Bertie Wooster
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Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is the wealthy, good-natured co-protagonist and narrator of P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories. A minor British aristocrat and member of the "idle rich", he always appears alongside his highly intelligent "gentleman's personal gentleman", Jeeves, whose genius manages to extricate Bertie or one of his friends from numerous awkward or difficult situations.
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[edit] Family
Bertie is an orphan, but has at least three aunts and three uncles from the Wooster family, though Wodehouse alludes to his father's having had many siblings. Only two of his aunts — Aunt Dahlia and Aunt Agatha, sisters of his late father — play major roles in the stories.
Bertie has at least six uncles, three of whom he has acquired by marriage:
- Tom Travers, Aunt Dahlia's husband;
- Spenser Gregson, Aunt Agatha's first husband;
- Percy Craye, Earl of Worplesdon, her second;
- Henry Wooster, a "looney", whom the family find a considerable embarrassment;
- George, Lord Yaxley, who has a fondness for waitresses; and
- Willoughby Wooster.
Henry's twin sons, Claude and Eustace (Bertie's cousins), play significant roles in several stories, as do Aunt Dahlia's children, Angela and Bonzo Travers, and Aunt Agatha's young son, Thomas Gregson, also known as "Thos"
At first, Bertie depends on his Uncle Willoughby for financial support, but upon his uncle's death, Bertie apparently inherits a vast fortune. Nevertheless, he is perpetually afraid of his Aunt Agatha, who considers him a spineless invertebrate and a burden on society; his Aunt Dahlia, on the contrary, likes him very much, often inviting him to stay at her country estate, Brinkley Court. Bertie's Aunt Dahlia often uses the threat of banning Bertie from Brinkley Court and the offerings of her peerless chef, Anatole, to bend him to her will. For instance, in the novel The Code of the Woosters, Bertie is obliged to steal a cow creamer (a small milk pitcher) for his Aunt Dahlia, who wants it for her husband (Uncle Tom), for his collection. The cow creamer rightfully belongs to Uncle Tom, but by use of trickery, was purchased by Sir Watkyn Bassett (a rival collector and the magistrate who fined Bertie five pounds for stealing a Policeman's helmet one Boat Race Night). Bertie asks Madeline Bassett for an invitation and goes through a harrowing experience at Totleigh Towers, but is ultimately crowned with success.
Bertie also has a cousin named Gussie, mentioned in the first Jeeves story, Extricating Young Gussie, in which his and his cousin's last name is Mannering-Phipps. Wodehouse apparently changed his mind afterward, and renamed the family, though Bertie does make occasional mention of his Aunt Julia, the antagonist of that first story. The "Young Gussie" of the title, who becomes entangled with a chorus girl and goes on stage, is not to be confused with the much more prominent character of Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle, the eminent newt-fancier and former schoolmate of Bertie's who falls in love with first Madeline Bassett and, late in the saga, Pauline Stoker's younger sister, Emerald.
[edit] Education
Bertie has been given a first-rate British establishment education, having been schooled at Eton and Oxford University (Magdalen College). However, the little he may have learned has mostly escaped him by the time he narrates the Jeeves tales. Standard characters and passages of English literature are typically recalled with scant more detail than "Tum-tum, tum-tum, tum-tumty-tum, I slew him, tum-tum tum!". Bertie typically fails to recognise Shakespeare when it is quoted to him by Jeeves. The most that he seems to have retained from his Oxford days is a skill in stealing policemen's helmets.
His earlier school days were just as fraught with misunderstanding and misfortune as his later ones. About all that has stuck with him are attachments to former classmates such as Bingo Little and Tuppy Glossop, who cause Bertie more trouble than comfort. Although Bertie claims to have memorised a list of the Kings of Judah in order to win a Scripture prize as a youngster, Gussie Fink-Nottle insists that Bertie cheated.
Bertie has clearly read quite a bit of the Bible, as his stories contain frequent Biblical allusions, many of which are uttered by Bertie himself. As with the rest of his education, Bertie frequently uses only partial quotes, and the situations for which he uses them are completely incongruous with the original meaning. For instance, in one story, Bertie is trying desperately to avoid Honoria Glossop's female cousin, who appears to be quite interested in him. Bertie complains that "Old Sticketh Closer than a Brother" won't leave him alone. The verse that Bertie is almost quoting (Proverbs 18:24) is actually talking about the value and rareness of close friends. Bertie uses the partial quote as a pejorative to complain about someone who is not a friend and is actually annoying him.
[edit] Romance
Bertie never marries, but does become engaged in nearly every story and novel. In the early years he is rather given to sudden and short-lived infatuations, under the influence of which he proposes to Florence Craye (in Jeeves Takes Charge, the second story in terms of publication and the first in the internal timeline of the books), Pauline Stoker, and Bobbie Wickham. In all of these cases, he rethinks the charms of the holy state and a "lovely profile" upon a closer understanding of the personalities of the girls in question. However, having already received a proposal from him, each assumes in her own way that she has an open invitation to marry Bertie whenever she has a spat with her current fiancé. Madeline Bassett and Honoria Glossop are similarly deluded, though in their cases Bertie was attempting to plead the case of a friend (Gussie Fink-Nottle and Bingo Little respectively) but was misinterpreted as confessing his own love. In all of these cases, Bertie feels himself honour-bound to agree to the marriage out of fear of being ungallant and hurting the girl's feelings. He often cites his determination to act as a preux chevalier, and observes that "one is either preux or one isn't". In the later stories and novels, Bertie regards engagement solely as a dire situation from which Jeeves must extricate him.
