Leave it to Psmith: Wodehouse's Comic Novel of Thievery, Romance, and Burglary - Essay Sample

Introduction

'Leave it to Psmith' by Wodehouse is a comic novel that was published in 30 November 1923. The Novel is based on the main character who is Ronald Psmith, and the visit he makes to the Blandings Castle, which is a home to a Lord called Emsworth (P.G Wodehouse, 1923).The novel is full of various plots, such as the thieving of a diamond necklace that is said to be expensive, the hunt of Eve Halladay, and also a burglary at night which turns violent.

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Psmith is presented a person who is overconfident and is desperately seeking a job. He advertises his services and the skills that he feels confident about in the local newspaper. He gets funny notes from people and others borrow money from him. However, Freddy Threepwood from Blandings is broke and urgently needs money and Psmith's advertisements catch his eyes. Freddy needs a thief who can manage to steal an expensive beautiful necklace from Lady Constance Keeble who is his aunt and a sister to Lord Emsworth. He contacts Psmith and he accepts the job. Psmith spends time with Eve, who happens to also be after the necklace. To make his stealing mission successful, Psmith decides to pretend to be a poet who is invited in the castle to entertain Lady Constance at a party, where she plans to wear the beautiful diamond necklace. It happens that there are other people who are also interested in the jewelry and they also get the news about her plans.

The novel is built on several themes that help build the complete plot. The themes are such as love where, different characters in the novel either show love to their loved ones or fall in love with one another. For example, Joe Keeble who is the husband to Constance (Connie) loves Phyllis who is his stepdaughter and treats her as if she was his own daughter. He asks his wife Connie to permit him to give Phyllis some money. Psmith the main character also falls in love with Eve a fellow character in the novel. Another theme is theft. The novel rotates around the recovery of a necklace which was stolen. Also, there is a plot to steal an expensive necklace. However, all these themes are driven by the theme of money which is the most prevalent in the story. It is because of money that everything in the novel happens. The need for money helps in building of the whole plot of the story.

The father to Psmith dies and is revealed bankrupt. The situation is not good for Psmith and he has to come up with ways to make money for a living. He desperately starts looking for a job and this makes him use the local newspaper to market himself. Mike Jackson, who is a husband to Phyllis Keeble, had also been employed by Psmith's father as an estate manager. After the death of Psmith's father, he is left jobless and without money to earn a living for him and his wife who is a step daughter to Joe Keeble and a niece to Lord Emsworth of Blandings (P.G Wodehouse, 1923). As Psmith is looking for a job, he is contacted by Freddie who offers him a job and because he was desperately looking for money, he falls for the job and accepts.

Freddie Threepwood is also strapped for money. His allowance is cut and as a result, he cannot afford his life and urgently needs money. His urgent need for money makes him to come up with the plan of stealing the expensive and beautiful necklace that belongs to his aunt Connie Keeble. When he sees the skills that Psmith possesses, he identifies him as the right person who can help with the plan. He gets acquitted to him and offers him the job and Psmith accepts the deal.

In the LadyBlandings Castle, Constance Keeble who is a guest loves inviting people in there. The castle had expectations of two guests in the near future. The guests were poets and were identified as Ralph McTodd and Aileen Peavey. McTodd had an ex-girlfriend called Cynthia who is also a friend to Freddie Threepwood who the owners of the necklace stealing plan. Both Freddie Phyllis are cousins and friends to Eve Halliday who is an extremely attractive woman. Eve Halliday catches Psmith eyes as she seeks shelter from rain in London. Psmith gets so attracted to Eve and gets eager to see her more. In order to see Eve and also go on with the neck-lace stealing plan for the sake of raising money for himself, Psmith steals Ralph McTodd's place and identity at the castle.

The real RalphMcTodd cancels his visit to the cancel via telegram but only Lord Emsworth's secretary, the Efficient Baxter, is aware and he secretly starts suspecting Psmith. The position of Psmith becomes riskier after another man turns up at the castle claiming to be McTodd. However, Psmith is aware that he is not the real Ralph and he confronts him (Random House, 2008). The other poet, Aileen Peavey, is also a thief secretly and she also has the plan of stealing the necklace with the aim of getting it sold and earning money from it. The necklace must be very expensive. Aileen Peavey plans on stealing the necklace with the help of coconspirator. The man who claims to be the real Ralph after confrontation admitted that he is Cootes and he is trying to steal the necklace that Psmith was trying to steal too. Later it turns out that Aileen Peavey is also an imposter and is Cootes' accomplice, named Smooth Lizzie. Both Cootes and Aileen were driven by desire for money to fake their identities so as to steal the necklace and get money from it. While stillacting like RalphMcTodd, Psmith woos Eve and brings her to help him in the stealing of the necklace. Due to his determination to steal the necklace and earn some cash, Psmith comes up with the plot of how the theft will take place.

