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What Does Bertie Symbolize?

[cuddyclothes]

The answers to the Jeeves questions have been fascinating! So, let's ask what Bertie symbolizes to you.

Re: What Does Bertie Symbolize?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeeeeey! Okay so I'm going back to the "person" vs. "concept" structure that I did for Jeeves.

1. Bertie the person:
Ah, Bertie. My sweet, kindhearted, sunshine boy. I'm very fond of this idiot. Like I said in the Jeeves post, I'm not gonna analyze him as a person, but I just want everyone to know that I love him just as much as I love my Jeeves hehe

2. Bertie the concept:
Again, this is all very personal of course:

- Bertie is a member of the aristocracy, but I wouldn't call him an aristocrat. He certainly is rich, and idle, but he doesn't seem to care much about social status and rank. He does, however, have morals and a strict code that he tries his best to keep. He wants to be a preux chevalier, to honor the Code of the Woosters - in short, to be what he deems a good person. Other than that, he doesn't seem to give a fudge about his social status.
This means that he doesn't look at Jeeves as his servant, but as an equal. Oh of course he pays Jeeves to take care of him, cook and clean and bathe and dress him, but that is simply how Bertie is used to being treated. But in all other aspects, he treats Jeeves more like he'd treat a friend. In fact, it's Jeeves that insists on all the formality.
- Bertie is naturally cheerful and careless, and even though he whines a lot, his bad mood never last very long. There's a scene in "Jeeves & Wooster" that really highlights this aspect of Bertie in my opinion: when he sings "Sunny Disposish" and then explains to Jeeves that he loves the song and it speaks to him because of its "philosophy". Yes alright it's funny because the song is kinda dumb and all that, but if you think of it... it actually is a nice philosophy to live by, isn't it? Hakuna Matata!
- Bertie is kind. No matter how much he whines about it, he always ends up helping his friends and relatives, always. He gives them money, time, effort - he even risks his life for them on one or two occassions! It breaks my heart that his unwavering kindness is exploited and that everyone takes him for granted and treats him like a total fool :(
- Bertie is lazy. So very lazy. Idle is a pretty word, but let's be honest, the boy is lazy. He doesn't seem to mind that he has absolutely nothing to do, he actually prefers it and recoils from any sort of activity that requires effort or commitment.

So basically to me Bertie symbolizes:

- Benevolence
- Innoncence
- Joyfulness
- Youth

There is however something a bit tragic about Bertie Wooster, just below the surface. He's an orphan, his friends and family treat him like less than nothing; and yet he's still cheerful, still friendly, still kind. It's like there's some sort of untouchable purity to him - he could have been an angel, if only he weren't lazy and whiny and a little petty (which is better, if you ask me: Pure Good is so boring).

What I want to say by all this is that Bertie desperately needs a friend, a true friend. In my opinion he found that friend the day he heard the words "I was sent by the agency, sir. I was given to understand that you required a valet."

(oh dear, this is awfully long and yet I haven't said all I wanted to say. Oh, well! haha)

Re: What Does Bertie Symbolize?

[(Anonymous)]

Please, say more! If you want to talk about their relationship, by all means!

Re: What Does Bertie Symbolize?

[(Anonymous)]

Bertie is such a kind, sweet, doormat of a man. One thing that gets overlooked if you've only seen the series is that Bertie is the narrator of the books. The narration is exquisite, the reason Wodehouse is revered as a comic author. The character comes across as more dull-witted in the series, even though he has a marvelous way with words. The partnership with Jeeves is just as symbiotic in both mediums. (see my post Bertie without Jeeves)

I don't believe his being an orphan influences him that much. The actual orphans I know generally don't think much about it and it certainly doesn't color their lives to the extent that many imagine Bertie's does. Given that he has such a sunny disposish, Bertie probably shrugs it off (none of his other friends seem to have parents, either. Did they all go down with the Titanic?).

