Motifs
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a radio play which uses the ideas of comedy and science fiction to make it appealing to listeners. Science fiction is a genre which uses futuristic aspects, the unlikelihood and unrealistic creatures to make the book, movie or radio play more interesting for the audience. Some examples of ideas which keep reoccurring are the destruction of the earth, time travel, advanced technology and sarcasm. These five motifs are very significant and keep the radio play going, and make The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a fun and interesting piece of work.
The destruction of the earth is an important motif in the radio play because it is the reason why Author Dent and Ford Prefect are on a flying saucer traveling to a different galaxy. The destruction of the earth is something which is an unlikelihood for an everyday person; however Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, uses this to make the radio play more comedic. The reason why we laugh when the earth explodes is because it ridiculous and absurd. To some extent we even believe that it is impossible for the world to end, let alone being saved by a flying saucer. This motif keeps reoccurring when the protagonists discuss the results of the earth’s explosion and how things can be solved. For example, when one of the aliens talks about how the blueprints for the earth are ready and that the world will have to change, “I’ve got a thousand glaciers poised and ready to roll over Africa” (83) this makes the reader chuckle because it is very unlikely that we will have glaciers in Africa.
Another example of a motif is time travel. Time travel is mostly humorous because it uses a familiar situation and takes it back into a past era or the situation is set in the unknown future. An example of time travel is when Ford, Arthur, Trillian and Zaphod are thrown through time after an explosion in the galaxy. All of them land in a restaurant and are greeted by the waiter. This is the familiar situation which is placed into the galaxy a million years ahead. This makes the situation funny because the characters do not know that there has been time travel and their confusion makes the motif very funny.
Furthermore, the advanced technology in the radio play is very ridiculous and that is why we laugh about situations like a talking computer which knows the answer to life. One of the main examples which always comes back is Marvin. Marvin is a depressed talking robot. Douglas Adams used personification to make the robot appear depressed, which makes the audience laugh about it. We think that it is very unusual for a robot to talk and that is why we laugh. Also Marvin is depressed which makes his voice very monotonous. However, we only know the voice due to the sound effects in the radio play. Probably, the characteristics of Marvin would not be as funny if the radio play was a novel.
The language throughout the book is at times very sarcastic. Sarcasm is mostly humorous because it consists of a taunting remark which can be ironic and hurt or make fun of someone or something. Sarcasm is used often when the characters speak because the fact that the world exploded and that there are aliens with humans in a space ship is ironic. That is why Douglas Adams uses a lot of sarcasm to make his characters talk in a realistic way and it always fits to the situation.
All in all the motifs in the radio play are mostly linked to the science fiction genre and it uses language which makes everything seem funnier. The reason why Douglas Adams used motifs which appear in the science fiction novel is because he probably wants to make science fiction seem more humorous. He also chooses the voices and the characters of each person or alien very specific so that each character is extraordinary and that the audience has something to laugh about.