Aunt Agatha is of the opinion that Bertie, whom she believes to be a burden to society in his present state, must marry and carry on the Wooster name; furthermore, he must marry a girl capable of moulding his personality and compensating for his many defects. (Interestingly, though, in the short story Jeeves Takes Charge, Lady Florence Craye tells Bertie that his Aunt Agatha "called you a spineless invertebrate and advised me strongly not to marry you". Aunt Agatha later marries Florence's father Lord Worplesdon, and Florence begins to call Agatha "mother", to Bertie's bemusement, so evidently the two terrifyingly imperious females feel some sort of spiritual kinship.) This prospect mortifies Bertie, not least because it would mean he and Jeeves would have to part ways.
[edit] Jeeves
When Bertie caught his valet Meadowes stealing his silk socks, he sacked him and sent for another from the agency. Jeeves, arriving in Jeeves Takes Charge, mixes Bertie a hangover cure of his own invention and is hired almost immediately. According to the latter book, Bertie is twenty-four when he hires Jeeves. Thereafter, Bertie cedes much of the control of his life to Jeeves, clashing occasionally on matters of dress. When Jeeves expresses disapproval of a particular article of Bertie's clothing, be it a brightly-colored cummerbund, a check suit, purple socks, white dinner jacket, various hats or even a moustache, it is certain that it will be disposed of by the end of the story, sometimes after a period of coolness between him and Jeeves.
Among Bertie's many reasons for not wanting to marry are his dislike of children and that all of his fiancées seem to have an aversion to Jeeves, insisting that Bertie sack him after their wedding. More importantly Jeeves is disagreeable to the prospect of his master's matrimonial alliance, as any prospective wife would likely dethrone him as the "true master" of the Wooster household. Because of this, he manages to steer Bertie out of every close relationship, sometimes against Bertie's will. Aunt Agatha also disapproves strongly of Jeeves's influence on Bertie, seeing his position as Bertie's "keeper" as further proof of self-insufficiency and unwillingness to take responsibility. Bertie's Aunt Dahlia, on the other hand, is extremely impressed by Jeeves's intelligence and is often party to his clever schemes.
[edit] Language
With a single exception, all the Bertie Wooster stories are told in the first person by Bertie himself. This allows Wodehouse a comedic paradox: although Bertie himself is, as Jeeves puts it, "mentally negligible", his descriptive style employs a considerable facility with English. Arguably, it is the idiosyncratic nature of Bertie's narrative descriptions that makes the tales difficult to adequately translate to a visual medium, such as film.
Bertie displays a fondness for pre-war slang, peppering his speech with words and phrases such as "What ho!", "pipped", "bally", and so on. He also commonly abbreviates words and phrases, such as "eggs and b." As the years pass, popular references from film and literature would also feature in his narratives.
[edit] Miscellaneous
Bertie belongs to the Drones Club, where many of his adventures begin. He is also acquainted with Lord Emsworth, another of Wodehouse's best-known characters, and mentions having visited Blandings Castle.
Bertie is depicted in the television series as being a very capable pianist and singer. He often plays and sings show tunes and musical numbers of the 1930s, including the songs "Nagasaki", "Puttin' on the Ritz", "Minnie the Moocher", and "You Do Something To Me". Hugh Laurie, who played Bertie in the series, actually played the piano and sang the songs on the set and no recordings or dubbings were used.
In the fictional biography "Jeeves: A Gentleman's Personal Gentleman" by Northcote Parkinson Bertie comes into the title of Lord Yaxley upon the death of his uncle George Wooster, marries Bobbie Wickham and makes Jeeves the landlord of the "Angler's Rest" pub, which is on the Yaxley estate. Jeeves then supplants Mr. Mulliner as the resident expert and storyteller of the pub.
[edit] Controversy
Bertie's foppish foolishness was not popular with everyone. Papers released by the Public Record Office have disclosed that when Wodehouse was recommended for a Companion of Honour in 1967, Sir Patrick Dean, British ambassador in Washington, argued that it "would also give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character, which we are doing our best to eradicate."
[edit] TV actors
Hugh Laurie portrayed Bertie in the early-1990s ITV series Jeeves and Wooster opposite his long-time comedy partner, Stephen Fry, as Jeeves.
In the earlier BBC World of Wooster (1965–1967), Ian Carmichael played the part of Bertie opposite Dennis Price as Jeeves.
[edit] Radio actors
Richard Briers portrayed Bertie in BBC Radio 4 series What Ho, Jeeves! opposite Michael Hordern as Jeeves. The series ran occasionally from 1973 to 1981.
Marcus Brigstocke played Bertie in a Radio 4 adaptation of The Code of the Woosters in 2006, with Andrew Sachs as Jeeves.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- BBC's World of Wooster (BBC comedy guide)
- ITV's Jeeves and Wooster (BBC comedy guide)
