View source for Arthur Dent

{{Short description|Character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}
{{About||the Australian political activist|Albert Langer|the Puritan author and minister|Arthur Dent (Puritan)|the fictional Novacom CEO|List of Adventures in Odyssey characters}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=December 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Arthur Philip Dent
| image = Arthur Dent Livid.jpg
| image_size = 230px
| caption = [[Simon Jones (actor)|Simon Jones]] as Arthur Dent in the<br />first episode of [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV series)|the BBC TV series]]
| first = [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Primary and Secondary Phases#Fit the First|Fit the First (radio)]]
| last = 
| nickname = The sandwich-maker, Monkey-Man
| alias = 
| species = Human
| gender = Male
| occupation = [[BBC Radio]] employee (formerly)
Intergalactic traveller
"Sandwich-maker"
| title = 
| family = 
| spouse = 
| children = [[Random Dent]]
| portrayer = [[Simon Jones (actor)|Simon Jones]] (all adaptations save for stage and film)<br />[[Chris Langham]] (stage show)<br />[[Martin Freeman]] (film)
| creator = [[Douglas Adams]]
}}

'''Arthur Philip Dent''' is a fictional character and the hapless [[protagonist]]<ref>{{cite news|first=Bill|last=Toland|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05265/575785.stm|title=Deep in space lurks the Flying Spaghetti Monster|newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]|date=22 September 2005|accessdate=16 October 2008|quote=Arthur Dent, the timid anti-hero of the "Hitchhiker's Guide" movie, radio show and book series, begins wandering the universe after aliens vaporise Earth to make room for an intergalactic superhighway.|archive-date=29 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629094647/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05265/575785.stm|url-status=dead}}</ref> of the comic science fiction series ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' by [[Douglas Adams]].

In the [[radio]], [[Vinyl record|LP]] and television versions of the story, Arthur is played by [[Simon Jones (actor)|Simon Jones]] (not to be confused with [[Peter Jones (actor)|Peter Jones]], the voice of the guide). In [[Ken Campbell]]'s 1979 stage production, [[Chris Langham]] took the part. In the [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)|2005 film adaptation]], he is played by [[Martin Freeman]]. In ''The Illustrated Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', he is portrayed by Jonathan Lermit.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

==Arthur's story==
Along with [[Ford Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect]], Arthur Dent barely escapes from [[Earth]] as it is demolished to make way for a [[hyperspace]] [[Bypass (road)|bypass]]. Arthur spends the next several years, still wearing his [[bathrobe|dressing gown]], helplessly launched from crisis to crisis while trying to straighten out his lifestyle. He rather enjoys [[tea]], but seems to have trouble obtaining it in the far reaches of the galaxy. In time, he learns how to fly and carves a niche for himself as a sandwich-maker.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Adams |title=Mostly Harmless |date=19 October 1993 |publisher=Pan MacMillan |isbn=9780345379337 |editor-last=Mehta |editor-first=Sonny}}</ref>

In most versions of the series, Arthur and Ford eventually find themselves back on Earth, but two million years in the past, marooned with a third of the Golgafrincham population (consisting of hairdressers, account executives, film-makers, security guards, telephone sanitisers, and the like). The Golgafrincham arrival spurs the extinction of the native "cavemen" (although, as Ford Prefect pointed out, they did not live in caves, to which a witty repartee was that they 'might have been getting their caves redecorated'), resulting in the human race's eventual replacement by a shipload of middle managers, telephone sanitisers and hairdressers.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

