# Silas Tilbody — In the Midst of Life character guide

> Silas Tilbody in In the Midst of Life by Ambrose Bierce.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Silas Tilbody, Mr. Tilbody, the great Mr. Tilbody

**First appearance:** 0042-the-famous-gilson-bequest

## Snapshot

Superintendent of a home for old men, Silas Tilbody regards every new inmate as a personal insult and every act of charity as a clerical error.

## Who they are

Tilbody runs the Home for Old Men with the aggrieved efficiency of a man who believes the founder's benevolence was sadly impaired by providing any inmates at all. In his private castle-in-Spain, the residents would be sleek, paying, and civil; in reality they are querulous, ungrateful, and perpetually replacing one another. His petty tyranny over the poor and old sets the moral weather of the story's opening, where charity and resentment share the same roof.

## In the story

### [The Applicant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/chapters/the-applicant)

Superintendent of the Home who denies the old man's application on Christmas Eve.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/characters/mr_tilbody
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/characters