The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams (1979)
“The answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42 — and the joke is that we still don't know the question.”
Character Analysis
Arthur is the novel's point of entry and its comic engine. He is deliberately unremarkable — a man in a dressing gown who wants a cup of tea and keeps not getting one. His function is to ask the reasonable questions (what is happening? why is it happening? can someone please explain?) that the universe refuses to answer reasonably. Adams uses Arthur to explore how ordinary human desires — comfort, routine, home — look from the outside: small, touching, and entirely inadequate to the scale of existence.
Standard BBC English — polite, bewildered, persistent in asking reasonable questions in unreasonable situations. Uses 'sorry' and 'excuse me' when about to be killed.