Bertie Wooster

"Bertie" Wooster
Bertie Wooster (left) as depicted on the cover of Carry On, Jeeves (First edition)
Created by	P. G. Wodehouse
Portrayed by	Richard Briers, Ian Carmichael, Hugh Laurie and others
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Gentleman, Socialite
Family	Aunt Dahlia (aunt), Aunt Agatha (aunt), Sister Mrs Scholfield (no first name given)

Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. An English gentleman, one of the "idle rich" and a member of the Drones Club, he appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose genius manages to extricate Bertie or one of his friends from numerous awkward situations. As the first-person narrator of ten novels and over 30 short stories, Bertie ranks as one of the most vivid comic creations in popular literature. Bertie’s middle name, “Wilberforce”, is the doing of his father, who won money on a horse named Wilberforce in the Grand National the day before Bertie was born and insisted on Bertie carrying that name (mentioned in Much Obliged, Jeeves).

Family

Due to the volume of stories and time span over which Wodehouse wrote them, there are a number of inconsistencies and contradictions in the information given about his relatives. "Bertie" and several of his relations appear in the early Wodehouse story "Extricating Young Gussie". In that story the family name is Mannering-Phipps, not Wooster, and the story has never been included in collections of Jeeves and Wooster materials, however the incidents described in "Extricating Young Gussie" are referred to in later stories.

Immediate family

It is established throughout the series that Bertie is an orphan. In the story "Bertie Changes His Mind" he mentions a sister who has three daughters, referred to by Jeeves as Mrs Scholfield (although in the later novel Thank You, Jeeves he states that he has no sisters during a conversation with Lord "Chuffy" Chuffnell). No other siblings are mentioned.

Aunts and uncles

Bertie's father is said to have had many siblings. In "Extricating Young Gussie" Bertie's Uncle Cuthbert is described as the "late head of the family". Bertie's Uncle George carries the title of Lord Yaxley. Other uncles who come into the stories are Henry Wooster, a "looney", whom the family find a considerable embarrassment; and Willoughby Wooster, upon whom Bertie is initially dependent for financial support, but who apparently passes away during the course of the stories, allowing Bertie to inherit a vast fortune.

Two sisters of Bertie's father play major roles in most of the stories and novels. They are Aunt Dahlia and Aunt Agatha. Bertie's description of the two aunts makes them appear exact opposites, although both criticize him heavily for his aimless life. Aunt Agatha is demeaning and demanding towards Bertie, leaving him quite unhappy about her involvement in his life. Aunt Dahlia is more good natured, but can also be a little demanding. Despite any disagreement he might have towards the plans his aunts have, Bertie feels obliged to follow their whims, often getting in trouble for doing so.

An aunt by marriage, Aunt Julia, the widow of Uncle Cuthbert, appears only in Extricating Young Gussie but is mentioned by Bertie occasionally. Another aunt by marriage, Aunt Emily, Claude and Eustace's mother, is mentioned in The Inimitable Jeeves.

Bertie has three uncles-by-marriage throughout the series: Tom Travers, Aunt Dahlia's husband; Spenser Gregson, Aunt Agatha's first husband; and Percy Craye, Earl of Worplesdon, her second.

Cousins

Henry's twin sons, Claude and Eustace, play significant roles in several stories, as do Aunt Dahlia's children, Angela and Bonzo Travers, and Aunt Agatha's young son, Thomas Gregson, nicknamed "Thos". The title character of "Extricating Young Gussie" is Bertie's cousin Gussie, son of Aunt Julia and Uncle Cuthbert.

The family title

Bertie's Uncle George is Lord Yaxley, suggesting that he is the eldest living uncle and that Bertie's paternal grandfather likely held the title as well. However, the relative ages of Bertie's father and remaining uncles are unclear, so it is unknown whether Bertie or one of his male cousins would be in line to inherit the title. In "Extricating Young Gussie" Uncle Cuthbert is described as the "late head of the family"; however it is explicitly stated that his son Gussie "has no title."

Education

Bertie's early education took place at the semi-fictional Malvern House Preparatory School. Wodehouse himself attended a school by that name, located in Kearsney, Kent; however, the Malvern House which appears in the stories is located in the fictional town of Bramley-on-Sea.

