The author's description of Florence’s reaction to Uncle Willoughby’s manuscript is primarily intended to characterize her as obsessed with social standing. Florence's horror at the scandalous stories, particularly those involving her father and other respectable figures, highlights her concern for reputation and propriety, showcasing her fixation on maintaining a certain social image.
Jeeves Takes Charge
by P. G. Wodehouse
‘If half of what he has written is true,’ said Florence, ‘your uncle’s youth must have been perfectly appalling. The moment we began to read he plunged straight into a most scandalous story of how he and my father were thrown out of a music-hall in 1887! . . . The book is full of stories like that. There is a dreadful one about Lord Emsworth.’
‘Lord Emsworth? Not the one we know? Not the one at Blandings?’
A most respectable old Johnnie, don’t you know. Doesn’t do a thing nowadays but dig in the garden with a spud.
‘The very same. That is what makes the book so unspeakable. It is full of stories about people one knows who are the essence of propriety today, but who seem to have behaved, when they were in London in the eighties, in a manner that would not have been tolerated in the fo’c’sle of a whaler. Your uncle seems to remember everything disgraceful that happened to anybody when he was in his early twenties. There is a story about Sir Stanley Gervase-Gervase at Rosherville Gardens which is ghastly in its perfection of detail. It seems that Sir Stanley—but I can’t tell you!’ . . .
And father appears in nearly every story in the book! I am horrified at the things he did when he was a young man!’
‘What’s to be done?’
‘The manuscript must be intercepted before it reaches Riggs and Ballinger, and destroyed!’
"Jeeves Takes Charge" by P. G. Wodehouse
Question
Use the passage to answer the question.
Why does the author describe Florence’s reaction to Uncle Willoughby’s manuscript?
(1 point)
Responses
to reinforce the theme that youth is wasted on the young
to reinforce the theme that youth is wasted on the young
to establish the historic context of the setting
to establish the historic context of the setting
to characterize her as obsessed with social standing
to characterize her as obsessed with social standing
to explain her fear of adventure
1 answer