This work is a study in contrasts. Gilbert used a educated vocabulary, especially by the supposedly lower class Ralph (e.g. cervical vertebrae, elegiacs, solecisms, antithetical), not just popular speech, . Yet everything else is foolishness. While Gilbert researched the authenticity of every physical aspect of the ship, costumes, etc., there never was a British Navy like the one depicted here. The characters are caricatures, and the plot is sheer foolishness with a complete disregard of the relative ages of the characters or their proper roles. One thing that might be considered as true is the obsession of all of the characters with social rank which prevailed at the time. Without this, there would be no plot.

It starts with the name of the ship, the H.M.S. Pinafore. In a navy of ships with names like Valiant, Invincible, Victory, Warrior, what place has one named for a child's garment which was pinned on the front of a dress (thus pin-afore) to keep it clean. One story goes that Gilbert had used semaphore to rhyme with "One cheer more" in the Captain's first song, but Sullivan suggested Pinafore.

THE CHARACTERS
Buttercup is described as a large "plump and pleasing person" and is usually depicted as middle-aged but must be much older (see below). She may have been based on Mary Jane Daniell, last of the Bumboat women. She knew many sailors who had served with Admiral Nelson and was full of stories about the navy. Throughout the play Buttercup hints she has a devastating secret. Gilbert taught his pet parrot her song which is a waltz.

Dick Deadeye is the villain and hated by all merely because he is extremely ugly and has a strange name. He is one of the the few who ever talks sense, and he always tells the truth, but the others always react to his remarks in the negative simply because they hate him so. No wonder he is bitter.

Ralph (pronounced RAYF in Britain to rhyme with waif) is an Able seaman and "the smartest lad in the fleet". Yet he is not a typical sailor; he can't do a hornpipe and somehow he received an education unusual for a common seaman. He is out of his class, even if he does not know it, using big words that the rest probably can't understand. Yet he is popular with his mates who do not seem to notice his fancy vocabulary.

The Captain is referred to by Sir Joseph as being of the Lower Middle Classes. This conflicts with his daughter Josephine's description of her current luxurious life, with his relationship to a peer, and his feeling he could look down on a Cabinet minister. In actuality a Captain in the Royal Navy is usually of the Upper middle classes. (Sir Joseph was born in the Lower Classes, much lower than the Corcorans and is probably unacquainted with true workings of rank in Britain.) He wants the power that will go with having a son-in-law the husband of a cabinet minister. The Captain seems to be the only officer on the ship so his loneliness could contribute to his closeness to his crew. Certainly he is unusual in the way he is concerned for the well-being of his crew, although he does not go quite as far as Captain Reece.

Josephine is extremely rank conscious. She loves Ralph but can not admit it until he attempts to kill himself. She is shocked when he addresses her by her first name; this is taking a liberty since she is of superior rank. In spite of her love she shuns his advances. Even after she agrees to elope with him, she dreads the thought of her resulting loss of rank and luxuries.

Female Relatives: Since women were rare on warships, and Gilbert had to have women for an opera chorus, he took Captain Reece's female relatives and transferred then to Sir Joseph.

Sir Joseph Porter K. C. B.: Sir Joseph is a Baronet, between a Knight and a Baron, but he is not a peer and can not sit in the House of Lords. He can sit in the House of Commons and be a member of the Prime Minister's Cabinet. He is a civilian, has never been in the navy, has had no experience at sea and is certainly not an Admiral. The First Lord of the Admiralty was a member of the cabinet, a political post, comparable to the United States Secretary of the Navy before the various armed forces were combined into the Department of Defense. Since Sir Joseph knows nothing of the sea (although he thinks he knows everything), someone had the brilliant idea to make him head of the Navy so he could learn something about it on the job. At the time of Pinafore, the First Lord of the Admiralty in Disraeli's Cabinet was William H. Smith, a newsagent and bookseller and a Member of Parliament for Westminster (1866-1885), who rose from being a newsboy to being head of the Admiralty. (W.H. Smith is still a chain of bookstores in Britain like Barnes and Noble.) He also had had no experience with ships when he was appointed to the post. While Gilbert said he was not the model for Porter, a sketch by Gilbert was clearly Smith.

