Aunt Agatha

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Aunt Agatha , actually Agatha Gregson , née Wooster, later also Lady Worplesdon , is a recurring fictional character in short stories and novels by the British writer PG Wodehouse , whose main characters are her nephew Bertram "Bertie" Wooster and his valet Reginald Jeeves . As a terrifying and strong-willed lady, she is the nemesis of her nephew Bertie, whose desires and intentions often drive the plot of the novel or narrative. Often, she doesn't even have to appear in person: the thought of Aunt Agatha's reactions is enough to force Bertie Wooster to act. Conversely, she has a bad opinion of her nephew: She considers him to be a spineless creature who needs his valet Jeeves as a guard.

In English usage is Aunt Agatha (English. Aunt Agatha ) occasionally needed to refer to any formidable aunt, or more generally to any elderly female person, which is characterized by a dragoon like creature and impressive willpower.

Development of the figure

Agatha Wooster is one of the two sisters of Bertram Wooster's father. Her sister is Dahlia Travers , Bertie Wooster's favorite aunt.

Agatha was initially engaged to Percy Craye at a young age. But when she learns from newspaper articles how he performed at a ball in Covent Garden, she breaks the engagement. She marries Spenser Gregson, who also appears as her husband in a number of Wodehouse's works. He was a stock trader and made his fortune from Sumatran rubber. After Gregson's death, they marry Percy Craye, who has since become Earl of Worplesdon. From this point onwards, Agatha was named Lady Worplesdon.

Agatha's first marriage is the mother of Thomas “Thos” Gregson, a youngster whom Bertie Wooster detests in no small measure, but whom he still has to accommodate in his apartment from time to time. Her marriage to Lord Worplesdon also makes her the stepmother of Florence Craye , one of her nephew Bertram's numerous ex-fiancés. Her stepson is Edwin, a boy scout whose well-meaning good deeds often result in disaster.

characterization

Aunt Agatha is first mentioned in PG Wodehouse's short story Extricating Young Gussie , which first appeared in the US Saturday Evening Post in 1915 and was included in the short story collection The Man with Two Left Feet in 1917 . Extricating Young Gussie is also the short story introduced by Bertram Wooster and his valet Jeeves - Jeeves is only mentioned briefly, however. Aunt Agatha's assertive character is already evident in this first story: she summons her nephew to New York without further ado to free Gussie Mannering-Phipps, another nephew, from the clutches of a showgirl.

Aunt Agatha appears for the last time in PG Wodehouse's 1971 novel Much obliged, Jeeves (German title: Without butler it doesn’t work ): There Bertie Wooster is still worried that his aunt will one day read the “Junior Ganymede Book of Revelations ”, the club book in which the butlers and valets who, like Reginald Jeeves, belong to the Junior Ganymede Club, write down the misdeeds of their employers. This concern of Bertie is not mentioned by PG Wodehouse for the first time in the novel Alter Adel rostet, published in 1938 .

Bertie in wild anticipation

In Bertie in wild anticipation (first appearance 1934) Aunt Agatha does not personally appear. It is explained at the beginning of the first chapter, however, that a certain annoyance with Aunt Agatha led Bertie Wooster to prefer to retire to New York for three months until her displeasure dissipated. In chapter 9 of the same novel, Wooster compares the glimmer in the eyes of his ex-fiancé Pauline with the look of his aunt just before she's squeezing him over some imaginary wrongdoing. In the last chapter, Aunt Agatha has to make a comparison again: Bertie Wooster has to appear before the justice of the peace because of an alleged break-in in his own garage, a seemingly harmless encounter, because this role is played by his old friend Lord Chuffnell. Bertie, however, experiences a moment of horror when Lord Chuffnell, who appears with horn-rimmed glasses and a wig, makes him think of his aunt Agatha for the first moment of the encounter.

Old nobility does not rust

In Alter Adel Don't Rust (first published in 1938), it is Bertie's favorite aunt Dahlia Trevor who drives the plot forward and puts him in a tricky position. Bertie Wooster, however, has several reasons to speculate about the nature of aunts in general. He philosophizes how happy and calm his life would be without aunts and notes how little it makes sense to distinguish between good and bad aunts. At heart they would all be the same: sooner or later their horse's foot would show itself . Bertie Wooster also notes that Aunt Agatha stands out among all aunts: She has broken glass for breakfast and wears barbed wire directly on her skin.

Without me, Jeeves!

In without me, Jeeves! (First published in 1946) Aunt Agatha stands in wild anticipation at the beginning of the plot in a similar way as in Bertie . Lord Worplesdon, meanwhile husband of Aunt Agatha, needs the most inconspicuous place possible for a secret negotiation with an American businessman and therefore wants his nephew by marriage to travel to Steeple Bumpleigh and rent a cottage there, which Lord Worplesdon then goes unnoticed by the press for Meeting with his business partner. Bertie is initially not very pleased with the idea of ​​leaving London and traveling to the country. Only the thought that Lord Worplesdon would tell Aunt Agatha if Bertie did not comply with her husband's wishes makes him leave for Steeple Bumpleigh. He comforts him, however, that his aunt Agatha is not personally in Steeple Bumpleigh, because she takes care of her son who is sick with mumps and who is sick in boarding school.

After the cottage burned down, which Bertie will use as his vacation home, Bertie is considering a short trip to the USA again to avoid Aunt Agatha's anger:

"Pretty much the only advantage of having an aunt like that is that she forces you to travel and thus makes you broaden your horizons and meet new people."

