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Chapter 29
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Howards End, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class and Privilege
Capitalism
Colonialism and Imperialism
Gender
Summary
Analysis
At Oxford, Tibby is finishing his final year. Unlike his sisters, Tibby is coldly cerebral, “untroubled by passions” and “not concerned with much.” He has neither the greed of the Wilcoxes, nor the social conscience of the rest of his family. He pursues his own studies in comfortable isolation.
Tibby may not be as materialistic and superficial as the Wilcoxes, but he is an example of a different type of privileged mindset that is just as detrimental to society: the callous, self-absorbed academic who cares only for knowledge and aesthetics, and nothing for human suffering.
Themes
One day Tibby is interrupted from his reading by a visit from Helen, who has come from Oniton. She says she is not going back to Wickham Place, but is leaving for Germany. She asks him to give Margaret her love and tell her that she wishes to be alone. She seems quite distraught, and Tibby is stunned when she bursts into tears. She tells him about what happened at the wedding, and what she learned about Jacky and Henry. He is shocked when she asks him to transfer five thousand pounds of her money to Leonard and Jacky for them to live off of from now on. He does as she asks, but the Basts refuse the money. When Helen tells him to give it to them in person, he finds that they have been evicted from their apartment and have disappeared. Helen has no choice but to reinvest her money, and she becomes even richer.
Greatly upset by Henry’s unwillingness to help Leonard find work after all, Helen appears to be heading to Germany to escape the Wilcoxes just like she did when Paul first moved in next door. She doesn’t even want to see Margaret before she leaves, although she does send her sister her love. After hearing from Leonard what must have happened between Henry and Jacky, Helen feels torn between telling Margaret what she learned and letting her continue to live in blissful ignorance—she doesn’t realize that Margaret already knows. She thinks only Henry is to blame for Leonard’s dismissal from Oniton. Henry only realized who Leonard’s wife was when Helen dragged the Basts up to the wedding to begin with, so she likely feels at fault, too. She tries to make up for losing Leonard his chance at a job by providing him with her own money, but he refuses to become dependent on her. Ironically, she ends up with more money than ever, while he and his wife become homeless.
Themes
