Hitchhiker's Guide — Character List & Short Introductions
Arthur Dent
An ordinary Englishman, main human protagonist
Arthur is a mild, confused, and polite man who loves tea. He wakes up to find his house is about to be demolished and soon learns that Earth itself is destroyed. Much of the story follows his bewildered but good-hearted reactions to strange cosmic events.
Ford Prefect
Alien researcher and friend of Arthur
Ford is an alien from near Betelgeuse posing as an out-of-work actor. He writes for the Hitchhiker's Guide and knows how to hitchhike through space. He rescues Arthur and explains many cosmic oddities to him.
Zaphod Beeblebrox
The two-headed, impulsive President of the Galaxy
Zaphod is loud, reckless, and unpredictable. He steals the spaceship Heart of Gold and is driven by unclear motives—partly due to mysterious neural programming he cannot remember.
Trillian (also Tricia McMillan)
Human woman who travels with Zaphod
Trillian is intelligent and resourceful. She left Earth before its destruction and becomes a companion on Zaphod's adventures. In some versions she also acts as a link between Earthly perspective and galactic events.
Marvin the Paranoid Android
A depressed, highly intelligent robot
Marvin has a 'brain the size of a planet' but is deeply bored and melancholy. His gloomy outlook creates darkly comic moments and even inadvertently causes trouble for others.
Slartibartfast
Magrathean planet designer
Slartibartfast is an older, thoughtful character who designed parts of Earth. He explains the planet's true purpose and shares the history of Magrathea and the great computation that was Earth.
Deep Thought
A supercomputer that finds '42' as the Answer
Deep Thought is a powerful machine built to calculate the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. It returns the answer '42' but reveals that the actual question remains unknown.
Vogons
Bureaucratic alien race
Vogons are officious, uncaring civil servants who destroy Earth to make way for an interstellar highway. They are also infamous for their terrible poetry—used as torture.
The Mice
Secretly superintelligent beings
In the story, ordinary mice are revealed to be pawns for pan-dimensional beings conducting experiments. They are behind the final phases of Earth's design and seek answers from human brains.
Magratheans
Planet builders
Magratheans are legendary artisans who built custom planets for wealthy clients. They later fell into stasis during an economic downturn and only awaken for special commissions.
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