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Ellen
Tom is Ellen’s husband. He’s an English lecturer who has recently lost his job. He has moral qualms with Ellen’s genetic research and has therefore turned down Ellen’s numerous attempts to discuss her job offer with Kate’s company, which wants to fund Ellen’s research and make gene mapping available to the masses. Tom’s humanist sensibilities come across in his fixation with Isobel’s bones, which he finds hidden in a box underneath the kitchen sink. Isobel’s remains don’t faze Ellen and Kate: to them, the bones are an ancient relic that has no bearing on the present. But it makes Tom morally uneasy to think that he and Ellen have lived above a young woman’s bones all these years; he thinks that the mere fact that Isobel existed, had a name, and (possibly) met with foul play means that she mattered. Tom is most at odds with Kate, whose unwavering commitment to scientific inquiry blinds her to the potentially negative ramifications of gene mapping. Tom, meanwhile, is wary of the potential for gene mapping to become corrupt and harmful to society. Kate, in turn, considers Tom a “dinosaur” whose reverence for the past prevents humanity from changing the world for the better and is antithetical to progress. Toward the end of the play, Tom and Ellen have an open and honest conversation about their different perspectives, and it allows them to make amends. They both realize that their seemingly opposite interests (art and science) aren’t in fact at odds with each other—rather, they complement each other are equally capable of enriching a person’s life and helping them to navigate the world.
Tom Quotes in An Experiment with an Air Pump
The An Experiment with an Air Pump quotes below are all either spoken by Tom or refer to Tom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
But when I was thirteen, what held me more than anything, was the drama at the centre of it all, the clouds scudding across a stage-set moon, the candle-light dipping and flickering. Who would not want to be caught up in this world? Who could resist the power of light over darkness?
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Susannah: Maria, show a little faith, your father would never conduct an experiment unless he was quite sure of the outcome, isn’t that so?
Fenwick: You haven’t quite grasped the subtlety of the word ‘experiment’, Susannah –
Act 1, Scene 2
Quotes
Ellen: The fact that you’ve never had a moral qualm in your life doesn’t mean you have superior reasoning power, it just means you have a limited imagination.
Act 1, Scene 3
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Tom: So what’s the difference? At what stage does it stop being disturbing and start being archaeology?
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Act 2, Scene 2
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Kate: She probably wasn’t murdered. She was dissected. That’s why some of her’s missing.
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Act 2, Scene 3
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Susannah: I am full of feeling and passion and I am wedded to a dried cod.
Act 2, Scene 4
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Tom: The heart retains information, they don’t understand how, yet, but everything’s connected one way or another, nothing exists in isolation. When you feel grief, your heart hurts. When you feel love, it’s your heart that hurts, not your brain. You took this job because your heart told you to.
Tom: So we’re not that much different after all. Art and science are part of the same thing. Like waves and particles. You need both to define the whole.
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Tom Quotes in An Experiment with an Air Pump
The An Experiment with an Air Pump quotes below are all either spoken by Tom or refer to Tom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
But when I was thirteen, what held me more than anything, was the drama at the centre of it all, the clouds scudding across a stage-set moon, the candle-light dipping and flickering. Who would not want to be caught up in this world? Who could resist the power of light over darkness?
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Susannah: Maria, show a little faith, your father would never conduct an experiment unless he was quite sure of the outcome, isn’t that so?
Fenwick: You haven’t quite grasped the subtlety of the word ‘experiment’, Susannah –
Act 1, Scene 2
Quotes
Ellen: The fact that you’ve never had a moral qualm in your life doesn’t mean you have superior reasoning power, it just means you have a limited imagination.
Act 1, Scene 3
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Tom: So what’s the difference? At what stage does it stop being disturbing and start being archaeology?
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Act 2, Scene 2
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Kate: She probably wasn’t murdered. She was dissected. That’s why some of her’s missing.
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Act 2, Scene 3
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Susannah: I am full of feeling and passion and I am wedded to a dried cod.
Act 2, Scene 4
Quotes
Tom: The heart retains information, they don’t understand how, yet, but everything’s connected one way or another, nothing exists in isolation. When you feel grief, your heart hurts. When you feel love, it’s your heart that hurts, not your brain. You took this job because your heart told you to.
Tom: So we’re not that much different after all. Art and science are part of the same thing. Like waves and particles. You need both to define the whole.
