The Inimitable Jeeves: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Inimitable Jeeves" is a collection of linked short stories by P.G. Wodehouse featuring a cast of memorable characters, primarily centered around the dynamics between the amiable but ineffectual Bertie Wooster and his highly competent valet, Jeeves. Bertie, a wealthy bachelor in his mid-twenties, is characterized by his pleasant demeanor and penchant for a luxurious lifestyle, despite his lack of intelligence and poor taste in fashion. Jeeves, on the other hand, is portrayed as a paragon of intelligence and good sense, often rescuing Bertie and their circle of friends from various predicaments while maintaining a respectful and discreet demeanor.
Supporting characters include Aunt Agatha, whose formidable presence and relentless pursuit of Bertie's improvement create tension in his life, and Bingo Little, a charming but dim-witted friend whose romantic escapades frequently entangle Bertie in trouble. Other significant figures include Mortimer "Old" Little, Bingo's wealthy uncle with a love for food; Rosie M. Banks, a popular novelist who ultimately becomes Bingo's wife; and Bertie's troublesome cousins, Claude and Eustace, who add to the chaos in Bertie's life. The interplay among these characters highlights themes of social class, loyalty, and the comedic struggles of maintaining one's position in society, making the stories both engaging and humorous.
The Inimitable Jeeves: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: P. G. Wodehouse
First published: 1923
Genre: Novel
Locale: England, France, and New York City
Plot: Farce
Time: A period from spring to winter in the early 1920's
Bertram (Bertie) Wooster, a gentleman, an already confirmed bachelor in his mid-twenties, the epitome of the idle—and vacant—rich. Although Jeeves describes Bertie as “By no means intelligent,” he also acknowledges Bertie to be “an exceedingly pleasant and amiable young gentleman.” Good-natured Bertie narrates the events of this series of linked stories in a tone that is sprightly though at times faintly defensive when his role as stooge for family and friends and as the object of Jeeves's contempt becomes obvious even to him. Despite his deplorably bad taste in clothes (a source of frequent conflict with Jeeves) and his unabashed love of his idle, luxurious, and socially unredeeming life, Bertie comes across as an innocuous young man of unflagging goodwill.
Jeeves, Bertie's valet, a few years older than Bertie and certainly wiser. Although superbly competent in his duties as a gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves is much more; his master also regards him, with gratitude and some awe, as “a bird of the ripest intellect” and “a sort of guide, philosopher, and friend.” Jeeves often extricates Bertie, his friends, and members of his family from unpleasant personal messes; while discreetly dispensing advice and help, Jeeves himself always manages to benefit, financially and romantically. Although Jeeves's overt manner toward his young master is one of dignified loyalty and self-effacing respect, his own superior intelligence, worldliness, and good taste are abundantly evident.
Agatha Gregson, Bertie's aunt. Described by her nephew as “pretty formidable,” she is a tall, commanding, gray-haired woman, sharp-nosed and gimlet-eyed. Bertie fears her and her unfailing ability to “snooter” him. On several occasions, she routs Bertie from his life of comfortable sloth and entangles him in unpleasant situations as part of her mission to have him make something useful of himself and fulfill family expectations. She harasses him both at home and abroad; it finally takes the full force of Jeeves's ingenuity to placate her.
Richard “Bingo” Little, a slim, dapper young man-about-town, an old school friend of Bertie. As dim as Bertie, Bingo leads an equally idle life, distinguished only by his penchant for repeatedly falling desperately in love. The women that he desires are either of enough intelligence and breeding to regard his attentions with amused contempt or unsuitably lower class. Tumbling into one scrape after another, Bingo always manipulates Bertie (and, therefore, Jeeves) into extricating him, appealing to Bertie's “old school tie” loyalty. An accomplished parasite, Bingo finally marries the popular novelist Rosie M. Banks, a woman much better, brighter, and wealthier than he deserves.
Mortimer “Old” Little, created Lord Bittlesham, the wealthy owner of Little's Liniments. Now retired, his chief interest is food: its preparation and, particularly, its consumption in large quantities. Obese and troubled by gout, Old Little has an explosive temper, especially when he discerns a betrayal of his nephew Bingo's duty to him. Bingo's romantic encounter with radical socialism, especially in the person of the formidable, gold-toothed Charlotte Corday Rowbotham, leads Old Little to cut off Bingo's allowance, giving rise to Bingo's disastrous forays into gambling.
Rosie M. Banks, the author of popular novels extolling the triumph of love over class distinctions. While working as a waitress at a gentleman's club as a means of researching the background for a new novel, she becomes the last in the long series of Bingo's passionate attachments, the woman who finally brings Bingo to matrimony and also placates Old Little. Bertie had earlier assumed Rosie's name and fame to restore Bingo to Old Little's favor; regrettably, the arrival of the real Rosie leaves Old Little to presume thereafter that Bertie is completely mad.
Claude and Eustace, Bertie's cousins, inseparable twins about twenty years old. Expelled from Oxford for unsuitable behavior, these wastrels become the scourge of Bertie's life. They are so gleefully irresponsible, devoted to pleasure, and adept at sponging that they tax even Jeeves's ingenuity in devising a plan that finally removes them from the Wooster family's sphere and relegates them to the colonies.
Honoria Glossop, the strapping, hearty, horsey daughter of Sir Roderick Glossop. She is briefly an object of Bingo's affections and, for a short while, the horrified Bertie's fiancée, thanks to Aunt Agatha's plans for his future. Another of Jeeves's masterful plots rescues Bertie from matrimony.