The Winslow Boy

by

Terence Rattigan

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Winslow Boy makes teaching easy.

Arthur Winslow Character Analysis

Arthur is the intimidating patriarch of the Winslow family. He is the main driver behind the long and arduous legal process to get Ronnie justice and a fair trial. Though the family is clearly intimidated by him, Arthur also shows moments of tenderness and vulnerability from time to time. Over the two years of the case’s process, the stress takes its toll on Arthur’s health; though only in his sixties, by the end of the play he is required to use a wheelchair (though he stands up symbolically to give a victory statement to the press). Arthur is also in control of the family’s finances, having made a modest fortune working in the banking industry, and is the one who decides to hire the notorious (but expensive) barrister Sir Robert Morton. Arthur’s commitment to the case means he has to make tough financial sacrifices, starting with withdrawing his funding for Dickie’s studies. He goes on to admit to Catherine that his dowry arrangement for her wedding to John will no longer be possible, and also wants to get rid of the housemaid, Violet. The question throughout the play is whether Arthur is fighting for “justice,” as he claims, or because of personal pride and stubbornness. The truth is most likely a combination of the two.

Arthur Winslow Quotes in The Winslow Boy

The The Winslow Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Arthur Winslow or refer to Arthur Winslow. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Principles and Sacrifice Theme Icon
).
Act 1 Quotes

Ronnie’s the good little boy, I’m the bad little boy. You’ve just stuck a couple of labels on us that nothing on earth is ever going to change.

Related Characters: Dickie Winslow (speaker), Ronnie Winslow, Arthur Winslow
Related Symbols: Gramophone
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

GRACE: You’re such a funny girl. You never show your feelings much, do you? You don’t behave as if you were in love.

CATHERINE: How does one behave as if one is in love?

ARTHUR: One doesn’t read Len Rogers. One reads Byron.

CATHERINE: I do both.

ARTHUR: An odd combination.

CATHERINE: A satisfying one.

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker), Grace Winslow (speaker), Catherine Winslow (speaker)
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:

JOHN: The annoying thing was that I had a whole lot of neatly turned phrases ready for him and he wouldn’t let me use them.

CATHERINE: Such as?

JOHN: Oh – how proud and honoured I was by your acceptance of me, and how determined I was to make you a loyal and devoted husband – and to maintain you in the state to which you were accustomed – all that sort of thing. All very sincerely meant.

CATHERINE: Anything about loving me a little?

JOHN: That I thought we could take for granted. So did your father, incidentally.

Related Characters: Catherine Winslow (speaker), John Watherstone (speaker), Arthur Winslow, John’s Father/Colonel Watherstone
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

ARTHUR: Why didn’t you come to me now? Why did you have to go and hide in the garden?

RONNIE: I don’t know, Father.

ARTHUR: Are you so frightened of me?

Related Characters: Ronnie Winslow (speaker), Arthur Winslow (speaker)
Page Number: 27-28
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2  Quotes

My gosh, I could just about murder that little brother of mine. What’s he have to go about pinching postal orders for? And why the hell does he have to get himself nabbed doing it?

Related Characters: Dickie Winslow (speaker), Ronnie Winslow, Arthur Winslow
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3 Quotes

ARTHUR: I know exactly what I’m doing, Grace. I’m going to publish my son’s innocence before the world, and for that end I am not prepared to weigh the cost.

GRACE: But the cost may be out of all proportion –

ARTHUR: It may be. That doesn’t concern me. I hate heroics, Grace. An injustice has been done. I am going to set it right, and there is no sacrifice in the world I am not prepared to make in order to do so.

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker), Grace Winslow (speaker), Ronnie Winslow, Sir Robert Morton
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:

CATHERINE: Not a verbal protest. Something far more spectacular and dramatic. He’d had his feet on the Treasury table and his hat over his eyes during most of the First Lord’s speech – and he suddenly got up very deliberately, glared at the First Lord, threw a whole bundle of notes on the floor, and stalked out of the House. It made a magnificent effect. If I hadn’t known I could have sworn he was genuinely indignant –

ARTHUR: Of course he was genuinely indignant. So would any man of feeling be –

CATHERINE: Sir Robert, Father dear, is not a man of feeling. I don’t think any emotion at all can stir that fishy heart –

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker), Catherine Winslow (speaker), Sir Robert Morton
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:

SIR ROBERT: What are my instructions, Miss Winslow?

CATHERINE: (In a flat voice.) Do you need my instructions, Sir Robert? Aren’t they already on the Petition? Doesn’t it say: Let Right be done?

Related Characters: Catherine Winslow (speaker), Sir Robert Morton (speaker), Arthur Winslow, John Watherstone, John’s Father/Colonel Watherstone
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4 Quotes

ARTHUR: I’m tired of being gazed at from the street while eating my mutton, as though I were an animal from the Zoo.

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker)
Page Number: 86
Explanation and Analysis:

CATHERINE: You don’t think the work I’m doing at the W.S.A. is useful?

ARTHUR is silent.

