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Politeness and characterisation
Task A – Reading the passage and understanding it
Read the extract below carefully, and try to describe
the contrasting characters of the two men.
What are they each trying to achieve, and how do
the ways in which they are polite and/or impolite to one another relate
to those goals? Do the two characters use the same style(s) of politeness
and impoliteness? Who wins the conversational battle? How is the victory
achieved?
[The context for the passage is as follows: In Come on Jeeves, the
famous character Jeeves is not the manservant of Bertie Wooster, but the
Earl of Towcester’s butler. The Earl is short of cash, and in order
to solve the problem, he has been operating as a race course bookie under
a false identity, with Jeeves as his clerk. Captain Biggar placed a bet
with them on the last race of the race meeting they have just attended,
and the horse he bet on won. In order to avoid paying Captain Biggar the
£3000 that he is owed, Jeeves and the Earl of Towcester have absconded
in their car. The Captain pursued them in his car but was stopped by the
police for speeding. In this scene he suddenly enters the Earl’s
house through an open French window and confronts Jeeves.]
| JEEVES flicks phone
table, coffee table, etc., and empties ashtrays. A man appears in
French window. This is CAPTAIN BIGGAR. He is a weather-beaten colonial,
with a bronzed face, a clipped moustache and the air of being a
tough customer. |
| 1. CAPTAIN: |
Good evening |
| The voice has a familiar
ring to JEEVES, but he turns with great calm and continues to dust
out ashtrays and polish them with a cloth he has taken from the
drawer. |
| 2. JEEVES: |
Yes, sir? May I suggest that the front door is round to the
right, the tradesman's entrance to the left? |
| 3. CAPTAIN: |
I've just been having a dekko at your Austin. |
| 4. JEEVES: |
Your allusion, I presume, is to the car of my employer, the
Earl of Towcester? |
| 5. CAPTAIN: |
The Earl of Towcester - ? That's true, then, is it? The police
said. (He comes into the room.) |
| 6. JEEVES |
(interrupting) You are possibly
unaware, sir, that your entry into this room constitutes a trespass? |
| 7. CAPTAIN: |
That be damned. When you're chasing crooks - |
| 8. JEEVES: |
Crooks? |
| 9. CAPTAIN: |
People who take your money and don't pay what they owe are crooks.
And we don't stand on ceremony with them in Kuala Lumpur. |
| 10. JEEVES: |
You appear to be under some misapprehension. If you have any
business with his lordship, will you kindly state it briefly and
at once? |
| 11. CAPTAIN: |
My old Wolseley would have caught up with that car if the police
hadn't nabbed me for speeding. I told them I was chasing a welshing
bookie and his clerk and gave them the car number - (Points
off in presumed direction of garage.) - that car number. |
| 12. JEEVES: |
Since the police presumably informed you that the car in question
is the property of Lord Towcester, I find your presence here bordering
on the incomprehensible. |
| 13. CAPTAIN: |
Listen. You're coming it very grand, but let me tell you, my
good man, that I'm used to dealing with Rajahs, Viziers and three-tailed
Bashaws. |
| 14. JEEVES: |
There is no question of being grand. I am, however, dressed
in a little brief authority, and I shall exercise it by asking you
to leave this room at once. |
| 15. CAPTAIN: |
I've not finished saying my say. |
| 16. JEEVES: |
I see I shall have to summon the police. (He goes to telephone,
picks up receiver.) |
| 17. CAPTAIN |
(beginning to crack) Wait a minute.
I've not come to make any trouble for Lord Towcester. Seems someone
borrowed his car today...with or without his permission... |
| 18. JEEVES: |
Nobody borrowed his lordship's car. Of that I can assure you.
It is a clear case of mistaken identity. (He replaces receiver,
but stands with his hand on it.) |
| 19. CAPTAIN: |
Don't tell me! That car was used today by a bookie called 'Honest
Patch Perkins' and his clerk. |
| 20. JEEVES: |
In the kindliest spirit I suggest that your eyesight needs medical
attention. |
| 21. CAPTAIN: |
My eyesight? My eyesight? Do you know who you're talking to?
I am Sahib Biggar. |
| 22. JEEVES: |
I regret to say that the name is unknown to me. However, Sahib,
I can only repeat. |
| 23. CAPTAIN |
(cutting in on 'Sahib') In this
country I use my title of Captain. |
| 24. JEEVES: |
Sahib or Captain, I still say that you have made the pardonable
mistake of misreading a licence number. |
| 25. CAPTAIN: |
Look, perhaps you're not up on these things. I am a white hunter,
the most famous white hunter in Malaya, Indonesia, Africa. I can
stand without fear in the path of an oncoming rhino...and
why? Because I know I can get him in that one vulnerable spot before
he's within sixty paces. |
| 26. JEEVES: |
I concede that you may have trained your eyes for that purpose,
but, poorly informed as I am on the subject, I do not believe
that rhinoceri are equipped with number plates. |
Our Answer
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