Chapters 1-3:
Plot Summary:
Arthur Dent has just woken up and did his daily routine. He then goes outside and lies down in front of his house because he is trying to prevent a bulldozer from demolishing it. The local council wants to build a bypass and his house is in the way. Ford comes to Arthur with important news and, to make sure that Arthur’s house doesn’t get bulldozed, he tricks Mr. Prosser into laying in front of the bulldozer in Arthur’s place. Ford and Arthur go to the bar where Ford tells him that the earth was about to be destroyed in two minutes. As they go outside of the bar, Vogon flying saucers appear and tell the earth that it is about to be destroyed. Someone was able to send a message to the Vogon ship asking them to not destroy earth, but the Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz says that he has no sympathy as the ships charge the lasers.
Setting: - Arthur’s house - The Horse and Groom Bar – Earth
Main Characters: 1. Arthur Dent 2. Ford Perfect
New Characters: 1. Mr. L. Prosser 2. Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz
Character Analysis:
1. Arthur Dent – he is a normal person. He is very determined and is currently trying to stop the demolishment of his house for a bypass. He is also married, but his wife isn’t known.
2. Ford Perfect – he is a close friend of Arthur’s, but isn’t from Earth. He is from a small planet near the star Betelgeuse, but has been stuck on earth for 15 years posing as an out-of- work actor. He doesn’t look different to humans, but can be odd at times. He actually works as a researcher for the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and is writing revisions for the book’s newest edition.
3. Mr. L. Prosser – he is a 40 years old, fat and shabby man who is a member of the local council. He is trying to demolish Arthur Dent’s house with a bulldozer, but Arthur isn’t letting him.
4. Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz – a alien who is a member of the galactic hyperspace planning council. He has come to demolish earth to make way for a new hyperspace express route.
Characters that have changed: No characters have changed yet since it is the beginning of the book.
Chapters 4-6:
Plot Summary: The book switches over from Ford and Arthur to Zaphod Beeblebrox on the planet of Damogran which is desolate and pretty much unknown. Here he is visiting a breakthrough in technology known as the Heart of Gold. It causes many unimportant coincidences such as the name of the island it is on being France and that day was Zaphod’s 200th birthday. He arrives at the party which is celebrating and showing off this achievement, but he later detonates a bomb that paralyzes everyone. After that he steals the ship containing the Heart of Gold. The story then switches again back to Arthur and Ford. They are in the Dentrassis’s cabin of a Vogon saucer and Arthur is just waking up. Ford explains to him that they hitched a ride and how the matter transfer beam that got them onto the ship took the nutrients and salts out of Arthur. He also shows Arthur the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy electronic book. A Vogon announcement comes on, but they can’t understand it since it is in the Vogon language. This leads to them using a small fish called a Babel fish. It translates any language into the user’s original language. It also is used as proof of the non-existence of God. The announcement says that Vogon Jeltz knows the two are on board and would get rid of them when the search party found them. The ship then goes into hyperspace and they are transported 6 light years away from where earth used to be. After they exit hyperspace, the Vogon search party has found them and are right outside the door.
Setting: - The island of France on planet Damogran. – The inside of a Vogon flying saucer.
New Characters: 1. Zaphod Beeblebrox 2. Trillian 3. Dentrassis
Character Analysis:
1. Zaphod Beeblebrox – he is the current President of the Imperial Galactic Government (in which the president is just a figurehead has no real power). He is a out-to-lunch type of president who is a adventure, ex-hippie, crook, and self publicist. He is very showy person who has a big effect on the people.
2. Trillian – she is a girl Zaphod picked up on a planet for fun. She was humanoid with long black hair and brown eyes. She is dressed like an Arab.
3. Dentrassis – a race of people who are catering staff for the Vogons. They are nicer than the them and happily pick up hitch hikers just to annoy the Vogons.
Characters that have changed: 1. Arthur Dent – he hasn’t changed himself, but his perspective of the universe has changed.
He has just found out that there are many other people in the galaxy and that many of them have interstellar travel, which was impossible on earth. He is very confused and isn’t sure what is going on.
2. Ford Perfect – he also hasn’t changed himself, but shows how much knowledge he actually has. Whether it is getting a ride from a flying saucer or using a fish in your ear to understand any language.
3. Vogon Jeltz – we get a better description of him. He has a high, domed nose that rises above his forehead and has thick green skin that is waterproof up to 1000 ft. Vogons are described as being left behind by evolution. They eat jeweled scuttling crabs, but have them shipped to them because none of the Vogons live on their original planet.
