Roderick Glossop

Sir Roderick Glossop is a recurring fictional character in the comic novels of P. G. Wodehouse.

Sometimes referred to as "the noted nerve specialist" or "the loony doctor", he is the most famous practitioner of psychiatry in Wodehouse's works,[1] appearing in several Wooster-Jeeves stories and one Blandings story. Glossop represents one of the most fearsome authority-figures in the Wodehouse canon who is not an aunt. His character does not satirize any psychological fads in particular, but he manages to appear on the scene whenever one of Wodehouse's hapless heroes happens to be dressed or behaving in a way that might be construed to indicate insanity.

During the events of Uncle Fred in the Springtime, he is impersonated by Lord Ickenham, who borrows his identity to take lodgings in Blandings so as to resolve a series of complications. Sir Roderick, of course, suspects nothing.

Relationships

In The Inimitable Jeeves, he is the president of the West London branch of the Anti-Gambling League. Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha is a friend of Sir Roderick's wife Lady Glossop.

In Thank You, Jeeves his wife has been dead for two years and he has become engaged to Lady Chuffnell. In Jeeves in the Offing they are married.

Bertie Wooster

Early in the series, Sir Roderick suspects Bertie of suffering from a mental disability, borne by the discovery of twenty-three cats in Bertie's bedroom as well as the remains of a cat-devoured salmon and his own top hat which had been snatched from him in the street. These items had been placed there by Bertie's cousins, Claude and Eustace Wooster after they had purloined them from their various owners in a bid to join a club. This notion was dispelled quite some time later, although not before complications ensued, by a complete explanation of the series of events.

Bertie's aunts frequently quote Sir Roderick when displeased with Bertie.

In Thank you, Jeeves, he and Bertie patch up their differences when both are seeking refuge after having been forced to black their faces with boot-polish for different reasons. He later becomes a friend of Bertie in the novel Jeeves in the Offing when he impersonates a butler named 'Swordfish' to hide his identity from Adela Cream as Bertie's Aunt Dahlia had brought him on to investigate the sanity of Mrs. Cream's son, Wilbur Cream. This spirit of brotherhood was brought on by shared experiences as they both had, while children, sneaking into their headmasters' studies and stealing biscuits (his being mixed while Bertie's were ginger-nuts). After he committed a gaffe by reacquiring a silver cow creamer that Tom Travers, Bertie's uncle had sold to Wilbur, he was forced to reveal his identity to the occupants of Brinkley Court and to place the blame, incorrectly, on Bertie Wooster.

His nephew Tuppy Glossop is also a close friend of Bertie and is engaged to Angela, Bertie's cousin and Aunt Dahlia's daughter.

His daughter Honoria Glossop was briefly engaged to Bertie Wooster in the events of The Inimitable Jeeves.

In the television series Jeeves and Wooster, Glossop is portrayed in three episodes by Roger Brierley and once by Philip Locke. As in the books, he initially views Bertie as mentally unstable, but they become civil to each other following an incident with boot-polish, although both end up arrested. In a further departure, Sir Roderick goes to New York after his wife elopes and his radical new theories are ridiculed by his English colleagues. While Bertie accidentally becomes engaged to Honoria again and desperately attempts to extricate himself, Sir Roderick becomes engaged to his American assistant, but quickly finds her to be a tyrant. He therefore flees back to England by ship, but is followed by his new fiancee. When Bertie, having boarded the same vessel due to being pursued by an unscrupulous theatrical agent he employed to break his engagement, discovers Sir Roderick, they trade rooms on the advice of Jeeves to escape their respective pursuers. The agent discovers to his horror that Sir Roderick's fiancee is in fact his estranged wife, enabling Sir Roderick to escape his ordeal unscathed.

Appearances

References

  1. ↑ "Great doctors in English literature: Sir Roderick Glossop". Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 287 (6409): 1962–1964. 24 December 1983. doi:10.1136/bmj.287.6409.1962. PMC 1550215. PMID 6418284. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
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