The original radio series and the television series end at this point, although a second radio series was made in which Ford and Arthur are rescued by Ford's cousin [[Zaphod Beeblebrox]] and have further adventures, and which ends with Arthur stealing Zaphod's spaceship, the ''Heart of Gold'' (which Zaphod had himself stolen) and striking out with only [[Marvin the Paranoid Android]], Eddie the shipboard computer, a cloned [[archaeologist]] named [[Lintilla]], a bunch of appliances with Genuine People Personalities, and a rather battered copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for companionship.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In the novels and the new (series 3 and onwards) radio series (the latter of which dismisses the events of the second radio series as one of Zaphod's "psychotic episodes"), Ford and Arthur escape prehistoric Earth via an eddy in the [[space-time continuum]] and a time-travelling [[Chesterfield sofa]] that deposits them in the middle of [[Lord's Cricket Ground]] at the climax of the final (in more ways than one, it turns out) match in the [[Ashes series]], the day before the destruction of Earth by the [[Vogon]]s. Having escaped the destruction of Earth once more and survived further adventures, Arthur eventually finds himself once more back on Earth (or rather an alternative Earth founded by the Dolphins to save the human race from extinction). Here he falls in love with a woman named [[Fenchurch (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)|Fenchurch]] and seems set to live happily ever after – at least until the following – and final – novel, ''[[Mostly Harmless]]''. By the end of this fifth novel, Earth and all of its possible permutations and alternate versions are destroyed once and for all, and everybody dies, at least as far as the novel goes. However, it is subtly hinted that Arthur, his friends, and a few Earths might have survived.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In the [[Quintessential Phase]] of the radio series, there are multiple alternative endings after the final destruction of all possible Earths. The final ending here consists of the Babel fish carried by Arthur, Trillian, Ford, and Random having a sense for self-preservation, i.e. at the last minute they teleport the person they are inhabiting, and anyone nearby (namely Tricia McMillan), to safety. They are teleported to Milliways where they meet up with Zaphod, both Trillians merge, leaving her with her British accent but her blonde-American hair. Marvin has been rebuilt as his warranty has yet to expire and is parking cars at Milliways again (he has been promoted, he remarks; he now has his own bucket). Finally, they meet up with Fenchurch again who was teleported to Milliways after we last saw her in the Quandary Phase and has been working as a waitress there, waiting for Arthur. They all settle in together, leaving the series on an upbeat note and allowing for further adventures.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In the latest book, ''[[And Another Thing... (novel)|And Another Thing...]]'', it is revealed that there are other Arthur Dents in the different dimensions of the book series, but they are all deceased, due to various mishaps of fate, so that only the Arthur who was rescued from Earth remains. One briefly appears in the book, wearing Arthur's traditional dressing gown and slippers, and is destroyed with the rest of Earth by the Grebulons. Ford almost sees him, but searches for a drink and misses him being vaporized.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

==Arthur's "death"==
Arthur dies in the fifth installment of the book series, ''[[Mostly Harmless]]'', in a club called Beta (owned by Stavro Mueller) when the Earth and all its duplicates are seemingly destroyed by the Grebulons. Adams frequently expressed his disdain for this ending in retrospect, claiming that it was too depressing and came about as the result of him having a bad year.<ref>{{cite web|first=Amanda|last=Mannen|url=https://www.cracked.com/article_28601_hitchhikers-guide-to-galaxy-loose-ends-finally-got-fixed-on-radio.html|title='Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' Loose Ends Finally Got Fixed (On The Radio?)|website=[[Cracked (website)|Cracked]]|date=20 September 2020|accessdate=18 July 2021}}</ref>

In the radio series, Arthur is saved by the Babel Fish, which can teleport itself, along with its carrier, out of danger. Arthur and the others who died in the books are instead teleported by their Babel Fishes to somewhere safer than Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha. This is also used in Trillian's dream sequence, as the reason for their escape.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In ''[[And Another Thing... (novel)|And Another Thing...]]'', written by [[Eoin Colfer]], Arthur is put into a dream sequence (presumably referring to the epilogue of the radio series) and then frozen in time by the ''Guide'' Mk.2, allowing him to experience decades of life on a peaceful beach. The ''Guide''<!-- -->'s batteries soon run out, however, so all the main characters are re-awakened on the exploding Earth, at the exact point where ''Mostly Harmless'' left off. Zaphod then rescues them in the ''Heart of Gold''. All alternative Arthurs are killed. In the end, Arthur travels through hyperspace on an interstellar passenger ship; he looks to the seat next to him to find Fenchurch sitting there talking to him, but he fades out of her dimension and into a new one. Materializing on the beach from his dream, he looks into the sky and discovers that the Vogons are on their way to destroy this planet.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

==See also==
*[[18610 Arthurdent|Asteroid 18610 Arthurdent]]
*[[Quintessential Phase]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/arthur.shtml BBCi's page on Arthur Dent]
*[https://sadgeezer.com/hitch-hikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-character-bios-arthur-dent/ The SadGeezers Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Arthur Dent]

{{HitchhikerCharacters}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dent, Arthur}}
[[Category:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy characters]]
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