A. Sillitoe: Saturday Night... - A view on the protagonist

Alan Sillitoe: Saturday and Sunday Morning

Alan Sillitoe’s novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a sensational success when first published in 1958, is nowadays widely considered as a modern classic. Being one of the most impressing descriptions of the English working class milieu through presenting realistic, close-to-life characters, it occurs as fascinating as ever since it was first sold in British bookshops. Understanding this important piece of world literature however means understanding its protagonist Arthur Seaton.

Arthur Seaton is 23 years old at the beginning of the novel and due to his youth pre-sented as someone who cares about nothing but his own fun and pleasure. Working all day at a lathe in one of Nottingham’s many factories does not satisfy him and drives him to the pubs of his environment where he spends Friday a

We have to be aware of Arthur’s past however and thus admit that he could not have developed in a much different way under the given circumstances. Arthur has spent the largest part of his childhood during World War II and knows what poverty means. He has witnessed “his people” being made risking and losing their lives for a government not at all caring about them. Apart from that, the relationship of his parents was characterised by many problems and Arthur himself as well as his brothers and sisters have suffered from their tyrannical father. Grown up, Arthur was put into army like his father had been put there before, which appeared absurd to him and as a waste of time. He hat to watch his friend being brought to Borstals for stealing food out of hunger and poverty, and early learned to regard police officers as his personal enemies. – So, to sum it up, who could be surprised of Arthur trying to escape from this miserable world and who could reproach him of using the present means of his environment for this escape, which are the means of his family and friends in a less obvious way as well: drugs, pubs, sex, fine clothes, etc.

Arthur’s change of mind could be interpreted as a kind of resignation, but in fact, he seems to have found inner peace at the last chapter of the novel and is more balanced t

Some topics in this essay:
Grown Arthur, Arthur Seaton, Night Morning, , War II, Sillitoe Morning, Alan Sillitoe’s, class milieu, english class, arthur seaton, arthur’s rebellion,