Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Analyse Arthur’s behaviour in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, identifying examples of positive and negative behaviour as read by a contemporary audience.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was a film produced in 1960. The film portrays the behaviours of youth within the city, focusing especially upon the main character Arthur, a typical portrayal of a working class young male within this era whose weekly routine is to work in a factory all hours, followed by a weekend spent with friends in the pub drinking alcohol and flirting with females. 

The behaviours which are displayed by Arthur in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning would overall be seen as negative when viewed by a contemporary audience in the 1960s. Some of these negative behaviours include Arthur having an affair with a married woman, which in 1960 would be completely disapproved of and serious punishment would come as a result, as shown later in the film when Arthur gets beaten by the soldiers. Furthermore, the affair leads to the pregnancy of the married woman Brenda and when Arthur finds out the news his immediate reaction is to persuade Brenda to have an abortion and seeks advice how to go about it. Though this may still seem like a negative response today, in the 60s it would have be viewed extremely worse by a contemporary audience as abortions were in fact illegal and would have cost phenomenal amounts for the little money that the working class received, however this did not seem to affect Arthurs decision and it appeared that he was determined for Brenda not to have the baby as he did not want to take on the role or responsibilities that come with being a parent.  

Arthurs character further displays negative attitudes of youth as he is a stereotypical young “lad” who drinks too much, is involved in violent behaviours and has a resentful attitude towards society. During the film we see Arthur shoot an elderly woman in his neighbourhood and also put a rat in a woman’s work space for entertainment, which again, viewed by a contemporary audience would be considered extremely disrespectful for a member of the youth to behave in such ways to the elderly and women. Overall the attitudes that Arthur displays represents that he is trying his best not to conform to society, but rebel against it when he can do so.

However, not all of the behaviours that Arthur’s character displays are negative. He works full time and helps his mother by giving her some of his wage every week, he goes out fishing and has a good time with his best friend Bert, he offers to pay for Brenda’s abortion, which although may have been for himself, it would still have been a lot of money for him to pay and the gesture of him offering to do so represents a more positive side of his character. Therefore, although the overall conception of Arthur’s character would be viewed as negative, he does at times portray the attitudes of a caring and friendly young male.

Towards the end of the film, we see that Arthur has settled down with a young woman his age called Doreen, who he had been seeing throughout the film. The two characters are discussing about getting their first house and living together, which would be considered the norm for a contemporary audience. This represents that despite Arthur’s efforts not to conform to society, he has in fact done so. This suggests that eventually all members of youth grow up and conform to society, behaving as they are expected to do so.