Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Revised Third Edition

Characters Discussed

Arthur Seaton

Arthur Seaton, a lathe operator in a bicycle factory in Nottingham, England. The blond, muscular twenty-one-year-old fights to remain independent of society, employers, and marriage. He dates married women—first Brenda, then Winnie—and engages in boisterous drinking bouts. After a beating by Winnie’s soldier husband, he settles for the single Doreen, deciding that he need not reject all that life offers to remain independent.

Brenda

Brenda, Jack’s wife and Arthur’s lover. A young mother of two, she is bored with Jack and finds romance and excitement with Arthur. She is part of the dangerous “Saturday Night” life of the first half of the novel. After having an abortion, and after Arthur, discovered by Jack, has been beaten, she fades from the action.

Doreen Greatton

Doreen Greatton, a factory worker. Nineteen years old and single, she is eager to be married but seeks to curb Arthur’s excesses. She represents marriage and settling down to Arthur in the “Sunday Morning” half of the novel. She fails to get him past every pub but has won commitment from Arthur at the end.

Winnie

Winnie, nicknamed “Gyp,” Brenda’s sister. She is livelier and more reckless than her older sister. She, too, has an affair with Arthur. Her husband, Bill, is a soldier stationed in Germany. He returns on leave with a friend and, tipped off to the affair by Jack, beats Arthur. By dating Winnie, Arthur hastens an end to the dangerous life that he is finding to be a strain.

Jack

Jack, Brenda’s husband and Arthur’s foreman at the factory. He is steady but dull. Rather than confront Arthur, he betrays him to Bill, Winnie’s husband.

Aunt Ada

Aunt Ada, Arthur’s widowed aunt, a large, boisterous, and nurturing mother figure whose house teems with family at Christmas. Following his beating by Winnie’s husband, Arthur becomes withdrawn and cautious. It is in her house, under her vital influence, that Arthur breaks out of his withdrawal and returns to life, but with new attitudes.