The Aunt and the Sluggard

Rocky Todd is the laziest young man in America, a poet who stays in bed till the afternoon and hates New York. His wealthy aunt offers him an allowance on one condition: he must live in the city, go to all the gay places, and write her every detail. So Jeeves does the nightclubs, Rocky writes the letters from his cottage, and the letters are so thrilling that his invalid aunt gets out of bed, comes to New York, and moves into Bertie’s flat.

What happens in The Aunt and the Sluggard

Rocky Todd, a poet who lives in a cottage on Long Island and does as little as possible, wakes Bertie Wooster at dawn with a letter. His aunt, Miss Isabel Rockmetteller of Illinois, believes she is too ill to travel and has always longed to see New York. She will now pay Rocky an allowance on condition that he live in the city, enjoy its gay life on her behalf, and write her a detailed letter every week. Rocky loathes New York and cannot bear to dress for dinner, but he dare not refuse her, since he is her heir. Jeeves proposes that someone else gather the experiences and Rocky write them up, and he volunteers. For a month everyone is happy. Jeeves enjoys the cabarets with a cigar and a notebook, Rocky stays in his pyjamas in the country, and Rocky’s vivid letters, addressed from Bertie’s flat at Jeeves’s suggestion, delight his aunt. Then the aunt arrives in person, cured by the letters. She believes the flat is Rocky’s and Jeeves is his servant, takes Bertie for a useless English hanger-on, and moves in. Bertie retreats to a hotel without Jeeves, while Rocky, squeezed into Bertie’s evening clothes, is dragged round the nightclubs every night. The aunt stops the allowance, since she is now paying for everything herself. Jeeves says he has no ideas. After some days the aunt grows gloomy and suspicious. Then, back at the flat one night, she forbids Rocky a drink and announces she has been converted by the revivalist Jimmy Mundy, whose meeting she attended by accident when Jeeves took her to Madison Square Garden instead of the Hippodrome. Convinced New York is wicked, she begs Rocky to go back to the country and never return. He agrees. The next day Jeeves tells Bertie where the idea came from. His own aunt, who loved riding in hansom cabs, could always be calmed by the parish clergyman talking of higher things. Then he advises Bertie to change his tie, and Bertie meekly agrees.

Where and when The Aunt and the Sluggard happens

Timeline the story arc, beat by beat

1. Setup
   The aunt’s letter

   Rocky’s invalid aunt will pay him an allowance only if he lives in New York, enjoys its nightlife, and reports it to her every week.

2. Rising
   Jeeves on the town

   Jeeves visits the cabarets and takes notes, and Rocky turns the notes into dazzling letters from his cottage.

3. Turn
   Miss Rockmetteller arrives

   Inspired by the letters, the aunt comes to New York, takes Bertie’s flat for Rocky’s, and treats Bertie as an intruder.

4. Rising
   Exile at the hotel

   Bertie lives without Jeeves at a hotel, while Rocky, in Bertie’s tight evening clothes, is dragged nightly round the cabarets.

5. Rising
   Suspicion grows

   The aunt starts to wonder why they never meet Rocky’s famous friends, and Rocky begs Bertie to join them.

6. Climax
   Jimmy Mundy

   At the flat the aunt forbids the whisky and reveals that a revivalist’s sermon has shown her the city’s wickedness.

7. End
   Back to the country

   She begs Rocky to live in the country forever, and Jeeves reveals that he sent her to the meeting on purpose.

Characters and how they connect

Character Relationships who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them

Themes in The Aunt and the Sluggard what the story is really about

Symbols & motifs

Conflicts

Literary devices

Foreshadowing

Early in the story Bertie mentions hearing Jimmy Mundy at the Garden and compares Rocky’s attack on New York to Mundy’s sermons. He also recalls that his valet before Jeeves came home from a meeting and called him a moral leper. Both details look like passing jokes and turn out to be the solution.

Misquotation and allusion

Bertie half-remembers famous lines and gets their authors vague. He calls Jeeves a guide, philosopher and friend, the words Alexander Pope used of a friend in An Essay on Man; he borrows Robert Burns’s heart in the Highlands; and he compares his packed suitcase to the touch of a vanished hand, from Tennyson. The fumbling shows an educated young man who remembers his schooling as a jumble of phrases.

Contrast

Bertie, who loves nightlife, writes a dull letter about it, while Rocky, who hates it, writes brilliant ones. The side-by-side letters make a joke about how writing works.

Mock-pathos

Bertie describes his nights in a hotel without a valet in the language of tragedy, moving softly as if there had been a death in the family and discovering the hardships of the poor because he has to tie his own tie.

Dramatic irony

The aunt calls Jeeves a man of very little intelligence just as she describes the mistake he made deliberately, so the reader sees the plan she cannot.

Important quotes

The ending of The Aunt and the Sluggard, explained

The ending reveals that Jeeves was never baffled. While Bertie and Rocky thought he had no ideas, he had been reminded of his own aunt in south-east London, who escaped from the house to ride in hansom cabs and could be calmed only when the parish clergyman talked to her of higher things. When Miss Rockmetteller asked him to take her to the Hippodrome, he took her to Madison Square Garden instead, seated her in the middle of a row where she could not leave without disturbing people, and left her to hear Jimmy Mundy. The sermon did the rest. The woman who had come to New York for its gaiety now sees it as a city of sin and begs her nephew to live in the country forever, which is all Rocky ever wanted. The word “will” in her speech, as Bertie notes, reminds Rocky that his inheritance is safe. So the story ends with every wish granted by a reversal. Rocky goes home to his worms, the aunt goes home to Illinois, and Bertie gets his flat and his valet back. The last exchange returns to the household. Bertie praises Jeeves’s brain and asks whether he eats a lot of fish, and Jeeves answers by telling him to change his green tie for the blue with the red domino pattern. Bertie agrees humbly, and the true balance of power in the flat is restored.

Common misreadings

Test yourself

Rocky is a poet who is so lazy he stays in bed until the afternoon, and he hates the big city. His aunt, who will leave him her money, wants him to live in New York, go to all the fun nightclubs, and write to her about them. So Jeeves goes to the clubs and takes notes, and Rocky writes the letters at home. The letters are so exciting that the aunt comes to New York herself and moves into Bertie’s apartment, thinking it is Rocky’s. Now Rocky has to go out every night and Bertie has to live in a hotel. Then Jeeves takes the aunt to hear a preacher who says the city is wicked, and she begs Rocky to go back to the country, which is exactly what he wanted.

Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know

Compare & connect the story universe

Adaptation. Jeeves and Wooster (1992, Television episode).

Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper

Key questions students ask

• What happens in The Aunt and the Sluggard by P. G. Wodehouse
• Who is the sluggard in The Aunt and the Sluggard
• How does Jeeves solve Rocky Todd’s problem
• Who is Jimmy Mundy in The Aunt and the Sluggard
• Why does Rocky’s aunt come to New York
• What does Jeeves’s aunt have to do with the ending