Representation Of Women in the Works of P.G.Wodehouse

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Recommended: Gender roles in the Victorian era: men and women

Popular literature is studied for the reason of its close relationship with society. The popular writer is in more immediate contact with his readers – he has the pulse of the people and develops certain kinds of specialized skills to accomplish the task of entertaining/instructing which his audience expects from him. And this is what P.G.Wodehouse, a prolific writer of over ninety books and world wide acclaim, hailed by The Times as ‘A comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce’, has been doing for nearly 70 years. All comedy is born out of a sense of incongruity. Incongruity is the recognition of the wide discrepancy between what is and what ought to be. Incongruity can arise out of reversal of roles. But this is definitely based on construction of roles at a give time. For example, gender roles being reversed leads to comedy. In most of the Shakespearean Romantic Comedies, for example the Twelfth Night, where we find a woman courting the man, in fact, the very disguise is incongruous and results in humour. During the Victorian Period gender roles were strictly demarcated. The woman’s role was strictly domestic: she was the angel in the house, angelic in patience and self-effacement. But in most of Wodehouse’s work this is comically reversed. It is the women who are the dominant sex. All the strong men and heroes are house-tamed sooner or later, willingly or unwillingly, by wives or sisters. This research article then attempts to establish that Wodehouse through his delineation of women characters subverts existing social structure and gender stereotyping and portrays women as progressive and equal in every level of existence. Representation Of Women in the works of P.G.Wode... ... middle of paper ... ...r’s guide. London: Orbis Publishing, 1979. Donaldson, Lady Francis. P.G.Wodehouse; The Authorised Biography. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982. Edwards, Owen Dudley. P.G.Wodehouse: A Critical and Historical Essay. London: Martian Brian and O’Keefe, 1977. French, R.B.D. P.G.Wodehouse. Edinburgh and London: Oliver & Boyd, 1966. Halsay, A.H. Trends in British Society since 1900. London, 1972. Hayward, John. “P.G.Wodehouse and the Edwardians.@ Spectator 155, no. 5602, 8th Nov. 1935: 771. Jasen, David. P.G. Wodehouse : A Portrait of a Master. New York: Mason & Lipscomb, 1974. Prasad, H. Rajendra. Laughing with the Master: Humour of P.G. Wodehouse. Delhi: Delta Publishing House, 1997. Usborne, Richard. Wodehouse at Work to the End. London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1976. Usborne, Richard. P.G.Wodehouse. New York: Twaine Publishers, 1996.

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