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Politeness and characterisation
Task A – Our answer
Captain Biggar is angry because he has not been paid his winnings (£3000
is still alot of money, and when the play was written it would have been
worth much more), and wants to confront the men who have stolen it in
order to get his money and have them arrested. But even if we discount
his ‘local’ anger (being stopped for speeding won’t
have improved his temper either), he seems to be a rather direct, straightforward
and proud man. He ‘calls a spade a spade’ – cf. his
use of the word ‘crooks’ in turns 7 and 9 – and he tells
others that he is famous (this kind of behaviour is usually felt to be
unacceptable behaviour in polite circles).
Captain Biggar’s straightforwardness might be an advantage in other
contexts, but here it suggests that he is rather unsophisticated (and
not very clever?). He is fairly straightforwardly rude to Jeeves and his
employer. Jeeves, on the other hand, seems much more adept (and so more
clever?). He needs to confuse Captain Biggar and persuade him that he
is accusing the wrong men. He deflects Captain Biggar’s (rude but
true) accusations while also managing to be rude back, but in a more indirect,
and sophisticated way. By the end of the extract Jeeves appears to be
tying Captain Biggar up in knots, and this is where much of the humour
comes from.
In politeness terms, then, Captain Biggar is pretty impolite –
he is rude to Jeeves and the Earl of Towcester, and praises himself. Jeeves
is certainly impolite back, but manages to achieve his rudeness in a more
indirect, ‘polite’ way. We clearly need to explore these differences,
and how they are achieved, in more detail in the other tasks on this page.
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