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Jeeves and the Servus Callidus: Scheming Servants in Wodehouse and Plautus
(2015) Boudreau, Marielle; Germany, Robert
In P.G. Wodehouse’s short stories, the valet Jeeves plays the same role as a servus callidus, or clever slave, in the Roman comedies of Plautus; both Jeeves and the Plautine slaves act as the driving forces of their works, assisting their young masters and bringing off forbidden romances. But Jeeves, as an individual character rather than a comic mask, is characterized with more depth and nuance than the Plautine slaves, and is presented as a more infallible, benevolent figure. This lends a very different feeling to the two authors’ forms of social commentary: while the clever slaves are sympathetic for their potential failures, and the natural violence of slavery grounds the holiday atmosphere of Roman comedy in reality, Jeeves is so completely in control of his plots that the social question is about why he is in such a subservient role. Both works use canny servant characters to reflect and comment on their respective societies; though Jeeves and the clever slaves play the same role in the plot, they are different in personality.