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Victoria Norton
Mrs. E. Richardson
British Literature
18 November 2013
The Farce in Very Good, Jeeves!
Thesis: The style of literary humor Wodehouse uses in Very Good, Jeeves qualifies as farce
because the book contains crude characterization, improbable situations, and witty sarcasm.
I. Crude characterization
A. Important characters’ similar traits
B. Certain Characters’ stupidity
II. Improbable situations
A. Bertie and/or his friends’ problem
1. Love
2. Revenge
B. Bertie’s plan and action
C. Jeeves’s involvement
III. Witty sarcasm
A. Jeeves’s use of parrot-like responses
B. Jeeves’s use of his infinite knowledge to respond to Bertie
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Victoria Norton
Mrs. E. Richardson
British Literature
18 November 2013
The Farce in Very Good, Jeeves!
P.G. Wodehouse’s Very Good, Jeeves! is a collection of eleven short stories about the
adventures of Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves. Bertie and his friends are always messing
something up, but Bertie knows he can always count on Jeeves to know what to do. Whether
trying to please Bertie’s Aunt Agatha, escaping an angry swan, or helping Bertie’s friends
propose to the love of their lives, Jeeves has the best plan for any situation. P.G. Wodehouse’s
genius writing techniques and relatable characters allow readers to laugh page after page in this
delightful book. The style of literary humor Wodehouse uses in Very Good, Jeeves! qualifies as
farce because the book contains crude characterization, improbable situations, and witty sarcasm.
In Very Good, Jeeves! Wodehouse uses crude characterization, which means Wodehouse
describes characters based on simplicity or attitude. Critic Don L.F. Nilsen asserts, “All of
Wodehouse’s important characters are loveable, somewhat eccentric, and prone to finding
themselves in the middles of complex situations” (100). This is true for many of Bertie’s friends,
such as Old Sippy and Tuppy, who are both nice young men with the same problem: both have
women they are trying to impress. Sippy and Tuppy get nervous when they are around the
woman they love, and ask Bertie for his help, which in turn, causes a chaotic mess. Although the
characters have these traits in common, each one has his own distinct personality. This can best
be described using Bertie and Jeeves as examples. Critic Theresa Connors affirms, “The
inimitable P.G. Wodehouse created two of Britain’s most popular characters in Jeeves and Bertie
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Wooster.” Bertie and Jeeves are the most talked about characters of the “Jeeves” series, which is
not surprising considering their relationship is the basis of every book or story. Nilsen goes on to
state, “Bertie and Jeeves are opposites,” meaning each one has a completely different personality
(100). Each character has their own ideas, and ways of handling situations: “Bertie is rather
casual in his manner, while Jeeves is decidedly stuffy. Bertie is likely to consider lavender spats
an appropriate article of dress; Jeeves would rather die than have them in the house” (qtd. in
Nilsen 100). Even though they are different in this manner, Wodehouse further distinguishes
Bertie and Jeeves based on their attitudes about situations. Bertie tends to want to jump right
into the situation, while Jeeves is calm and makes sure to account for every little detail before
getting involved; however, they are similar in the manner that they are both aiming for the same
result or conclusion. For example, in Very Good Jeeves!, Bertie is given his Aunt Agatha’s dog,
McIntosh, to watch while she is away. Bertie then invites Bobbie Wickham to have lunch at his
home with Mr. Blumenfeld so that Miss Wickham can read Mr. Blumenfeld, a theatrical
manager, her mother’s play; however, Mr. Blumenfeld only chooses plays that his son likes.
Miss Wickham is so determined to woo Mr. Blumenfeld’s son that when she sees how fascinated
he is with McIntosh, she gives him the dog. Both Bertie and Jeeves try to get the dog back, each
with their own plan of action. In the end, Bertie and Jeeves do achieve their goal, further
proving their similarity to aim for the same results in problematic situations. Wodehouse makes
use of these two men to show that although the two are alike as far as being memorable and
lovable characters, they are different in how they present themselves, which makes this
collection of stories that much more intriguing.
