, marvelous, spiritual child who had no knowledge of the world. He protected her, and, if he was not lying, adored her. (5.18)
Is it plausible that Tamkin might be supporting a young woman who is also one of his patients? He's been something like a replacement father to Wilhelm—could he be somebody else's father-figure too?