Butler

:For other uses see Butler (disambiguation)

Butlers in fiction

The real-life butler is discreet and unobtrusive. The butler of fiction, by contrast, is larger-than-life and has become a plot device in literature and a traditional role in the performing arts. Butlers provide comic relief with often wry comments, clues as to the perpetrators of various crimes and are represented as at least as intelligent, or even more so, than their ?betters?. They are often portrayed expressionless, serious and point their chin high. The names Jeeves, James and Jarvis are common.

Related Topics:
Plot device - Literature - Role - Performing arts

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"The butler" is integral to the plot of countless potboilers and melodramas, whether or not the character has been given a name. Butlers figure so prominently in period pieces and whodunits that they can be considered stock characters in film and theatre where a catch phrase is "the butler did it!"

Related Topics:
Potboiler - Melodrama - Period piece - Whodunit - Stock character - Film - Theatre - Catch phrase - The butler did it

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Famous fictional butlers

• Lynn Belvedere, from the novel Belvedere, the adapted feature film and its sequels, and the TV series Mr. Belvedere.
• Alfred Pennyworth, from Batman
• Benson, from the TV series Soap and Benson
• Cadbury, from Richie Rich
• Crichton, from J.M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton
• Desmond, from the Rip Kirby comics
• Godfrey, from My Man Godfrey
• Geoffrey, from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
• Angus Hudson, from Upstairs, Downstairs
• Duckworth, from the Ducktales (Battista in the Italian comics)
• Lurch, from The Addams Family
• Nelson, from the Tintin comics
• Niles, from The Nanny
• Stevens, from The Remains of the Day
• Edwin Jarvis, from Marvel Comics Avengers series

Famous fictional non-butlers

See valet for a list of characters who are often mistaken for butlers, but (strictly speaking) are valets, rather than butlers.

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