74.95.93.25 wrote:
There have been times where I've been repulsed by Thomas, and O'Brien too, but both have had moments where they show a soft side.
There are certainly a whole list of characters who I am repulsed by far more than them, namely Vera Bates, Edna Braithwaite, Mr Green, Larry Grey, and Nanny West. They are at the top of that list because unlike Thomas and O'Brien, they showed no guilt for any actions they took that harmed others.
You have that right. Like Carson, the image of homosexual practice revolts me; however, as much as it drives him, Thomas's homosexuality is not all there is to the man. He is also a man of resentments, some of which derive from his sexuality, but not all. Yet the genius of Julian Fellowes is that all the main characters are flawed in one way or another, yet they (unlike the utterly despicable side characters Grey and Braithwaite) undergo a process of redemption, even the more admirable yet still troubled characters like Lord Grantham and Lady Mary. Thomas truly mourned over Lady Sybil's death, and he feels real fondness--not reducible to his sexual preferences--to Master George. With true Greek _paideia_, he transforms his desire for Andy into a willingness to tutor him. It is more a result of his invidiousness than his sexual aberration that he attempts suicide, yet he has established enough fellow feeling with Miss Baxter, a woman, that she, prompted by her woman's intuition, rescues him.
Some aspescts of Thomas are revolting, yet, like many in Downton Abbey, both upstairs and down, he has undergone repentance. I must own, however, that I almost never found him amusing--except perhaps when he discovered that he was himself the victim of his black market scheme.