Psmith in the City · Chapter
The Spirit of Unrest explained
Mr.
What happens
Mr. Bickersdyke is elected to Parliament with a narrow majority, and Psmith reveals that his earlier threat to publish Bickersdyke's speeches may have influenced the manager's decision to spare Mike's job. However, with Bickersdyke now safely elected, that leverage is gone. Meanwhile, Mike is transferred from Mr. Waller's department to the Fixed Deposits under the abusive Mr. Gregory, with whom he clashes immediately. The arrival of fine spring weather and the cricket season makes Mike increasingly restless and discontented with his bank work.
Themes in this chapter
Work vs. Idleness
Mike's growing hatred of bank work contrasts sharply with his longing for cricket and outdoor life, highlighting the tension between duty and personal desire.
Authority and Rebellion
Psmith's covert manipulation of Bickersdyke and Mike's open conflict with Gregory exemplify subtle and overt challenges to authority.
Ambition and Career
Bickersdyke's political success and Mike's lack of interest in banking underscore different paths of ambition and the mismatch between personal goals and professional roles.
Characters to notice
- Mike Jackson
Transferred to Fixed Deposits under Mr. Gregory; hates the work and grows restless as cricket season begins.
- Psmith
Reveals his role in influencing Bickersdyke's decision to keep Mike; notes that Bickersdyke's election removes their leverage.
- Mr. Bickersdyke
Elected to Parliament by a small majority; his election alters the power dynamic with Psmith and Mike.
- Mr. Waller
Reported by Psmith to be inconsolable after Mike's transfer out of his department.
- Mr. Gregory
Head of Fixed Deposits; abusive and truculent, he and Mike hate each other from the start.
Key passages
“During the following fortnight, two things happened which materially altered Mike’s position in the bank. The first was that Mr. Bickersdyke was elected a member of Parliament.”
Over the next two weeks, two key changes affected Mike's job: first, Mr. Bickersdyke won a seat in Parliament.
Sets up the major plot shifts in the chapter.
“I am unable to recall at this moment the exact terms of the very pleasant conversation I had with Comrade Bickersdyke on the occasion of our chance meeting in the Turkish Bath that afternoon; but, thinking things over quietly now that I have more leisure, I cannot help feeling that he may possibly have read some such intention into my words.”
Psmith coyly suggests that his earlier chat with Bickersdyke might have implied a threat to publish the speeches, leading to Mike's reprieve.
Psmith's characteristic indirectness reveals his role in saving Mike's job.
“Within a day of his arrival in the Fixed Deposits he was loathing the place as earnestly as he had loathed it on the first morning.”
Mike quickly came to hate the Fixed Deposits department just as much as he hated the bank on his very first day.
Highlights Mike's renewed misery under Gregory's supervision.