Chapters 7-9:
Plot Summary:
Ford and Arthur have been brought to another room after being found by the Vogon search party. Here they will be “tortured” by Vogon Jeltz by reading some of his poetry to them. (Vogon poetry is the third worst kind) As Jeltz reads his poetry, Ford’s body is having a spasm attack while he is trying not scream. Meanwhile Arthur is unaffected by the poetry which doesn’t make any sense to him. After he is done reading, Jeltz gives them the choice of telling him how good the poem was or being thrown out of an airlock. Arthur says that he actually like it and Ford goes along with it, even though he had shown his disliking during the reading. They make up a bunch of compliments for the poem, but Jeltz still decides to throw them out anyway. As the guard takes them to the airlock, Ford talks to him about his job and is pretending to take interest in it. However, he is unable to trick the guard who throws them into the airlock and shuts the door.
Ch. 8 is the electronic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s introduction which is about space. It tries to give you an idea of how big space is. It also says that you can survive in space for 30 seconds with one breath of air and that during this time, the chances of being picked up and rescued by a passing ship is 2 to the power of 276,709 to one against. It is also a coincidence that it is the telephone number of a place Arthur went to for a party and that they were saved 29 seconds after they were thrown out of the airlock.
Ch. 9 goes back to the story. They had been picked up by a passing ship and were inside. In the ship, many weird things are happening. Ford and Arthur are not sure where they are when they awake gasping for air. At first it looks like the sea front at Southend, in England, but it seems to them that it is moving. Soon a man with five heads and an elderberry bush of kippers walks past and they then realize that they aren’t actually in Southend. After hearing measurements of probability from a computerized voice and seeing warps in space-time, Ford figures out what is causing the strange things occurring around them. They have been picked up by a ship powered by an Infinite Improbability Drive which is the Heart of Gold. The voice tells them they have been picked up by this ship. Arthur also tells Ford that an infinite number of monkeys are trying to get into the cubicle they are in to talk to them about a script for Hamlet they’ve written.
Setting: - Inside of the head Vogon saucer - The airlock - Space (they weren’t in a ship at this part) – The inside of the Heart of Gold spaceship
New Characters: 1. The Vogon guard
Character Analysis:
1. Vogon Guard – his name isn’t given, but he tells a lot about himself during his discussion with Ford on the way to the airlock. He likes shouting and throwing prisoners out airlocks, but doesn’t know why he is doing it. He is not fully satisfied with his life. He is unlike the other Vogons and is a little smarter than them in a way.
2. Vogon Jeltz – he shows a side of himself that is more vulnerable and not as calloused. This happens when Ford and Arthur are complimenting his poem and just after they are taken away.
Characters that have changed: No characters have changed in these chapters.
Chapters 10-12:
Plot Summary:
Chapter 10 is the history of the Infinite Improbability Drive. It was discovered by accident by a student who had been left to sweep up the lab after a party. He thought it would make sense to give the finite improbability of developing such a Drive into the logic circuits of a Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain hooked up to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a strong Brownian Motion producer. He was right. However, he was lynched by a mob of physicists after being given the Galactic Institute’s Prize for Extreme Cleverness because they didn’t like being outsmarted by someone who wasn’t like them.
Zaphod didn’t think it was a good idea to pick two people up, but Trillian tells him that the ship did it all by itself. She sends Marvin down to get them and bring them up to the bridge. He complains the entire way, especially about the doors. Ford asks which government owns the ship and he is surprised when he hears it was stolen by Zaphod.
Trillian tells Zaphod that they picked up the two up in the same spot that Zaphod had originally picked her up. He finds this highly improbable and wants to know the ratio. He asks the onboard computer but it annoys him, so he tries to do it on paper. He can’t do it so he asks the computer again. However, instead of the answer, it gives him a random fact. This fact gives Trillian an idea and she decides to watch them on a monitor.
Setting: - The inside of the Heart of Gold
New Characters: 1. Marvin 2. The Heart of Gold onboard computer
Character Analysis:
1. Marvin – he is a robot who is terribly depressed and anything happy angers him. The doors of the ship are what anger him the most. He was sent to get Ford and Arthur and bring them to the bridge of the ship.
2. The Heart of Gold onboard computer – the ship’s computer is a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Shipboard Computer that has a personality and understands feelings. It is always happy and trying to please you which annoys Zaphod a lot.
Characters that have changed: 1. Ford – he recognized Zaphod’s name when he asked Marvin who stole the ship. This shows that he knows Zaphod and could have some connection with him.