Sam Vimes
 | This Discworld-related article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. (October 2009) |
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| Sir Samuel, The Duke of Ankh | |
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| Discworld character | |
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| First appearance | Guards! Guards! (1989) |
| Created by | Terry Pratchett |
| In-universe information | |
| Affiliation | Ankh-Morpork City Watch |
His Grace, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel "Sam" Vimes is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Vimes is depicted in the novels as somewhere between an Inspector Morse-type 'old-school' British policeman, and a film noir-esque grizzled detective. His appearances throughout the Discworld sequence show him slowly and grudgingly rising through the ranks of both police force and society. As of his latest promotion, his full name and title is stated as being "His Grace, His Excellency, The 1st Duke of Ankh; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes". When serving as Ambassador for Ankh-Morpork, he is also referred to simply as "His Excellency", and is also nicknamed "Blackboard Monitor Vimes",[1] "Vimes the Butcher"[2] and "Vetinari's Terrier" (or his hammer, depending upon the occasion). According to his wife, Sybil, Vimes is recognised by many as Lord Vetinari's right-hand man.
He first appeared in the novel Guards! Guards!. While no detailed description of his physical appearance shows up in any of the Discworld novels, Pratchett says in the companion work, The Art of Discworld, that he has always imagined Vimes as a younger, slightly bulkier version of late British actor Pete Postlethwaite. Longtime collaborative artist Paul Kidby, who has worked with Pratchett on several works, portrays him instead as resembling Clint Eastwood.
Vimes is the Commander of the
Works
Beginning with Guards! Guards! in 1989, the main Discworld books featuring Sam Vimes are:
- Guards! Guards! – 1989
- Men at Arms – 1993
- Feet of Clay – 1996
- Jingo – 1997
- The Fifth Elephant – 1999
- The Truth – 2000 (minor character)
- Night Watch – 2002
- Monstrous Regiment – 2003 (minor character)
- Thud! – 2005
- Where's My Cow? – 2005
- Making Money – 2007 (minor character)
- Unseen Academicals – 2009 (minor character)
- Snuff – 2011
- Raising Steam – 2013 (supporting character)
Background
Sam Vimes was born in Cockbill Street as the son of Thomas Vimes,
Vimes was educated at a dame school, where he was once blackboard monitor for a whole term, before he had to drop out and concentrate on learning about life out on the streets. It is mentioned in Jingo that Sam Vimes' father, Thomas Vimes, had been a watchman prior to his death. His mother would go on to tell young Sam that his father was 'run down by a cart when he was crossing the street'.[4] He privately thinks later that his father was a drunk: "Vimes had never known his father. His mum told him that the man had been run over by a cart, but Vimes suspected that if this were true at all, then it was probably a brewer's cart, which had 'run him over' a bit at a time for years". She raised young Sam on her own and died about twenty years after the events of Night Watch and is buried in the city's Small Gods Cemetery. In Night Watch Sam remembers that his mother made 'the very best' Distressed Pudding.[5]
The Vimes family is mentioned as historically being closely linked with the City Watch, with many members serving in it through its history.
Vimes was sixteen when he joined the Watch.
Vimes' age is never explicitly given, and is not always consistent. Night Watch states that Vimes was sixteen years old when he joined the City Watch. Men at Arms mentions that Vimes had been in the Watch for 25 years, making him 41 at the time of that novel. The main events of Night Watch, set only a few weeks after Vimes joined the Watch, are stated as occurring more than thirty years prior to the present from which Vimes came, this makes Samuel Vimes at least 46 years old at the time of that book. Thud! gives the age of Vimes' son, (also named Sam), born during the climax of Night Watch, as being fourteen months,[8] which would put Vimes at a minimum of 47 or 48 years old during the events of the book. When Vimes discusses his time as a blackboard monitor,[9] he thinks about it being "more than 45 years ago" and that he was six years old at the time, putting his age at least 51 years; this is confirmed when he refers to the new vampire officer, age given as 51, as being "not that much younger than him". It is also mentioned in Night Watch, that at the time of the "Glorious Revolution of the Twenty-Fifth of May", both Sam Vimes and Havelock Vetinari were 16 years old, meaning that they are both the same age.
The Watch
During the first 25 years of his term in the Watch, Vimes rose to Captain of the Night Watch, a position that he attained about ten years prior to the events of Guards! Guards!, as it dwindled to a tiny stub – while the power of the Thieves' Guild grew. This insult to Vimes' sense of justice, together with his being naturally knurd (the opposite of being drunk, where one is stripped of all the illusions that make life bearable) and other events (it has been claimed he was "brung low by a woman", which is an interpretation of the anthropomorphisation of the city, Morporkia), led towards heavy drinking. At this time, he lived in near poverty, giving away almost all of his salary to widows and orphans of watchmen, and spending what was left on alcohol and cheap boots.[10]
All that changed when
Vimes, who was about to retire following his marriage to Lady Sybil, was given the resurrected rank of Commander, putting him in charge of the Night Watch and the Day Watch. He also received a knighthood.