You may be right. But it’s the only work I’m fitted for, all the same. (Pause.) No, Father. The choice is quite simple. Either I marry Desmond and settle down into quite a comfortable and not really useless existence – or I go on for the rest of my life earning two pounds a week in the service of a hopeless cause.

Related Characters: Catherine Winslow (speaker), Arthur Winslow, Desmond Curry
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:

ARTHUR: It would appear, then, that we’ve won.

CATHERINE: Yes, Father, it would appear that we’ve won.

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker), Catherine Winslow (speaker), Ronnie Winslow, Violet
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Winslow Boy LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Winslow Boy PDF

Arthur Winslow Quotes in The Winslow Boy

The The Winslow Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Arthur Winslow or refer to Arthur Winslow. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Principles and Sacrifice Theme Icon
).
Act 1 Quotes

Ronnie’s the good little boy, I’m the bad little boy. You’ve just stuck a couple of labels on us that nothing on earth is ever going to change.

Related Characters: Dickie Winslow (speaker), Ronnie Winslow, Arthur Winslow
Related Symbols: Gramophone
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

GRACE: You’re such a funny girl. You never show your feelings much, do you? You don’t behave as if you were in love.

CATHERINE: How does one behave as if one is in love?

ARTHUR: One doesn’t read Len Rogers. One reads Byron.

CATHERINE: I do both.

ARTHUR: An odd combination.

CATHERINE: A satisfying one.

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker), Grace Winslow (speaker), Catherine Winslow (speaker)
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:

JOHN: The annoying thing was that I had a whole lot of neatly turned phrases ready for him and he wouldn’t let me use them.

CATHERINE: Such as?

JOHN: Oh – how proud and honoured I was by your acceptance of me, and how determined I was to make you a loyal and devoted husband – and to maintain you in the state to which you were accustomed – all that sort of thing. All very sincerely meant.

CATHERINE: Anything about loving me a little?

JOHN: That I thought we could take for granted. So did your father, incidentally.

Related Characters: Catherine Winslow (speaker), John Watherstone (speaker), Arthur Winslow, John’s Father/Colonel Watherstone
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

ARTHUR: Why didn’t you come to me now? Why did you have to go and hide in the garden?

RONNIE: I don’t know, Father.

ARTHUR: Are you so frightened of me?

Related Characters: Ronnie Winslow (speaker), Arthur Winslow (speaker)
Page Number: 27-28
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2  Quotes

My gosh, I could just about murder that little brother of mine. What’s he have to go about pinching postal orders for? And why the hell does he have to get himself nabbed doing it?

Related Characters: Dickie Winslow (speaker), Ronnie Winslow, Arthur Winslow
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3 Quotes

ARTHUR: I know exactly what I’m doing, Grace. I’m going to publish my son’s innocence before the world, and for that end I am not prepared to weigh the cost.

GRACE: But the cost may be out of all proportion –

ARTHUR: It may be. That doesn’t concern me. I hate heroics, Grace. An injustice has been done. I am going to set it right, and there is no sacrifice in the world I am not prepared to make in order to do so.

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker), Grace Winslow (speaker), Ronnie Winslow, Sir Robert Morton
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:

CATHERINE: Not a verbal protest. Something far more spectacular and dramatic. He’d had his feet on the Treasury table and his hat over his eyes during most of the First Lord’s speech – and he suddenly got up very deliberately, glared at the First Lord, threw a whole bundle of notes on the floor, and stalked out of the House. It made a magnificent effect. If I hadn’t known I could have sworn he was genuinely indignant –

ARTHUR: Of course he was genuinely indignant. So would any man of feeling be –

CATHERINE: Sir Robert, Father dear, is not a man of feeling. I don’t think any emotion at all can stir that fishy heart –

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker), Catherine Winslow (speaker), Sir Robert Morton
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:

SIR ROBERT: What are my instructions, Miss Winslow?

CATHERINE: (In a flat voice.) Do you need my instructions, Sir Robert? Aren’t they already on the Petition? Doesn’t it say: Let Right be done?

Related Characters: Catherine Winslow (speaker), Sir Robert Morton (speaker), Arthur Winslow, John Watherstone, John’s Father/Colonel Watherstone
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4 Quotes

ARTHUR: I’m tired of being gazed at from the street while eating my mutton, as though I were an animal from the Zoo.

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker)
Page Number: 86
Explanation and Analysis:

CATHERINE: You don’t think the work I’m doing at the W.S.A. is useful?

ARTHUR is silent.

You may be right. But it’s the only work I’m fitted for, all the same. (Pause.) No, Father. The choice is quite simple. Either I marry Desmond and settle down into quite a comfortable and not really useless existence – or I go on for the rest of my life earning two pounds a week in the service of a hopeless cause.

Related Characters: Catherine Winslow (speaker), Arthur Winslow, Desmond Curry
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:

ARTHUR: It would appear, then, that we’ve won.

CATHERINE: Yes, Father, it would appear that we’ve won.

Related Characters: Arthur Winslow (speaker), Catherine Winslow (speaker), Ronnie Winslow, Violet
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis: