The Code of the Woosters 4

These study questions are part of the study over P. G. Wodehouse’s “The Code of the Woosters.” For a general introduction to this study you can go HERE. If you’d like to learn more about Study The Great Books or to find another text to study, you can go HERE.

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find these in the Text and Note them in the Margins)

Expectation vs. Reality, Chivalry, Despotism

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. To what other situation did Bertie compare the experience of finding out that Gussie had lost his little leather-covered notebook?

2. Who did Gussie think must have picked up the notebook?

3. What incident occurred involving Stiffy Byng and a police officer?

4. What did Stiffy want her fiancé, Harold “Stinker” Pinker, to do for her and why did Bertie think it ill advised?

5. What did Stiffy want Bertie to do for her and Harold (which Bertie also felt was also very inadvisable)?

6. How did Stiffy go about trying to force Bertie to help her and Harold?

7. What did Spode come to Bertie to make clear to him?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. What did Bertie mean by calling Gussie a “pre-eminent sub-normal?”

2. Why was Bertie so personally invested in recovering Gussie’s notebook?

3. Compare and contrast the present scene with Stiffy and constable Oates versus the scene where Bertie was found holding the cow creamer by Spode and Sir Watkyn (at the beginning of chapter three). What is similar and what is different?

4. Why did Bertie say “You know, the more I see of women, the more I think that there ought to be a law” when he found out that Harold is a curate?

5. Why did Stiffy think Madeline’s engagement to Gussie made her less likely to get her uncle’s blessing to marry Harold?

6. Tally up the difficulties Bertie currently has stacked against him. What are the problems he is currently facing so far in the story?

7. Having now met Stiffy Byng, what is your evaluation of her character?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. What lengths would you be willing to go to in order to help a friend like Gussie or Stiffy and Harold? Do you think Bertie’s obstinacy in not wanting to help is reasonable? Does one have a greater obligation to do something for a friend who asks for help than they do a complete stranger? Does having many shared past experiences with someone (such as Bertie being at school with Gussie and Harold) increase the level of one’s obligation towards them? Why or why not?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Exodus 21:28-32. How might we relate this passage of Scripture to our present reading?

2. Read Proverbs 17:17. How might we relate this proverb to our current reading?