My headcanon Bertie is more acerbic and worldly. In some of the books he comes across as more grumpy and in The Mating Season he's practically a horndog! The way he describes men is far more lustful than the way he describes women. Check out his slaverings over Esmond Haddock in The Mating Season or Orlo Potter (?) in Aunts Aren't Gentlemen. He's hard to write but his mind is so antic and fluttery it's a pleasure, plus he's extremely funny. Physically I don't have a terribly clear idea of his face (unlike Jeeves)but I see his physique as a taller Fred Astaire, say, 6'.

Re: What Does Bertie Symbolize?

[(Anonymous)]

Bertie in the books:
Bertie is just very, very kind. I am a bit of a know-it-all and I tend to look down on people who don‘t know the name of the second wife of the last French king or something like this, but Bertie has really shown me that intelligence and knowledge are not the ultimately desirable qualities in a person; he‘s shown me that kindness and and an open heart can be much more valuable than that.

Bertie on telly:
So, I have to mention that what I‘m about to say stands in NO CONNECTION AT ALL to the porn we are writing and reading here.
Well, I love televised Bertie, because he reminds me so strongly of my brother; who is not only very cheery and kind like him and always helps his pals out of the soup, but who loves fashion just like Bertie does and who owns a large collection of purple socks, pink shirts and patterned Stetson hats.

Re: What Does Bertie Symbolize?

[(Anonymous)]

Here's a different sort of aspect that Bertie, as a rich white British male character, symbolizes for me. So much of the media I consume is centered on upper-class white men and it really annoys me sometimes how they're held as the universal standard for subjects worthy of attention and how I just fall for it. I sometimes wonder whose stories I'm missing out on because I'm too busy absorbing yet another white dude's perspective.

Not to mention the nerdiness of the nostalgia for these imaginary idealized "civilized" "good old days" in England. PGW satirized that but it's not like he was some kind of social justice warrior.

Of course it's not as simple as "all British people = colonizers and oppressors" but I think it is worth asking why the world loves commodifying and fetishizing British culture so much and how so many of us become "anglophiles."

I'm mostly cool with this and used to it because it applies to nearly every fandom I've been into. Everything/everyone is problematic in some way so you just have to be a critical fan of the things you love.

Re: What Does Bertie Symbolize?

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting! Yes, Harry Potter definitely fits that mold, as does Brideshead Revisited to name two that spring to mind. As an American, I definitely fetishize England the way some fans fetishize the Old West, etc.

Re: What Does Bertie Symbolize?

[cuddyclothes]

Regarding Wodehouse's intent with Bertie, here is a (long) excerpt from George Orwell's 1946 essay, "In Defense of P.G. Wodehouse":

"Wodehouse had discovered the comic possibilities of the English aristocracy, and a succession of ridiculous but, save in a very few instances, not actually contemptible barons, earls and what-not followed accordingly. This had the rather curious effect of causing Wodehouse to be regarded, outside England, as a penetrating satirist of English society. This is a mistake that it would be very difficult for an English person to make, and is a good instance of the way in which books, especially humorous books, lose their finer nuances when they reach a foreign audience. For it is clear enough that Wodehouse is not anti-British, and not anti-upper-class either. On the contrary, a harmless old-fashioned snobbishness is perceptible all through his work. Wodehouse’s attitude towards the English social system is the same as his attitude towards the public-school moral code – a mild facetiousness covering an unthinking acceptance. The Earl of Emsworth is funny because an earl ought to have more dignity, and Bertie Wooster’s helpless dependence on Jeeves is funny partly because the servant ought not to be superior to the master. An American reader can mistake these two, and others like them, for hostile caricatures because they correspond to his preconceived ideas about a decadent aristocracy. Bertie Wooster, with his spats and his cane, is the traditional stage Englishman. But, as any English reader would see, Wodehouse intends him as a sympathetic figure, and Wodehouse’s real sin has been to present the English upper classes as much nicer people than they are.

A humorous writer is not obliged to keep up to date, and having struck one or two good veins, Wodehouse continued to exploit them with a regularity that was no doubt all the easier because he did not set foot in England during the 16 years that preceded his internment. His picture of English society had been formed before 1914, and it was a naïve, traditional and, at bottom, admiring picture."

(For what Orwell is writing about, look it up.)