He was further educated at the non-fictional Eton^[1] and at Magdalen College, Oxford.^[2]

Most of Bertie's friends and fellow Drones Club members depicted in the stories attended one or more of these institutions with him. Also, Bertie's former schoolmaster at Malvern House, Aubrey Upjohn, appears or is mentioned several times.

One detail of Bertie's school life which comes into several stories is his winning of the prize for Scripture Knowledge while at Malvern House. Bertie speaks with pride of this achievement on several occasions; however, in Right Ho, Jeeves, the character of Gussie Fink-Nottle, while intoxicated, publicly accuses Bertie of having achieved the award through cheating. (Bertie stoutly denies this charge, however, and on the same occasion Gussie makes other completely groundless accusations against other characters.)

Bertie's scriptural knowledge (like most of his mental catalog) often retains at least part of the literal quote, while completely losing the original meaning and context. In one story, Bertie complains about the lavish and constant attentions of a woman in whom he has no interest by referring to her as "old sticketh closer than a brother" in an annoyed fashion. The verse (Proverbs 18:24) that Bertie partially quotes actually is praising the value of close friendship when it refers to a "friend that sticketh closer than a brother".

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 (also known as the Code of the Woosters) to agree to the marriage. He often cites his determination to act as a preux chevalier (valiant knight), 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. He also shares an obvious platonic affection with his cousin Angela (Aunt Dahlia's daughter), whom he feels protective of during her choppy engagement to Tuppy Glossop.

Jeeves

When Bertie catches his valet Meadowes stealing his silk socks, he fires him and sends for another from the agency. Jeeves, arriving in Jeeves Takes Charge, mixes Bertie a hangover cure. The cure is remarkably effective, and Bertie hires Jeeves immediately. According to the text, Bertie is 24 when he hires Jeeves. Thereafter, Bertie cedes much of the control of his life to Jeeves, clashing occasionally on matters of dress and appearance. When Jeeves expresses disapproval of a particular article of Bertie's clothing or grooming, be it a brightly-coloured cummerbund, a check suit, purple socks, white mess 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 the two. In one particular instance, Jeeves goes to the extent of breaking a vase he disliked which had been purchased by Bertie.

Jeeves frequently displays mastery over a vast range of subjects from philosophy (his favourite philosopher is Spinoza) to an encyclopedic knowledge of poetry, science, history, psychology, geography, politics and literature. He is also a 'bit of a whiz' in all matters pertaining to gambling, car maintenance, etiquette and women. His mental prowess is attributed to eating fish, according to Bertie, and the latter often offers the dish to 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 dismiss 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.

Acquaintances

Bertie has several friends who keep popping into his life, mostly for Jeeves' help. A list of those who play major roles are:

• Hildebrand "Tuppy" Glossop, who once challenged Bertie to swing across the pool in the Drones club and "looped back the last ring, thus rendering it necessary for me [Bertie] to drop into the deep end in formal evening costume".^[3] He is the cousin of Bertie's sometime fiancée, Honoria Glossop, and is usually engaged to Bertie's cousin Angela.
• Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle, who keeps newts and has a face like a fish.
• Oofy Prosser, the Drones Club Millionaire with a pimply face. His wealth apparently exceeds Bertie's, though it can't be by much.
• Richard "Bingo" Little, who had a penchant for falling in love with every girl he met before finally marrying Rosie M. Banks.
• Rev. Harold P. "Stinker" Pinker, Curate of Totleigh-in-the-Wold. Pinker is consistently clumsy except when playing rugby as a prop forward.
• Freddie Widgeon
• Harold Winship, Stands for Parliament as the Conservative candidate in Market Snodsbury.
• Beefy Bingham, Parson in the East End
• Marmaduke "Chuffy" Chuffnel, the young landowner of Chuffnell Regis, an estate he tries to sell.
• George "Sippy" Sipperly, an author who is arrested for assaulting the police on boat race night.
• Claude "Catsmeat" Potter-Pirbright, an old school friend of Bertie's.
• Charles "Biffy" Biffen
• Cyril "Barmy" Fotheringay-Phipps

Bertie is known for being loyal to his friends, willing to do whatever he can to solve their problems, saying "when it comes to helping a pal we Woosters have no thought of self." This has led to problems as he is regularly volunteered for troublesome tasks — he muses in Jeeves in the Offing that "whenever there is dirty work to be undertaken at the crossroads, the cry that goes around my little circle is always 'Let Wooster do it.'"