Wodehouse also characterizes the people in his stories by stupidity, which allows the
reader to be entertained not only by events the characters are involved in, but also by dialogue
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between the characters. Critic Edward L. Galligan emphasizes this point by stating, "I think all
great farce gives us a fresh image of benign idiocy.” The “stupid” characters in Very Good,
Jeeves! are people who do not have much common sense and who tend to do something without
thinking about it first. Bertie is the first person who comes to mind when referring to stupid
characters because of how he presents himself through his narration of the stories. Galligan
goes on to say, “It makes matters more difficult if the narrator is incapable of analyzing motives
and purposes; Bertie has enough trouble perceiving what anyone, himself included, is doing
without trying to grasp why he is doing it.” Readers get to see things through Bertie’s point of
view in the book, which is funny because they get to experience the stress Bertie feels when he
rushes into a situation where he has no idea what he is doing or why he is doing it. This is most
accurately illustrated when, in Very Good, Jeeves!, Bertie goes to visit his friend Sippy at The
Mayfair Gazette. Sippy is angry about his old headmaster, now his boss, making him publish
stories in the newspaper against Sippy’s wishes. Sippy refuses to stand up to his boss because
his boss gives him an inferiority complex, so Bertie insists that they plant a sack of flour above
the door to the office; when Sippy’s boss walks in, the flour will fall on him. At the end of the
story, Sippy does stand up to his boss, and instead of the boss getting covered in flour, Bertie
does. Bertie has again jumped into a situation without thinking about every aspect of it and he
ends by stating, “In the agitation of the moment I had gone in at the wrong door; and what it all
boils down to is that, if any more of my pals gets inferiority complexes, they can jolly will get rid
of them for themselves” (46). Also in this story, Wodehouse gives proof that Sippy is also a
“stupid” character when Bertie describes Sippy’s behavior after his boss leaves: “He raised his
hands over his head, clutched his hair, wrenched it about for a while, kicked a table with great
violence, and then flung himself into his chair” (30). Sippy’s conduct here is evidence of his
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stupidity because he is acting very immature for a grown man. The similar traits and stupidity of
the majority of characters in this book demonstrate Wodehouse’s use of crude characterization,
which in turn helps classify this book as a farce.
This book is further proved to be a farce because it contains improbable situations. Bertie
and his friends always find themselves with one of two problems: love or the need for revenge.
Several times throughout the novel, one of Bertie’s friends would tell Bertie he was in love with
a woman, which results in Bertie’s getting involved, making everything worse. For example, in
one of the stories, Tuppy comes to Bertie with news of his engagement and asks Bertie to assure
his fiancée, Cora Bellinger, that he is not a practical joker as she has heard he is. Right after
Bertie has lunch with Tuppy’s fiancée, Bertie’s Aunt Dahlia comes to Bertie’s house declaring
that Tuppy cannot marry Miss Bellinger because Aunt Dahlia’s daughter, Angela, is in love with
Tuppy. Aunt Dahlia insists that Jeeves come up with a plan to get Cora to break off the
engagement with Tuppy so that he may marry Angela instead. This would be considered an
unlikely event today because most parents would not come up with such a scheme just so their
daughter could marry a certain man, nor would they get involved as Bertie’s aunt does. In
almost every Bertie and Jeeves story, there is an unlikely situation or some sort of chaos. Laura
Mooneyham confirms this point by asserting, “The comic convention of the world turned upside
down is a Wodehousian staple.” Another form of improbable situation in Very Good, Jeeves! is
revenge. In the book, Bertie is forced to stay at his Aunt Agatha’s house for a few nights and
realizes that Tuppy Glossop and his father are both scheduled to stay as well. Bertie decides to
get revenge on Tuppy for what Tuppy did to Bertie at the Drones Club a while before. He plans
to pop the hot water bottle in Tuppy’s bed while Tuppy is sleeping causing the bed to get soaking
wet and Tuppy’s having to make other sleeping arrangements. Jeeves misinforms Bertie of
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Tuppy’s sleeping quarters and Bertie ends up popping Tuppy’s father’s hot water bottle. This is
considered an unlikely situation because today grown men would more than likely not be
immature enough to plot revenge on their enemies and even if they did, their revenge would not
be muddled. Problems such as these and Bertie’s involvement always lead to Jeeves having to
step in and fix everything.
