The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexist attitudes and the objectification of women. 

Frankie learns about neglected positives when she reads P.G. Wodehouse’s The Code of the Woosters. She finds his wordplay creative, unexpected, and clever, since it draws attention to things that should be noticed and acknowledged but, somewhat arbitrarily, are not. Frankie’s use of neglected positives represents her dissatisfaction with the social rules that dictate acceptable female conduct; it is a linguistic strategy that sheds light on what typically goes unspoken and unchallenged. Just as her behavior is policed by “watchmen”—men and women who challenge her when she transgresses cultural boundaries—so is her language. Matthew, for instance, feels the need to correct Frankie’s language, telling her that her use of “gruntled” in a sentence is a false neglected positive. Additionally, Trish says that Frankie is not a “normal person” when she uses neglected positives like “parage” or “sheveled.” Therefore, neglected positives are a motif that highlight The Inflexibility of Unwritten Social Rules About Female Conduct. Additionally, negative positives are considered acceptable and witty when they are used by Wodehouse, a man, and not when they are used by Frankie, an adolescent girl.