P.G.
Wodehouse – Indian Summer of an Uncle
"Indian
Summer of an Uncle" is a short story by P.G. Wodehouse, in which
women are excluded as complex characters and men are portrayed as
being in league against women. The male characters are the victims
who support each other as if repelling an unwelcome, alien force.
What makes this worse is the degree to which this is seen, simply, as
the "stuff of comedy." Paradoxically, Wodehouse's approach
is Englishness at its most depressing.
Brief
Synopsis of the Story
Bertie
Wooster’s fat old Uncle George fancied himself in love with young
Rhoda Platt, a “lowly” waitress. Discussing possible repercussion
with Jeeves, Bertie revealed he feared the disapproval of Aunt
Agatha. When Aunt Agatha called, having heard of Uncle George’s
intentions, she demanded the affair was stopped immediately. Aunt
Agatha told Bertie to negotiate a money settlement with Rhoda and
gave him a blank cheque to go to London immediately.
In
London, confronted by Rhoda’s Aunt Maudie, he learned that her
young niece had influenza and that she was thinking over George’s
proposal. Mission unaccomplished, Bertie returned home to explain to
his furious Aunt Agatha. Then Jeeves suggested presenting Uncle
George with Rhoda’s Aunt Maudie, with her orange hair and magenta
dress, to influence him against the marriage. When the meeting took
place, it transpired the aunt was Uncle George’s barmaid, whom he
wanted to marry years before. The two met and Uncle George and Maudie
became engaged.
Bertie
discovered that Jeeves had already planned the outcome. He wanted to
help an old friend, who was in love with Rhoda. Resourceful Jeeves
had Bertie’s suitcase already packed to escape Aunt Agatha’s
wrath, and so the car was speedily prepared for a quick getaway.
Englishness
and the Snobbery of Class-Conscious Men
In
the first instance, Bertie Wooster addresses the reader as a pal,
assuming it is a “he” and not a “she.” Chattily, he says:
“Ask anyone at the Drones…” This assumes that the reader knows
that the Drones is a London gentlemen’s club, making it clear
Wodehouse is not writing for the female gender. Throughout the story,
the (male) reader is invited to share the joke. Women are referred to
continually in a patronising way, for example as “this female,”
and more specifically as “the recent aunt,” and “Add the aunt.”
Even more overtly, his own Aunt Agatha is described as “The Family
Curse.”
There
are dismissive, contemptuous allusions to working-class girls,
showing stereotyping and English class-consciousness. “It is
notorious… they always endeavour to marry chorus girls,” and “his
intention of marrying some impossible girl from South Norwood.”
This latter remark was addressed to Aunt Agatha, who “…comes
sticking her oar in,” and who, on discovering her brother’s
prospective love-match is a working-class waitress, emitted: “…a
screech… like the Cornish Express.” Agatha is a caricature of an
aunt.
Need
to Exclude Women even Overcomes Class-Consciousness
Apart
from involving the reader as a fellow-victim, the men in the story
support each other, against women, even overcoming barriers of class.
Aristocratic Bertie and manservant Jeeves are united in the cause of
protecting the male sex against female idiosyncrasies. Jeeves, in
sympathy, speaks of “gentlemen… yielding to a sentimental urge,”
that he goes on to describe as “The phenomenon…” These comments
echo Bertie’s own description: “The last bloke in the world… a
victim to the divine pash.” Finally,
after Jeeves has manipulated events to his own ends and persuaded
Bertie it is all for the best, there is still the formidable Aunt
Agatha to consider. Again, aristocrat and manservant unite; the
suitcase is packed and they are: “…off over the horizon to where
men are men.” The men have successfully thwarted the schemes of
women by guile, cunning and cleverness, and they escape to avoid
retribution. On
balance, without wanting to mitigate Wodehouse’s tired and
stereotypical presentation of women, the men, in their turn, are
presented as effete and on occasion, as objects of scorn.
Sources:
“Indian
Summer of an Uncle,” Life
with Jeeves,
P.G. Wodehouse, Penguin Books, 1988.
Literature
in the Modern World,
Ed: Dennis Walder, Open University Press, 1990.
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