Phineas and Gene: A Comparative Study Throughout the story, Phineas and Gene, the two main characters, showed a number of contrasting traits. Phineas was a confident, non competitive, naive, irresponsible, and unintelligent person throughout the story, whereas Gene, Phineas' roommate, was insecure, competitive, mature, responsible, and intelligent throughout the story. Phineas had a confident nature in everything he did. As Phineas and Gene first met, they noticed they were both the same height, but Phineas, being confident, said, "Where did you get that dizzy shirt?"(100). Only a person with extreme confidence could have insulted someone they just met because the ot