The intricate plot makes it necessary a little later that Bertie faked a break-in in Bumpleigh Hall, Lord Worplesdon's country estate and Bertie's aunt Agatha, in order to make his friend Boko, who is supposed to prevent the supposed break-in, look good in front of Lord Worplesdon. Bertie Wooster does not like the idea very much: he already fears Lord Worplesdon's reaction if the plan fails and he is discovered. Even worse, however, is the idea that after her return Aunt Agatha would find out everything.

"Far less terrible misdeeds on my part had in the past led to this old relative dug up the ax and, thirsting for my blood, after me as if she were an Indian on the warpath."

The fictitious break-in that ultimately failed, however, makes it clear that there is one person before whom the formidable Lord Worplesdon also trembles: the thought that his wife Agatha might discover that he has recklessly not renewed his insurance makes him pale. Bertie's astonishment at this is commented on by his valet with the words:

"I dare to doubt that there is a gentleman who is the master of the house in which your ladyship resides."

Lord Worplesdon's fear of his own wife then dissolves the complex storylines: He is given the choice of agreeing to his ward's marriage to a writer, or enduring Agatha's anger if she learns that he has appeared in disguise at a costume ball in the neighborhood . For fear of Agatha, Lord Worplesdon chooses the former.

In literary criticism

Wodehouse biographer Richard Usborne takes the view that PG Wodehouse immortalized in Aunt Agatha and her sister Dahlia his two aunts Mary and Louisa, who raised him on behalf of his parents. Wodehouse grew up as a so-called Raj orphan far away from his parents in Great Britain, while his father served as a judge in Hong Kong, UK. Usborne continued to argue that the reason the two appear so frequently in the novels and tales of Wodehouse, are ridiculed and ultimately outsmarted again and again, is due to their disciplinary influence on the young Wodehouse. Usborne argues that other writers who, in a similar way to Wodehouse, were so early out of parental control, compensated for this traumatic loss in revenge fantasies. Wodehouse, on the other hand, sought revenge in literary derision. Frances Donaldson, on the other hand, holds this assessment incorrect and argues that both aunts are classic literary figures of British humor.

Frances Donaldson also points out that although the reader is seduced into perceiving Aunt Dahlia as the more likeable of the two aunties, not least because the character Bertie Wooster repeatedly emphasizes his affection for Aunt Dahlia, but ultimately Wooster through his Aunt Dahlia suffer more problems and difficulties than from Aunt Agatha. Dahlia is a blackmailer who will not stop at anything and is completely unimpressed by the inconvenience and humiliation that she expects from those around her.

Actresses

In the British television series The World of Wooster with Ian Carmichael and Dennis Price in the leading roles, which was broadcast in Great Britain between 1965 and 1967, Fabia Drake played Aunt Agatha. In Jeeves and Wooster - Herr und Meister (original: Jeeves and Wooster , UK, 1990-1993), starring Hugh Laurie as Bertie and Stephen Fry as Jeeves, Mary Wimbush appeared as Aunt Agatha in the first three seasons, and Elizabeth Spriggs took over that role in the fourth season.

Trivia

In addition to the world of Bertie Woosters and his valet Jeeves, in which Aunt Agatha plays such a big role, PG Wodehouse created the fictional world of Blandings Castle, in which Lord Emsworth , his Butler Beach and his easy-going son Freddie, the fattening pig Empress of Blandings as well the Honorable Galahad "Gally" Threepwood are major protagonists. In these novels, too, aunts - here usually Lord Emsworth's sisters - play a major role in the lives of nieces and nephews, whose love luck is at stake thanks to the aunts' machinations and wishes. None of them stand out as strongly as Aunt Agatha, but Lady Constance Keeple comes close to this figure, as she repeatedly tries to bring order into her brother's life by hiring unsuitable private secretaries for him.

Stories and novels in which Aunt Agatha appears

The Man with Two Left Feet (short story collection, first published 1917)

The Inimitable Jeeves (collection of short stories, first published in 1923), German title: Der incomparable Jeeves

  • Aunt Agatha Takes The Count
  • Scoring off Jeeves
  • Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch.
  • The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace

Very Good, Jeeves (collection of short stories, first published in 1930), German title: Jeeves is in a class of its own ; Jeeves saves the situation

  • Jeeves and the Impending Doom
  • Jeeves and the Yuletide Spirit
  • The Indian Summer of an Uncle

Joy in the Morning (1946), German title; Without me, Jeeves!

The Mating Season (1949), German title: The highest of feelings ; Jeeves works wonders

literature

  • Frances Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . London 1982, ISBN 0-297-78105-7 .
  • Richard Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. Overlook, Woodstock / NY 2003, ISBN 1-58567-441-9 .

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ a b c d Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. P. 111
  2. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Jeeves takes the helm . Short story first published in 1916.
  3. ^ Martin H Manser: Dictionary of Allusions . Facts on File, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8160-7105-0 .
  4. ↑ PG Wodehouse; The Code of the Wooster . P. 39
  5. ↑ PG Wodehouse; The Code of the Wooster . P. 11
  6. ↑ Wodehouse: Joy in the morning , p. 82. The original quote is: About the only advantage of having an aunt like her is that it makes on travel, thus broadening the mind and enabling one to see new faces.
  7. ↑ Wodehouse: Joy in the morning , p. 103. The original quote is: Far less serious offences on my part in the past had brought the old relative leaping after me with her hatchet, like a Red Indian on the warpath, howling for my blood.
  8. ↑ Wodehouse: Joy in the morning , p. 103. The original quote is: I am inclined to doubt whether the Gentleman exists who could be master in a home that contained her ladyship, sir.
  9. ^ Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . P. 10.
  10. ^ Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . P. 11.
  11. ^ Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . P. 10 and p. 11.
  12. ↑ Herr und Meister on Wishlist.de. Retrieved April 9, 2016.