When All Comes down to Clothes : An Interpretation of P.G. Wodehouse's The Inimitable Jeeves

Sammanfattning: Abstract My aim for this paper is to analyse the character Jeeves' obsession with perfect clothing in     P. G. Wodehouse's The Inimitable Jeeves (1923). My method has been to study the historical context of the British aristocracy at the time of the first publication of the book in 1923, as well as the previous four decades during which the author grew up and decisive changes in the British class society took place. This paper studies sources on the significance of clothing in general, and examines its importance at the time in particular. For my analysis I have borrowed elements from new historicism. The norms, traditions and values of the aristocracy lost in importance during this time, and the aristocracy was divided into individuals who were willing to adopt to these changes and others who fought to defy them. My conclusion is that Jeeves considers the strict dress codes to be an important symbol of the old aristocratic values that he has to defend, in order to legitimize his own position, as he is profoundly devoted to his calling of being a first class valet faithful to the old traditions. Wooster, then, acts as Jeeves' opponent on the matter as he embodies the part of the aristocracy willing to embrace the changes instead.