Bertie Wooster and (Reginald) Jeeves

It is young men like you, Bertie, who make the person with the future of the race at heart despair. Cursed with too much money, you fritter away in idle selfishness a life which might have been made useful, helpful and profitable. You do nothing but waste your time on frivolous pleasures. You are simply an anti-social animal, a drone. Bertie, it is imperative that you marry. (Aunt Agatha)

I could remember no such exhibition of determination on his part since the time he had insisted, against my frank disapproval, on wearing purple socks. However, I had coped successfully with that outbreak, and I was by no means unsanguine that I should eventually be able to bring the present affair to a happy issue. (Bertie Changes His Mind in Carry On, Jeeves. Narrated by Jeeves)

Jeeves comes from a long line of servants cleverer than their masters that stretches back to Plautus, through Shakepeare, Moliere and Dickens; he is more complex and controlling than most of his predecessors. Bertie is a tour de force figure of farce, constantly on the brink of disaster, threatened from several directions at once; he is swept through the stories, his attempts at taking control usually only making things worse.

Individually, they are major characters; together it it is hard to think of a more powerful relationship within comedy. Jeeves and Wooster complement each perfectly. Bertie is often muddled: Jeeves is always precise. Bertie is given to wild flights of fancy: Jeeves concentrates on the practical job in hand. Bertie lands in trouble: Jeeves extricates him. Bertie's language is an eclectic mix of slang, thrillers and poetry (learned from Jeeves): Jeeves is always precise. 

The relationship makes the stories work in so many ways. As Bertie steps obliviously into problems, Jeeves must orchestrate events to rescue him, often at some expense to his master. They conflict over socks, cummerbunds, Alpine hats and banjoleles; the conflicts that ensue send the stories fizzing in all sorts of directions. Jeeves' comments as Bertie prattles on subtly deflate Bertie and provide a layer of dramatic irony.

Bertie's Aunt Agatha views him with disdain. Jeeves describes Bertie as 'mentally negligible'. His friends see as someone they can turn to whenever anything unpleasant needs to be done, and they would rather not do it themselves. A succession of (suitable - or unsuitable, depending on whether you're Bertie or not) women believe him to be in love with them and patiently waiting for them to consent to marry him.

Within farce and humour, Bertie is one of the towering figures. He is tossed by circumstance and his total inability to say no, however much he wants to. He is constantly staring disaster and embarrassment in the face, pretending to be someone else, having to hide stolen goods in his room as footsteps come down the corridor, fleeing the country. He has all the money he needs - but rarely the peace in which to enjoy it. If everything seems to be going well, then unseen fate will be slipping lead into the boxing gloves.

He cannot refuse a friend in need, particularly if they were at school with him. As a result, Bingo Little, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Boko Fittleworth, Kipper Herring, Stinker Pinker and Stffy Byng queue up to ask him to help. Or rather, they ask Bertie to ask Jeeves to help; Bertie's portion is to break into houses, impersonate Rosie M. Banks and cycle miles in the darkness with no lamp to guide him.

Nobody - with the occasional exception of Aunt Dahlia - does anything selfless for Bertie in return.

He believes that if he has inadvertently given the impression he is in love with a woman then she has the option of marrying him at any point thereafter. Much of Bertie's time is spent trying to escape.

And Bertie loves his food. Whenever Aunt Dahlia needs him to do something, she has only to threaten to cut off the supply of dinners by her supreme chef Anatole. He gets into trouble sneaking down in the middle of the night to attack a cold steak and kidney pudding. Where he has lunch is a constant concern. Bertie is described as lissom. One can only conclude that expending so much nervous energy keeps him thin.

Bertie is warm-hearted and will always help out. Sometimes he rues his own character that leads him into so much trouble. He knows he is not bright. But the hope he has talents still bubbles inside him. He clings to memory of the prize he won for Scripture Knowledge; and every so often he decides he can direct events as well as Jeeves. 'It must be thrilling for you to see a master at work,' he says before everything spins out of control.

Above all, you see Bertie's character flow in his language. He starts a high-blown quote before it collapses as he forgets the finish or gets a word wrong. He learns long words from Jeeves, but is usually unsure whether he has used them correctly. He slips into the speak of the thrillers he reads and briefly slides into the character of the hero. His speech is an astonishing torrent of quotes and misquotes, allusions, malapropisms and long words.

There is more to Jeeves than meets the eye. This is certainly true of illustrations of Jeeves, which often show him to be a typical butler-figure, overweight and bald. He was a valet, one capable of 'swinging a dashed efficient shoe' and getting engaged to young ladies. Jeeves's age is an interesting debate.

On correct clothing (and moustaches), Jeeves is adamant and Bertie's attempts at standing up to him always end in defeat. Unless it is a question of clothing then Jeeves rarely overtly opposes Bertie. But if Jeeves wants to go on on a world cruise or a fishing trip, Bertie inevitably finds that the solution to the problems engulfing him necessitates giving in. When Jeeves does not get what he wants, he is quite capable of sulking and letting frostiness into the household till he has got his own way.

There is another subject on which Jeeves is firm. He does not want Bertie to marry; as he says, his experience has been that the bride comes in through the front door and the valet leaves by the back.

Is Jeeves self-centered, completely fixed on what he wants? At times, he seems singularly unperturbed by the predicaments in which he places Bertie. But equally he clearly wants to work nowhere else, favours Bertie's interests over others and is often complimentary about Bertie's feeling for others. 

Ultimately, the relationship works so well because Jeeves removes so many stresses from Bertie's life (from unwanted fiancées to bringing the morning cup of tea in at the right time; both seem to have roughly the same importance) - and he revels in doing so.