Hebe: She is Porter's first cousin. Such a marriage would be illegal now but was not then. As originally written it was a much bigger part with many spoken lines which motivated her romance with Sir Joseph and was designed to be played by a Mrs. Howard Paul, who was a good actress but not a very good singer. Therefore, D'Oyly Carte hired a young Jesse Bond to do Hebe's songs. The actress took umbrage and left the company. Since Bond felt she was a singer, not an actress and did not wish to tackle the dialogue, the spoken lines were cut, and the resulting work shorter than usual. Jesse Bond went on to become one of the core members of the company and wrote her memoirs from which we learn much of what we know about the D'Oyly Carte Company.

A lass vs. alas. The is word play that can not be detected by ear since the sound is the same. Only in print is the pun obvious.

Big D –"What never?" "Well hardly ever." This has become a catch work in English language even with people don't know source. It is funny because it is very unusual to have a captain or a sailor of any kind who never swears to communicate with his men.

Splendid Seaman: Porter means Ralph but it is traditional for Dick to step forward first instead. This was approved by Gilbert in 1908.

Birth, berth: another play on words which sound the same..

Things are seldom what they seem: Many of the allusions in this song are to characters in Aesop's Fables. Among them are the following:
Jackdaws strut in peacocks feathers: An ugly jackdaw was jealous of the beautiful peacocks. He gathered their discarded feathers, tied them to his tail and strutted proudly around the yard. The peacocks saw him and plucked all the fine feathers from him. The other Jackdaws mocked him and said: "It is not only fine feathers which make fine birds".
Bulls are but inflated frogs: A small frog told his father about the big monster he saw. The father said it was just the farmer's bull and he could make himself just as big. He kept inflating himself until he blew up.
Dogs are found in many mangers: There was a dog in a manger who growled at the oxen when they tried to eat hay. The dog could not eat the hay himself but wouldn't allow anyone else to eat it.

Never mind: This is the most encored song in Pinafore. Sir Joseph is thinking of himself and Josephine but she is thinking of herself and Ralph. It is incorrect for Josephine to address Porter as your Lordship because he is not a peer. Gilbert may have used it to have a rhyme for "aboard ship".

He is an Englishman reflects the patriotism sweeping England at the time. It was the height of Queen Victoria's Empire.

Damme: To horror of all, Captain uses a big-D. It shocked the audience, and Lewis Carroll objected strenuously when it was used in a children's version of the opera.

Telephone: This had only been invented two years before so Ralph had probably never seen one anyway.

The Switch: When the identities of Ralph and the Captain are revealed, each takes the rightful position for which he was born necessitating a quick costume change. How do the new uniforms fit so well? It is illogical and therefore funny. It has been suggested that Buttercup's story of the baby switching was made up. She was in love with the Captain and could not have him because of the difference in their ranks, so she "demotes" him. In doing so she also elevates Ralph. Josephine is no longer the daughter of a Captain, so their ranks are now reversed but this is ignored. The real humor comes in that everyone accepts the switch without hesitation. It solves everyone's problems so the illogicality is ignored. Gilbert and Sullivan operas mock stage conventions. They are absurd and revel in it.

Age paradox: If switched as babies, Ralph and Corcoran be of about the same age which doesn't fit their ages as usually depicted — Ralph young and handsome and Corcoran older as Josephine's father. Of course some seamen were much older and it was common for young girls to marry much older men. He would still seem young to Buttercup. Ralph would have to be older to become the Captain of a warship. In the original Opéra Comique posters Ralph looks older than the rest of the crew. He could have been about forty. Little Buttercup must have been considerably older since she tended them as babies. Does the average audience even think about the age difference?

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Revised January 2008
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