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Mr. Thomas’s lavatory is another symbol of the impracticality of the upper classes and their tendency to cling to obsolete things and values. Mr. Thomas’s training as a decorator means he can take care of his house, but he lacks the skills of a plumber because that was a profession for a man of a lower class. Mr. Thomas would rather undergo the inconvenience of going outside to use the bathroom than pay to make his plumbing functional again. Using the outdoor toilet, Mr. Thomas clings to a history that precedes his birth, back when Christopher Wren built the house in the 1700s and modern indoor plumbing was not yet available. Rather than value his house as a convenient and comfortable place to live, Mr. Thomas appreciates the way that it ties him to the past, when the rules of class were still unchallenged. The fact that Mr. Thomas is locked in his lavatory during his home’s destruction further suggests that this attempt to cling to vestiges of the past is futile and self-defeating.
Mr. Thomas’s Lavatory Quotes in The Destructors
The The Destructors quotes below all refer to the symbol of Mr. Thomas’s Lavatory. 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:
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Part 3
Quotes
After a while it seemed to him that there were sounds in the silence – they were faint and came from the direction of his house. He stood up and peered through the ventilation-hole – between the cracks in one of the shutters he saw a light, not the light of a lamp, but the wavering light that a candle might give. Then he thought he heard the sound of hammering and scraping and chipping. He thought of burglars - perhaps they had employed the boy as a scout, but why should burglars engage in what sounded more and more like a stealthy form of carpentry?
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Mr. Thomas’s Lavatory Symbol Timeline in The Destructors
The timeline below shows where the symbol Mr. Thomas’s Lavatory appears in The Destructors. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1
...for the repairs, so he must go outside to use the toilet in an outdoor lavatory. On one occasion, Old Misery looks over the wall at the boys as they play.
(full context)
Part 3
...watch the front of the house. Mike is told to go stand near Old Misery’s lavatory and yell.
(full context)
...hurries Mr. Thomas, who can hear the cries of the boy supposedly locked in the lavatory. By rushing him along, T. gets the old man to climb over his own garden...
(full context)
Arriving at the outdoor lavatory, Mr. Thomas asks what is wrong, but receives no reply from the boy inside. T....
(full context)
Part 4
...the boys slips Mr. Thomas a blanket and some food through a hole in the lavatory door. Mr. Thomas asks to be let out so he can sleep comfortably, saying he...
(full context)
Now aware of the shouting, the lorry driver goes to the outdoor lavatory and lets Mr. Thomas out. Mr. Thomas lets out a sob when he sees the...
(full context)
