[Ex 1 Book Review] Character Study on Mr Twits

• Petty, revengeful - playing tricks back on his wife
• Lazy - does not clean beard; wipe his mouth with back of his hand or sleeve and wipe that on his pants.
• Cunning, Creative, Careful (when required) - his trick with the walking stick AND chair
• Dumb, not observant, gullible - tricked into eating worms as spaghetti; tricked into thinking he was standing upside in the house
• Selfish - does not give a damn about other as long as he gets what he wants - baby monkeys fainting from being upside down, and the thought of Boy Pie.
• Merciless - does not pity his wife when she was frightened to the point that she was dribbling
• Rude - talking with his mouth full; calling his wife 'old hag'
• Simple, cannot multitask - becomes quiet when plotting tricks
• Sneaky, busybody - probably peep at people through their windows because he didn't realise that windows are meant for looking out.
• Does not want people to know about him - in the beginning, narrator mentioned the reason why people grow hair; and the fact that his house has no windows.

From the start, Mr Twits (an unfortunate name to have) has been described quite vividly as an ugly, dirty and nasty old man that everyone will love to hate.

He is portrayed as the ugly side of a human being, both in the physical appearance and the inner personality.

Mr Twits, to me, is a hilarious character in a morbid way. From the way he behaves, he is like a spiteful little boy. Considering his age of 60, perhaps he is entering his second childhood. With his bristly dirty beard and hair, Mr Twits believed that he looked wise and grand. What you believe could be wrong, besides everyone’s views are different. Who knows, maybe if he washed his beard and hair, give it a trim, soften the cuticles with conditioner, he might look grand – if only he was not that lazy.

His trick with Mrs Twits’ walking stick and chair shows that he is quite smart to think of it, and careful to also apply the trick to an ordinary household item such as the chair, cunning to increase the height gradually. This shows that when we really desired to do or achieve something, it could be done.

Mr Twits had refused to have any windows while building his house, claiming that he did not want anyone to peep at what he is doing. This indicates that he is a very secretive and private person. And also, to be able to think that way, it is highly possible that Mr Twits himself is a busybody and likes to peep at others, hence he is projecting his assumption onto other people.

In the family, the everyday life of both Mr and Mrs Twits are chaotic as they each play nasty tricks to and fro on each other, a never ending cycle. They treated each other and their pet monkeys badly. In the end, their pets tricked both of them. ‘Treat others like you would like to be treated’ and ‘Karma is a bitch; it all comes back to you.’

Mr Twits is such a heinous character that does not seem to have a shred of goodness in him at all. I believed that he is created as such so that he will be very memorable.