Down from the Hill: Analysis of Major Characters
"Down from the Hill" explores the life of Paul Morton, a seventeen-year-old factory worker from Nottingham who embarks on a significant six-day bicycle tour in the summer of 1945. The narrative intertwines his youthful journey with a retrospective visit in 1983, where Paul, now a successful television scriptwriter facing personal challenges, retraces parts of his past. Throughout both journeys, Paul encounters a diverse cast of characters, each evoking memories that shape his identity and experiences.
Key figures include Alice Sands, a pivotal yet elusive connection from his youth; Gwen, her friend who complicates their dynamic; and Uncle Fred, whose troubled legacy haunts Paul. Other noteworthy characters include Albert Colston, a friend whose absence marks a turning point, and various cyclists and hostel residents who add depth to his adventures. The story balances themes of nostalgia, longing, and the search for belonging, as Paul navigates his relationships and personal growth across two distinct periods in his life. This dual timeline invites readers to reflect on the impact of memory and the passage of time on one's journey.
Down from the Hill: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Alan Sillitoe
First published: 1984
Genre: Novel
Locale: England
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The summers of 1945 and 1983
Paul Morton, a seventeen-year-old Nottingham factory worker. He leaves Nottingham on a six-day bicycle tour in the summer of 1945, then retraces his route by Volvo automobile in the summer of 1983, when he is a successful television scriptwriter separated from his third wife. Along his route, he meets people whom he recalls from his 1945 journey. In 1945, he stays nights in youth hostels, climbs ruins of an abbey, has a sexual encounter, and returns home to begin training as an air traffic controller. In 1983, he climbs the abbey wall and inquires about Alice Sands but declines to retrace the last segment of the tour, down from Broughton Hill.
Alice Sands, the only person whom Paul plans to meet during his bicycle tour. With hazel eyes, auburn hair, and pale skin, she reminds him of the roses in Wishdale Abbey. With Gwen, they have fish and chips, go to movies in Stafford, and visit a castle. Paul never sees her again, though he learns in 1983 that she married a Canadian lawyer, lived for a while in Toronto, and had two children.
Gwen, a friend of Alice. Wearing strong perfume to cover odors acquired from her job in a fish shop, she is an unwelcome third party.
Uncle Fred, Paul's uncle, though in 1983 Paul wonders if Fred in fact is his father. He lived a wild life, was despised by Paul's father, and died in a home for the mentally incompetent. Paul is haunted by memories of Fred.
Albert Colston, Paul's friend in Nottingham. He promises to go on the 1945 bike tour but instead makes up a quarrel with his girlfriend and stays behind.
Janice, Paul's current girlfriend in Nottingham in 1945. Straitlaced and ugly, with buck teeth, she no longer interests him.
Oswestry (Ozzie), a youthful cyclist Paul meets in 1945. Wearing khaki knee shorts, he has fair hair and white hands. He looks at churches and flowers. Paul calls him by the name of the town that is their joint destination.
Joseph, the warden of the Stafford hostel where Paul stays in 1945. He offers Paul a job with Irish laborers.
MacGuinness, a young Irish worker with curly black hair and a red face, who sleeps next to Paul in the Stafford hostel in 1945. He sticks his fork in the hand of a man who tries to steal his breakfast egg.
Eunice, a seventeen-year-old girl with long blonde hair who works in her grandmother's hostel in Lichfield in 1945. She sleeps with a truck driver in the dormitory and leaves with him the next morning.
Barry “Sheffield” Coutts, one of three young cyclists whom Paul meets in 1945 watching a barge on the Oxford canal. They are from Sheffield, and Paul calls him by that name. Sheffield hates his uncle for making him feel responsible for his mother's death.
Pete Clipstone, who is traveling with Barry Coutts. He has dark curly hair and a pale face. He is impressed with the colors of the barge on the canal, and he dislikes coal mining because his brother was crippled working in mines.
Noah, the third cyclist from Sheffield.
Jack Randall, a friend of the cyclists from Sheffield who has ridden ahead to chase girls. He is the main subject of conversation among the Sheffield cyclists, though it is possible that he does not even exist.
Woman at Blatherdene cottage garden, with whom Paul has a sexual encounter during his tour in 1945. He never learns her name. Then middle-aged, she had two sons in the navy; one disappeared at sea. She leads Paul into her house, where they make love on the hearth rug.
Tom Clifford, a fifty-year-old man on a bicycle whom Paul meets at Kings Cliffe hostel in 1945. He is enthusiastic about a Labour Party election victory and regrets that Napoleon did not invade England in 1804.
Mister Close, an old man whom Paul meets at an Oakham pub in 1945. He recalls days when people walked more.
Ukrainian Man, who has a black, swollen eye and bloated lips. He brings water to Paul, who stops at a farmhouse outside Ab Kebbleby in 1945.
Larry Ragnal, a Nottingham friend with whom Paul stays overnight in 1983. A retired air force officer now in his mid-fifties, he took Paul's job in air traffic control when Paul left for military service. They talk of life in the control tower.
Muriel Fletcher, a television actress Paul dated in 1983. She is the cause of his recent separation. An old man in Stafford compares Alice Sands to her.
Daventry, an unemployed hitchhiker from Daventry whom Paul picks up in Coventry in 1983; he is heading to London for work. A silent young man, he recognizes music by Handel that he used to sing. He refuses the money that Paul offers.