# Sir Vincent Macmaster — A Man Could Stand Up— character guide

> Sir Vincent Macmaster in A Man Could Stand Up— by Ford Madox Ford.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Vincent Macmaster, Vincent, little Vincent Macmaster

**First appearance:** 0001-a-man-could-stand-up

## Snapshot

A literary critic and Tietjens' old friend, knighted and risen, whose ambitions and new marriage quietly measure the distance between the two men.

## Who they are

Macmaster is the friend from before the war — the man of letters who has made his name, married Edith Ethel, and accepted the knighthood that Tietjens' world would find faintly absurd. He is one of the few names that comes to Tietjens when he wonders who could be talking with Valentine for so long, and Tietjens trusts that Macmaster would not harm her. His respectability and his social ascent throw Tietjens' own stripped-down position into relief, and his presence in the novel's background keeps the pre-war world of letters and ambition alive against the trenches.

## Relationships

### [Sylvia Tietjens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/sylvia_tietjens)

_social_

Sir Vincent Macmaster is a social acquaintance of Sylvia, maintaining a polite but distant relationship within their shared social set.

### [Sylvia Tietjens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/sylvia_tietjens)

_social_

Sir Vincent Macmaster is a social acquaintance of Sylvia, maintaining a polite but distant relationship within their shared social set.

## In the story

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/chapters/part-i-ii)

Vincent Macmaster is mentioned as owing Tietjens three thousand two hundred pounds, which motivates Edith Ethel's actions.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/sir_vincent_macmaster
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters