Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview… an out-of-work actor. Withnail nurses delusions of grandeur (“I’ll show the lot of you! I’m going to be a star!”) and spends too much time down the pub. He lives in a grimy London flat, in which the only form of heating is found at the bottom of a bottle. He keeps it all afloat financially with the help of his wealthy Uncle Monty. In between drinks, he goes to the occasional audition or two, but most of his time is spent downing quadruple whiskies and pint after pint of hard cider.
Personality… grandiose, theatrical, and deeply cynical. Withnail comes from a wealthy background – you can hear it in his voice – but he lives like a slumrat. Whenever he needs a taste of the good life, he rings his Uncle, who has, in Withnail’s words, a “sensational cellar.” Withnail is going nowhere fast, but he’s doing it with a certain sort of slovenly charm.
Get to Know him in...
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Two out-of-work actors—the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail—spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.
