I turned on the pillow with a little moan, and at this juncture Jeeves entered with the vital oolong. I clutched at it like a drowning man at a straw hat.
P. G. WodehouseRead
The exquisite code of politeness of the Woosters prevented me clipping her one on the ear-hole, but I would have given a shilling to be able to do it. There seemed to me something deliberately fat-headed in the way she persisted in missing the gist.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote humorously expresses frustration at someone's inability to understand a situation, despite the speaker's desire to respond aggressively.
In this quote, P. G. Wodehouse uses humor to depict a situation where the speaker feels an overwhelming urge to react physically out of exasperation. However, he acknowledges the social norms that prevent such behavior, highlighting the tension between one's instinctual feelings and the constraints of politeness. The frustration is further emphasized by the description of the other person's 'fat-headedness,' which reflects a comical disbelief at their lack of comprehension.
Themes
PolitenessFrustrationHumorCommunicationUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
A friend makes a humorous remark during a gathering about dealing with misunderstandings.
More from P. G. Wodehouse
All quotes →While not exactly disgruntled, he was far from feeling gruntled. He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.
P. G. WodehouseRead
She fitted into my biggest arm-chair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing arm-chairs tight about the hips that season
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It was a nasty look. It made me feel as if I were something the dog had brought in and intended to bury later on, when he had time.
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Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is wiser not to stir them.
P. G. WodehouseRead
It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't.
P. G. WodehouseRead
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