The Watch was given a new headquarters, Pseudopolis Yard (an allusion to the name of the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police: Scotland Yard), by Lady Sybil Ramkin (Vimes's soon-to-be wife) after the dragon destroyed their original base at Treacle Mine Road. It had been her childhood home, and in Thud! it is revealed that some of her family's possessions are still stored in the attic of the building – in this instance they retrieved a copy of Methodia Rascal's Koom Valley painting, made by Sybil as a child, after the original is stolen.
As part of an equal-opportunities drive required by the Patrician, the Watch under Vimes eventually took on extra staff in the form of a werewolf, a dwarf and a troll (and later a gargoyle, a gnome, a golem, an Igor, a zombie, and a vampire). They were instrumental in foiling an attempt on the Patrician's life, and were rewarded. The Watch was rapidly revived and became increasingly important in the city.
Vimes took a great interest in the restructuring of the Watch, placing new Watch Houses where they were needed and supervising the creation of both a Watch Academy and a
Character
Vimes is a very conflicted character.
Vimes has once been described as a speciesist, though this habit slowly dies away; most of his officers rationalize this bias as simply not being particularly fond of anyone. However, he will warm up to anyone he considers a "good copper" regardless of their unusual background and has allowed the Watch to become one of the most species-blind employers in the city. Initially, Vimes is jokingly described as only fond of rural dwarfs and wizards, the former who only commit crimes underground and away from him and the latter ironically sharing his respectful distaste for using magic irresponsibly. A notable exception is his explicit dislike of vampires. He explained to Lady Margolotta in The Fifth Elephant, this is because, teetotal or not, 'a vampire will always seek to dominate a human being'.
Despite being viewed by many of the Discworld's more Machiavellian power brokers as easy to fool, Vimes is more cunning than he appears. His years of practical experience give him a foundation of hard-headed realism on which he bases much of his more idealistic beliefs. A running gag in the series is his thwarting of several attempts on his life by the
Whenever he thwarts an Assassin in an attempt, he usually lets them go after taking their share of the payment for his inhumation (which he then donates to the 'Watch Widows and Orphans Fund', or to the 'Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick, Abused or Abandoned Dragons'), and subjecting them to a little humiliation. Though he finds it to be annoying, Vimes takes these continued attempts on his life as a sign that he's angering somebody, and so must be doing something right. In every book in the series, the fee for his assassination has risen until he has been removed from the Guild register, meaning that contracts on his life are no longer accepted (this was initially literal, as no assassin wanted to take the contract). He eventually did actually kill Wolfgang (with a firework, it having been previously established that werewolves can be killed by fire as well as silver.)
While not otherwise well-traveled, in the days of
Vimes' firm grasp of basic human nature, and of the Ankh-Morpork psyche in particular, led to him spending some years as a drunk, and
Terry Pratchett noted the following about Vimes on Usenet: "Vimes is fundamentally a person. He fears he may be a bad person because he knows what he thinks rather than just what he says and does. He chokes off all of those little reactions and impulses, but he knows what they are. So he tries to act like a good person, often in situations where the map is unclear."[1] This, along with the Discworld habit of pushing any theory as hard as it goes, appears to have culminated in Vimes' psyche creating its own 'internal policeman' to "Guard the Guardsmen", (cf. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?), and Vimes' own sense of justice being so strong that, in Thud!, it was even able to fend off the attempts to possess him by a 'quasi-demonic thing of pure vengeance'.[16]
It has also been noted that in personality and mental setup, Vimes bears some similarity to Granny Weatherwax. Both are effectively 'good' characters, who nevertheless both secretly fear the darkness inside themselves, and constantly strive to control the darker sides of their nature.
Vimes often has to go to report to Lord Vetinari, although most of the time he keeps a poker-face and answers very simply to avoid Vetinari's probing questions. When given bad news, he has a tendency to, on his way out, pound his fist against a certain spot of wall near the office door. Though he sometimes has to call in a plasterer when Vimes is particularly angry, Vetinari doesn't worry about it—a sign that he intentionally angers Vimes so as to goad him into a desired action. When Vimes was temporarily relieved of command in Men at Arms, the fact that Vimes didn't pound the wall led Vetinari to realize that he 'may have gone too far'.
