NOTES

Introduction
Wodehouse was a prolific British writer of comic prose fiction. His
stories are populated by aristocrats like the ninth Earl of Emsworth,
and take place in upper class settings. This story was originally
published in US and UK magazines in 1924.
The story begins with a loving description of the sunshine alighting
on, among other things, the Castle, its ivied walls, its green lawns,
wide terraces, noble trees and three characters: the Earl, his son
Freddie and Beach, the butler. Readers will note how Lord Emsworth
relies on his butler to put his hat on and to take the cap off his new
telescope. Much of the storys humour derives from the dialogue,
with even the butler given choice lines. By contrast, the headgardener is given a comic Scottish accent (Shes paying me twa
poon a week). Students should be encouraged to note dialogue and
descriptions they find particularly funny, and explain why.
The comic figure of Lord Emsworth is central to the story. Students
should consider the way in which he responds to his sons courtship
and eventual marriage to Aggie Donaldson, and what it reveals
about snobbery and class. They might examine, too, how
Wodehouse portrays Lord Emsworths comic concern for the wellbeing of his prize pumpkin and also consider why the latter makes
its first appearance about a third of the way through the story.
Humour In The Story
He gives orders as an Earl but nobody really listens to him. We see
this when Freddie acts confused about the girl he was seen kissing,
Girl? He quavered. Girl, guvnor? this brings in the humour as we
are shown that the poor Emsworth is not taken seriously. He keeps
asking about the girl but Freddie keeps going around in circles,
taking his time to answer Emsworth. Though, even after Freddie has
explained he still asks who the girl is.
The bathos was shown in, no Earl of Emsworth had ever won a
first prize for pumpkins
The story was built up with a mysterious picture only to find out that
the picture was just an ordinary pumpkin. The anti climax creates
a sort of humour because were all waiting to hear about the
mysterious picture and then we find that its nothing big just a
pumpkin completion.

Lord Emsworth Characterisation

Lord Emsworths Character is created in many different ways
through hat he says, his thoughts, his actions, his appearance and
what others think of him.
Lord Emsworth belongs to the landed gentry and speaks in a very
posh, British dialect. By using words like imbecile and dashed
thing we can tell that he is very posh. This manner of speaking was
used in early twentieth century Britain. When Emsworth is speaking,
he uses many exclamation marks. When he is speaking to Freddie,
he jumps to the conclusion that the pumpkin had been harmed.
Frederick! Speak! Tell me! shows that Emsworth panics very easily
and gets distressed when there is no need by assuming things.
We learn a lot about Emsworth from his inner thoughts too.
Elements Of Humour

In his story The Custody of the Pumpkin, P. G. Wodehouse

creates humour in a variety of ways. The story describes
(among other things) Lord Emsworths frustration that his neerdo-well son, Frederick, has been flirting with the daughter of the
estates gardener. Early in the story, the following passage,
which is typical of the storys humour, appears:
"Frederick!" bellowed his lordship.
The villain of the piece halted abruptly. Sunk in a roseate trance,
he had not observed his father. But such was the sunniness of his
mood that even this encounter could not damp him. He
gambolled happily up.
"Hullo, guv'nor," said Freddie. He searched in his mind for a
pleasant topic of conversation, always a matter of some little
difficulty on these occasions.
"Lovely day, what?"
His lordship was not to be diverted into a discussion of the
weather. He drew a step nearer, looking like the man who
smothered the young princes in the Tower.

The humour of this passage depends on a number of factors,

including the following:

Use of the very forceful verb bellowed, especially when that

verb is followed by the words his lordship. We dont usually
think of dignified English aristocrats as bellowing, and so this
combination of words is funny partly because of the comic

incongruity of the verb and the noun. The phrase would be far
less amusing if it had been written bellowed Emsworth or
even bellowed the lord. The words his lordship are
especially cultivated and thus seem out of place when following
bellowed.
The description of Frederic as the villain of the piece is also
amusing. Frederick is not evil or dangerous or malign. Thus
Wodehouse uses comic exaggeration here and elsewhere.
There is a comic contrast between the angry Emsworth and
the love-smitten Freddie, who is still [s]unk in a roseate
trance. As the phrase just quoted illustrates, the humour of
the story dependence in part on comic overstatement. It
would not be nearly so amusing if Wodehouse had written that
Freddie was still thinking of his beloved. The phrase roseate
trance is a splendid example of ostentatious hyperbole.
Use of comic verbs, as in gambolled, which implies a lightheartedness totally in contrast to the mood of Lord Emsworth.
Use of comic slang, as when the son of an English aristocrat
speaks to his father as if he were a cockney ("Hullo, guv'nor").
Such speech, designed to diminish his fathers anger, is only
likely to increase it, thus providing an example of comic irony.
Finally, one more aspect of the humour of this passage
deserves attention: the use of a comic simile, when Emsworth
is described as looking like the man who smothered the young
princes in the Tower. This phrase is humorous for several
reasons: it is exaggerated; it is vivid; it catches us by surprise;
and it is highly inventive. (Imagine how different the effect
would be if Wodehouse had merely written like a man full of
anger.)
Wodehouse, then, uses a variety of standard techniques for
achieving humour, most of which depend, in one way or
another, on incongruity. The contrast between Frederick and
Freddie is just one of many examples of the incongruous in
this passage and in the story as a whole.