Jeeves is usually working behind the scenes the whole time the situation is going on. He
usually comes up with a plan within a few minutes of Bertie’s presenting a problem, in which
Bertie does not like Jeeves’s plan and proceeds to take the situation into his own hands. By the
end of every story, though, Jeeves has pulled a few strings and everyone lives happily ever
after—at least until the next problem arises, of course. Galligan points out: “Jeeves’s solutions
are never miraculous; occasionally he will pull a small rabbit out of his size-eight hat, but mostly
he simply exercises a little common sense in behalf of Bertie and his nitwit friends.” Jeeves
remains calm and keeps his wheels turning while Bertie is making a mess of everything, which is
why Bertie and Jeeves work so well together. Galligan affirms, “Jeeves is present—in spirit if
not in actual fact—from beginning to end of each tale.” Another critic states, “Jeeves is the
dignified embodiment of reserve and understatement” (qtd. in Nilsen 102). Bertie can get
involved in the most improbable situations and Jeeves always has a way out. Nilsen asserts,
“Jeeves is such a powerful literary force that even Wodehouse himself seems sometimes to lose
control” (102). It almost seems like Jeeves enjoys solving Bertie’s problems because he helps
even when help is not asked of him. Very Good, Jeeves! is better identified as a farce with the
improbable situations that Bertie gets himself involved in.
Another way Very Good, Jeeves! classifies as farce is because it contains witty sarcasm.
Jeeves is sarcastic in many of his responses to Bertie, probably because many of the things Bertie
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says are so dumb that all Jeeves can respond with is sarcasm. The most humorous of Jeeves’s
sarcastic responses are his parrot-like responses. Jeeves is usually slightly agitated when he
starts repeating the same replies, more than likely because Bertie has cut him off several times.
An example of this is when Bertie tells Jeeves he is “talking rot” and several synonyms of “rot,”
in which Jeeves replies with “Very good, sir” each time causing Bertie to end by saying, “Very
good, sir—I mean very good, Jeeves, that will be all” (55). This is an example of witty sarcasm
on Jeeves’s part because Bertie is obviously trying to get a rise out of Jeeves and all Jeeves has
to say is “very good, sir.” Another example of these types of responses is when Bertie is
informing Jeeves of a guest who will be coming for lunch, and Jeeves responds with “Indeed,
sir?” to everything Bertie says. Bertie gets agitated with him and replies, “Correct this parrotcomplex, Jeeves…There is no need for you to stand there saying ‘Indeed, sir?’” (95). This is
another example of Jeeves’s sarcastic responses because Jeeves knows that his “parrot-like”
answers irritate Bertie. Yet another example of Jeeves common responses is when Bertie and
Mr. Filmer are stuck on the roof of a building in the middle of an island after a swan has chased
them up it. Bertie calls for Jeeves, informing him that he is sitting on the roof and Jeeves
responds, “Very good, sir” (18). Bertie responds, “Don’t say ‘Very good.’ Come and help us.
Mr. Filmer and I are treed, Jeeves”; Jeeves again responds “Very good, sir” (19-20). This is
funny because Bertie is stuck on a roof with an angry swan at his feet and when he asks Jeeves
for help all he gets is “very good, sir,” which seems like a clever aim at sarcasm on Jeeves’s
part. Not only does Jeeves respond to Bertie with his sarcastic parrot-like responses, but he also
makes use of his infinite knowledge to respond to Bertie.