Sometimes this darker side comes out when Vimes loses control of his anger and he effectively 'goes spare'. In Men at Arms, he temporarily gains possession of the Gonne, a malevolent firearm which drives him to violence, but he restrains the urge to "make things right", enough to eventually let it go without seriously hurting anyone. In Feet of Clay, Corporal Nobby Nobbs refuses the position of King of Ankh-Morpork, primarily due to the fear of incurring Vimes's general wrath and hatred of royalty.
In Thud!, after an attempted assassination of his family, Vimes becomes furious at the 'deep-down dwarves', a problem only made worse by the presence of a dark entity of pure vengeance within his mind. Both of those factors, and a near-Death experience that forced him to miss his 6:00pm story-time with his son, culminate in him snapping and temporarily losing over to "the Beast", going insane/berserk and single-handedly storming the deep-downers responsible, all the while roaring out the lines to Where's My Cow?; ("...IS THAT MY COW? IT GOES, 'MOOOOO!'...") with such ferocity and madness that their personal guard come to the conclusion that "they had sworn to fight to the death, but not to this death," and run away. As he is about to massacre the now-defenceless deep-downers, he hesitates thanks to "the Watchman" in his head and begins to struggle with himself, which buys enough time for Sergeant Angua to arrive at the scene and force him down. He never completely loses control, and always manages to restrain himself (or have someone around to restrain him) in the end.
Revealed in the events of Thud!, after years of night-time patrols, Vimes' mindscape is described as the city of Ankh-Morpork-itself, streets and all, in the dead of night, whilst the rains are bucketing down over your head. Whenever Vimes is angry, doors of some of the houses open (the angrier he is, the more numbers of doors will open). While the Summoning Dark had trespassed into his mind, needing a host in order to track down the Deep-Downer Dwarves, would try to enter through one of the doors that opened when Vimes became angry, only to be pulled away at every time. It is later revealed that the force that was preventing the Summoning Dark from making any progress in possessing Vimes was Vimes' own 'inner guardsman', who patrols the streets of his mind.
Vimes is an effective and brutal hand-to-hand fighter, who specialises in "dirty fighting". He also prefers non-lethal takedowns whenever possible.
During heightened states of mind, such as when confronting his darker side and/or when near death, he is able to see Death, (this happened in The Fifth Elephant and Thud!, although he was unable to do this in Night Watch). Death himself is unsure whether Vimes should die or not in these cases, citing "quantum" as an explanation. At one point Death notes that if Vimes is having a 'near-Death' experience, Death is also forced to have a 'near Vimes' experience (as of Thud! Death has started bringing books to read during these occasions).
On rare occasions, Sam Vimes has been described as completely happy, even if it's only for a brief period; such occasions include alone time with his wife, the birth of his son, and whenever a case has reached a satisfactory conclusion. At the end of the events of Snuff, Vimes was also genuinely amazed to learn that a new book, "Pride and Extreme Prejudice", had been dedicated to him.
Lady Sybil
Lady Sybil Vimes (full title:
She was born into the wealthiest family in Ankh-Morpork and resides in the most select part of Ankh, Scoone Avenue. As well as being an amateur soprano, she is a leading expert in swamp dragons and has a dragon pen outside her house where she breeds and cares for swamp dragons, though aside from her hobby most of her house is vaguely under-tended due to apparent lack of interest. She also supports The Sunshine Sanctuary For Sick, Abused Or Abandoned Swamp Dragons, which is run by her friend Rosie Devant-Molei.[17] Her hobby has left her with her natural hair singed off and she wears a wig in nearly all circumstances. Despite her high-class upbringing, she has displayed a resourcefulness ("in an outdoorsy kind of way") that first attracted Vimes's attention.
The pattern of Sam and Sybil's marriage was set the moment he turned away from his wedding to chase an assassin who had just made an attempt on the Patrician's life. Lady Sybil is a remarkably patient woman; she spent nearly the entirety of
In spite (or perhaps because) of her wealth, Sybil engages in certain 'housewife'-like activities such as repairing socks and preparing meals. This is mainly out of a sense of duty and tradition than actual need or skill. Sam is somewhat baffled by the overtures, but as he is already used to an imperfect lifestyle, he is generally appreciative of the sentiment.