In another place though in the Castle, Joseph Keeble, the husband to Constance wants to lend Phyllis his stepdaughter and wife to Mike PS3000 so that she can use it to buy a farm with the husband. The only way Joseph can get the money is by getting it from the wife who apparently doesn't want to hear a thing about lending money (Random House, 2008). In return, Freddie Threepwood suggests to Joseph the plan of stealing the necklace and having it sold from his wife and because he needs the money he likes the idea. However, he doesn't have the nerve to steal the necklace by himself and Freddie volunteers to do it himself. It is later that Freddie comes across the advert on Psmith that he contacts him and leaves him to do the work alone.

Eve was a friend to Phyllis and Freddie had a crush on her which she does not reciprocate. As a result, when she offered a job at the Blandings castle of being a librarian she turns down the offer (Random House, 2008). However, she learns from Phyllis after they meet in London that she had financial problems and she needed money to buy the farm. As a result, she accepts the job so that the next time will ask for the money; she would be in a position to give her the PS3000. If Eve did not want to help her friend get the money, she could not take up the job of being a librarian. However, as a good friend, she takes the job so that she can be able to help her friend later. Thus money influences her decision.

The impersonated Aileen Peavey and Cootes her accomplice makes a plan of stealing the necklace during the poetry reading because Psmith would be doing it. Eve learns from Freddie that Joseph Keeble was planning to give him a huge amount of money for stealing the necklace. She questions Keeble on why he isn't helping her friend. It is then that he adds her to the list as a helper of stealing plan. With the mention of big amount of money and she is assured of benefiting from the plan, Eve gives in to help in the plan. As a result, that evening as Psmith starts reading McTodd's poems; Cootes turns all the lights in the castle off. Peavey then grabs the necklace that was on Lady Constance's neck. Unfortunately, she flings it out of the window where Eve is standing, and she grabs it and hides it in a flowerpot. Cootes then come and retrieves it as they had planned with Peavey. Peavey and Cootes were crazy about money. It controls every of their move.

Eve, who is still motivated by the promise of money from Joseph Keeble, gets out in the early mornings to go and collect the necklace from where she realizes that it is missing. She then gets Freddie to help her in looking for the necklace (Random House, 2008). It is then Psmith who still needs money from the necklace gets to tell Eve who he is and he also joins them in the search of the necklace which is taken by Cootes and Peavey (Lizzie). After looking and getting to a gun point with Cootes and Lizzie, they finally hand the necklace over to Psmith. Psmith then gives the necklace to Freddie who later passes it over to Joseph as the plan was. Keeble then sells the necklace as the plan stated and they get the huge amount of money.

In the morning when Eve was going to get the hidden necklace, she happens to disturb Lord Emsworth's secretary, the Efficient Baxter, and he gets out of the castle in his pajamas. Eve locks him out of the castle and he starts throwing flower pots into the castle. Lord Emsworth then thinks that his secretary had gone insane and he fires him. With his urge for money and a job that would give him a salary to sustain him, Psmith urges Lord Emsworth to take him in as the new castle secretary Efficient Baxter which he does.

Upon receiving the money from the sold diamond necklace, Joseph Keeble gives money to Mike the husband to Phyllis and they are able to buy a farm. Keeble also gives Freddie enough money that makes it possible for him to get back to his business of bookmaking. Psmith gets engaged to Eve and they both get a share in the money. Joseph Keeble was a good person. He gets the money and keeps his part of the deal and benefits everyone in the plan.

Conclusion

In conclusion, P.G Wodehouse uses the theme of money and theft all over the book to build the plot of his novel. Every character in the novel is influenced by money. Most of their actions and choices are driven by desire for money. Psmith steals identity, Peavey and Cootes do the same for the sake of money. Money makes Joseph Keeble want to steal and actually steal from his wife Connie. Eve who is said the most attractive woman agrees to become a librarian in the castle which she wasn't in for before and also agrees to join in the necklace heist because she was promised money. Moreover, I am tempted to believe that, Connie loved inviting people in the castle especially high guests such as poets because she had enough money to waste and invest in her fan. It still hits my mind why she could not just afford to give her step niece money that's she needed yet she had enough to pay guests to have her entertained.

Works Cited

P.G Wodehouse. (1923). leave it to Psmith.

Wodehouse, P. G. (2008). Leave it to Psmith. Random House.