Jeeves is a well-educated man who seems to know everything there is to know, which is
why everyone comes to Jeeves for help with their problem. Jeeves is so well-known as being
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someone with seemingly infinite knowledge that Ask.com originally was named for the Jeeves
character with the original search engine called AskJeeves.com. Jeeves’s knowledge seems to be
superior to everyone else mentioned in the book. For example, when Jeeves is presenting his
plan to Aunt Dahlia, he says, “the first essential is to study the psychology of the individual,” in
which Bertie says, “And by psychology, Jeeves, you imply-,” to which Jeeves responds, “The
natures and dispositions of the principals in the matter, sir” (80). This is humorous because the
reader sees the lack of vocabulary both Aunt Dahlia and Bertie have here. Jeeves uses witty
sarcasm because he knows that he is the only one who understands it, so he can be sarcastic
without Bertie even knowing. It is funny because the reader knows that Jeeves is being sarcastic,
but the people in the story do not. Galligan affirms, “Bertie’s intellectual opacity makes it easier
for the reader to accept—more accurately, pretend to believe in—the preposterous characters that
Wodehouse’s farcical plots must deal with.” This means that Bertie’s stupidity makes it easier
for readers and, to add to Galligan’s comment, Jeeves to deal with the stupidity of the other
characters in these stories. Although Jeeves knows he is superior to Bertie and could be servant
to someone more intelligent, he chooses to stay with Bertie. No one really knows why Jeeves
chooses to stay with Bertie, but Galligan gives a good reason when he asserts, “Jeeves will strike
quickly and hard to preserve his relationship with Bertie. We must see that relationship as
symbolic, as expressing Wodehouse’s deepest insight—that rational intelligence becomes
monstrous and ultimately self-destructive if it is not held firmly subservient to the ideals of
affability and civility.” Basically, Jeeves remains with Bertie because without Bertie’s inferior
knowledge to pair with Jeeves’s superior knowledge, it would be hard for Jeeves to stay patient
and civilized. Jeeves is a loveable character who uses his wit to further illustrate Very Good,
Jeeves! is a farce.
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To summarize, Very Good, Jeeves! is a collection of eleven short stories filled with crude
characterization, improbable situations, and witty sarcasm that all come together to qualify this
book as a farce. Galligan believes, “Wodehouse’s mastery lies in his ability to accept to
constraints of his form. It must be light…devoid of any content that anyone of mental age
beyond eight might be tempted to label serious.” This means that Wodehouse uses these points
to make his farcical stories an in-between kind of funny: not too serious or too humorous. It can
best be compared to Goldilocks when she eats the porridge; she wants it just right, not too hot
nor too cold. For something to be farce it must also be consistently funny. Galligan emphasizes
this by stating, “Farce must have deft comic pace, establishing a rhythm of smiles and laughter
akin to the rhythms of words and music in the great popular songs of the period.” By this he
means that the reader needs to be smiling or laughing at a consistent pace throughout the stories.
Wodehouse definitely does this in his writing and Galligan agrees when he declares,
“[Wodehouse] is funny, not just occasionally, but consistently, in story after story, novel after
novel.” Wodehouse uses crude characterization, improbable situations, and witty sarcasm in
Very Good, Jeeves! to further keep this comic pace. The best way to word what is meant by
farcical plotting is exactly Galligan’s contention: “Farce must take a group of preposterous
characters through a series of ridiculous action in a way that remains, granting the author’s initial
premises, perfectly credible. It must always teeter on the brink of chaos, yet it must finally
reveal itself as fully controlled.” Wodehouse, the master and father of farce and comedic style,
does exactly this in Very Good, Jeeves!.
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Works Cited
Connors, Theresa. “Tea & Comedy.” Library Journal 15 May 2005: 73+. Literature Resource
Center. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
Galligan, Edward L. “P.G. Wodehouse: Master of Farce.” The Sewanee Review 93.4 (Fall 1985):
609-617. Rpt. In Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski and Scott T.
Darga. Vol. 108. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Nov.
2013.
Mooneyham, Laura. “Comedy Among the Modernists: P.G. Wodehouse and the Anachronism of
Comic Form.” Twentieth Century Literature 40.1 (Spring 1994): 114-138. Rpt. In
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski and Scott. T. Darga. Vol. 108.
Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 Sept. 2013.
Nilsen, Don L.F. Humor in Twentieth Century British Literature. Westport, Connecticut:
Greenwood, 2000. Print.
Wodehouse, P.G. Very Good, Jeeves! New York: Penguin, 1957. Print.