Sybil maintains a number of close (female) social contacts from her schooldays, who, thanks to the kind of school she went to (The Quirm College for Young Ladies), are now all strategically placed in the highest levels of power across the
Sybil tries her utmost to get Sam to take some time off in almost every book, but for the most part, Sam finds an excuse to stay on the job. In
Vimes as Duke of Ankh
Vimes' involvement in preventing a pointless war with
His role as Duke of Ankh largely involves diplomacy (his visit to Überwald in The Fifth Elephant for example), and his rough and ready upbringing has given him an obliquely effective approach to this field. For instance, he once threatened to personally send an opposing diplomat "home in an ambulance" for parading his troops near Ankh-Morpork borders, an act that caused the man to order an immediate withdrawal so drastic that
Young Sam
Young Sam (full title:
Since his son's birth, Vimes discovered a new cause in life: "arriving at home every day at six o' clock sharp to read Where's My Cow? to him, an obligation that supersedes crime, conspiracy or international negotiations—his thinking being that if he ever missed it for a good reason, he might miss it for a bad reason, and that this might apply to everything he does, such as employing less-than-ethical methods in the pursuit of crime".[12]
In Snuff, it is highlighted that not only can Young Sam read, but that he is quite advanced and now reads to his father. It is also shown that he is currently quite stuck on the study of poo, having read many books written by one Miss Felicity Beedle, whom he knows as "the poo lady", and who has also written such books as Where's My Cow?, The World of Poo, Melvin and the Enormous Boil, Geoffrey and the Magic Pillow Case and The Little Duckling Who Thought He Was an Elephant.
Recent developments
Vimes is, much to his own horror, becoming a politician. He remains in his soul a copper. Being a significant figure on the world stage just means he finds bigger crimes.
Vimes has seen involvement with
- William de Worde, Otto Chriek and The Ankh-Morpork Times in The Truth
- The war between Borogravia and Zlobenia (and everyone else in the region) in Monstrous Regiment
- Moist von Lipwig in his running of the Post Office and the Grand Trunk Company's monopoly on the "clacks" system in Going Postal and fraud involving the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork in Making Money
- Ethnic tensions between dwarfs and trolls in Thud!
- Ethnic tensions between humans and goblins in Snuff
- Tensions between dwarf factions over the Clacks and the new railway in Raising Steam
Terry Pratchett commented that the Vimes character made setting a story in Ankh-Morpork very difficult as it is almost impossible to create a story involving any sort of crime or politics without it rapidly becoming a Watch book.[citation needed]
Bibliography
Sam Vimes is the central character in Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud! and Snuff. He is a secondary character in The Truth and Monstrous Regiment and has cameos in The Last Hero, Going Postal, Making Money, Unseen Academicals, I Shall Wear Midnight and Raising Steam. He has also appeared in the City Watch Diary and the picture book Where's My Cow?. He is also mentioned, although not by name, in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.
Other media
Vimes is played by Richard Dormer in the live-action television series The Watch, "inspired by Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' novels", rather than being a straight adaptation of specific stories.[19]
Guards! Guards! was adapted for BBC Radio 5 in 1992 and starred John Wood as Vimes. Night Watch was adapted for BBC Radio 4 in 2007, with actor Philip Jackson as Vimes.
While there have been a number of amateur stage productions of the books, a professional adaptation of Guards! Guards! went on tour in 1998. Vimes was played by Paul Darrow, best known for his role in Blake's 7.
Vimes also appeared in the game Discworld Noir.
Reception and legacy
Discussing Pratchett's legacy in The Guardian, Andrew Brown wrote that Vimes "may be the most fully realised decent man in modern literature,"[20] while the Hollywood Reporter has described him as "Inspector Morse-meets-Humphrey Bogart-esque".[21]
The Cretaceous conifer species Pseudotorellia vimesiana is named after Sam Vimes.[22]
In episode 3.4 "Coda" of the TV series Endeavour, Inspector Fred Thursday states that his old mentor was "Sergeant Vimes, Cable Street".
See also
- Ankh-Morpork City Watch members
- Boots theory
References
- ISBN 0-552-14616-1
- ISBN 0-385-60340-1
- ^ ISBN 0-575-05900-1
- ^ ISBN 0-385-60264-2
- ISBN 0-385-60264-2
- ISBN 0-575-05900-1
- ^ "The Annotated Pratchett File: Feet of Clay". l-space.org. Retrieved 7 July 2007.
- ISBN 0-385-60867-5
- ISBN 0-385-60867-5
- ISBN 0552140287
- ISBN 0-575-05900-1
- ^ a b c Thud!
- ^ ISBN 0-385-60264-2
- ISBN 0-385-60264-2
- ISBN 0-552-14028-7
- ISBN 0-385-60867-5
- ^ T. Pratchett, Guards! Guards! (1990), p.403
- ISBN 0-385-60264-2
- ^ "Richard Dormer leads cast in comedy thriller The Watch". BBC. 11 September 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ Brown, Andrew (13 March 2015). "Without Terry Pratchett, the world is less magical". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
- ^ Ritman, Alex (16 March 2015). "Terry Pratchett's Discworld: The Cinematic Universe That Never Was". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
- ^ Natural History Museum (London, England); Natural History Museum (London, England) (2001). Bulletin of the Natural History Museum. Geology series. Vol. 57. Andover: Intercept.
External links
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