How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Wilhelm thought, Here he is, Here he is. If only I could figure this guy out. (4.9)
Wilhelm doesn't trust Tamkin entirely, but he believes that some of what Tamkin says must be true. Whatever else he may know, Tamkin has a real talent for walking the thin line between fact and fiction.
Quote #2
This was the moment to take a new look at Tamkin, and he viewed him closely but gained nothing by the new effort. It was conceivable that Tamkin was everything that he claimed to be, and all the gossip false. But was he a scientific man, or not? If he was not, this might be a case for the district attorney's office to investigate. Was he a liar? That was a delicate question. Even a liar might be trustworthy in some ways. (4.14)
Wilhelm knows that Tamkin likes to brag and boast and make himself look big, but that doesn't mean that everything he says is a lie—does it?
Quote #3
What a creature Tamkin was when he took off his hat! The indirect light showed the many complexities of his bald skull, his gull's nose, his rather handsome eyebrows, his vain mustache, his deceiver's brown eyes. [. . .] At mid-body he was thick. He stood pigeon-toed, a sign perhaps that he was devious or had much to hide. (4.40)
In her Introduction to the 1996 Penguin Books edition of Seize the Day, American writer Cynthia Ozick remarks that in Saul Bellow's writing, we can find "a refreshed phrenology": i.e., a presentation of human heads, faces, and bodies as clear signs of the characters contained within. In her reading, Bellow's descriptions of Tamkin's head, face, and body tell us everything we need to know about the man inside.
Quote #4
And honest—but was Dr. Tamkin honest? There was a hypnotic power in his eyes, but this was not always of the same strength, nor was Wilhelm convinced that it was completely natural. He felt that Tamkin tried to make his eyes deliberately conspicuous, with studied art, and that he brought forth his hypnotic effect by an exertion. (4.40)
You know it's a bad sign when it's clear that someone is doing their best to look honest. Honestly, Wilhelm: how much more obvious can Tamkin be?
Quote #5
Wilhelm tried to take in these new claims and examine them. Howling from the window like a wolf when night comes sounded genuine to him. That was something really to think about. But the Greek! He realized that Tamkin was watching to see how he took it. (4.78)
Tamkin's rare moments of insight into the human condition keep Wilhelm coming back for more. Does it really matter whether or not Tamkin can read and speak Greek? If a man can understand the human soul, who cares about the rest?
Quote #6
A few days ago Tamkin had hinted that he had once been in the underworld, one of the Detroit Purple Gang. He was once head of a mental clinic in Toledo. He had worked with a Polish inventor on an unsinkable ship. He was a technical consultant in the field of television. In the life of a man of genius, all of these things might happen. But had they happened to Tamkin? (4.78)
What does it say about Wilhelm's character that he's so willing to give Tamkin the benefit of the doubt? Is Wilhelm a generous and open-minded man, or is he a gullible sucker?
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?
Quote #10
Now Tamkin and he were equal partners, but Tamkin had put up only three hundred dollars. Suppose he did this not only once but five times; then an investment of fifteen hundred dollars gave him five thousand to speculate with. If he had power of attorney in every case, he could shift the money from one account to another. No, the German probably kept an eye on him. (5.36)
Too late, Wilhelm begins to realize how easy it would be for Tamkin to use his money in whatever way he pleases. Although we never do learn if Tamkin is running a scheme like this one, the possibility hovers over the novel like an extra dark cloud on an already cloudy day.