Bertie belongs to the Drones Club, and many of these characters are fellow members and appear in the separate Wodehouse "Drones Club" series of stories. Bertie is also acquainted with Lord Emsworth, another of Wodehouse's best-known characters, and mentions having visited Blandings Castle.

Bertie also has several adversaries who are constantly suspicious of him and on occasion, threaten him.

Language and inspiration

With a single exception, all the Bertie Wooster stories are told in the first person by Bertie himself. Although Bertie himself is, as Jeeves puts it, "mentally negligible", his descriptive style employs a considerable facility with English. Bertie displays a fondness for pre-World War I 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. Bertie has some linguistic quirks that continue through almost all of his stories. For example, he almost never uses the word "walk" but uses words like "oil", "stagger", and "shimmer".

The Wodehouse scholar Norman Murphy believes George Grossmith, Jr. to have been the inspiration for Bertie Wooster.^[4]

Depictions outside the Wodehouse stories

In the Granada Television series Jeeves and Wooster, Bertie is depicted as being a very capable pianist and singer, making use of actor/musician Hugh Laurie's musical talents. He often plays and sings show tunes and popular songs of the 1920s and 1930s, including the songs "Nagasaki", "Forty-Seven Ginger-Headed Sailors", "Puttin' on the Ritz", "Minnie the Moocher", and "You Do Something to Me".

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.

In Alan Moore's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, Bertie appears in the segment "What Ho, Gods of the Abyss?" which comically mixes elements of Wodehouse with H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Bertie blithely recounts the arrival of a Mi-go to Brinkley Court and Aunt Dahlia's possession by Cthulhu. The Lovecraftian menaces are driven off by Jeeves with the assistance of Mina Murray, Allan Quatermain, Carnacki, and Orlando, but not before Gussie Fink-Nottle's brain is surgically removed (a condition that, in the end, causes no real difference in his behavior). Throughout the events, Bertie remains unaware of the true nature of the goings-on.

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".^[5]

Actors

Film and TV actors

• David Niven was the only actor to play Bertie in a theatrical film, in Thank You, Jeeves! (1935). But this film bore almost no resemblance to Wodehouse's fiction, and portrayed Bertie as a woman chaser, the opposite of the usual situation in the stories.
• Ian Carmichael played the part of Bertie (opposite Dennis Price as Jeeves) in the earlier BBC World of Wooster (1965–1967).
• Jonathan Cecil (who, like Wooster himself, was an Old Etonian) played him in the tribute Thank You, P. G. Wodehouse (1981).^[6]
• Hugh Laurie (also an Old Etonian) portrayed Bertie in the early-1990s ITV series Jeeves and Wooster opposite his long-time comedy partner, Stephen Fry, as Jeeves.

Radio actors

• Terry-Thomas played Bertie in a dramatisation of "Jeeves Takes Charge" released as a record album in the 1960s.
• 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.
• Simon Cadell played Bertie opposite David Suchet as Jeeves in a BBC Saturday Night Theatre radio adaptation of "Right Ho Jeeves" in 1986 and also The Code of the Woosters.
• Marcus Brigstocke played Bertie in a Radio 4 adaptation of The Code of the Woosters in 2006, with Andrew Sachs as Jeeves.

Audiobook actors

Audiobooks of many of the Jeeves stories and novels have been recorded by British actors, including Simon Callow, Jonathan Cecil, Martin Jarvis, Frederick Davidson, and Alexander Spencer.

See also

• Other characters in the Jeeves stories
• By Jeeves, originally Jeeves, a musical since 1975

References

External links

• BBC's World of Wooster (March 2007 Archive.org cache) at the BBC Comedy Guide (down as of October 2007^[update])
• ITV's Jeeves and Wooster (March 2007 Archive.org cache) at the BBC Comedy Guide (down as of October 2007^[update])