# Bob Sawyer — The Pickwick Papers character guide

> Bob Sawyer in The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Bob Sawyer, Bob Sawyer, Bob, Sawyer, Mr. Sawyer

**First appearance:** 0003-ii

## Snapshot

A loud, broke, and cheerfully disreputable medical student whose sandwich-and-brandy antics on a coach roof scandalize Pickwick and delight everyone else.

## Who they are

Bob Sawyer is the novel's great engine of impropriety: a swaggering, impecunious surgeon-in-training who treats life as an ongoing joke at propriety's expense. His friendship with Ben Allen, his hopeless pursuit of Arabella, and his willingness to drink, howl, and wave a red flag from a chaise make him a comic foil to Pickwick's earnest dignity. He brings the medical-student underworld of London and Bristol into the book, and his schemes keep the middle chapters fizzing.

## Relationships

### [Samuel Pickwick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/characters/samuel_pickwick)

_friendship_

Bob Sawyer is a boisterous medical student and friend of Pickwick, known for his chaotic parties.

### [Benjamin Allen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/characters/benjamin_allen)

_friendship_

Benjamin Allen is Bob Sawyer's close friend and fellow medical student, often sharing lodgings and escapades.

### [Samuel Pickwick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/characters/samuel_pickwick)

_friendship_

Bob Sawyer is a boisterous medical student and friend of Pickwick, known for his chaotic parties.

### [Samuel Pickwick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/characters/samuel_pickwick)

_friendship_

Bob Sawyer is a boisterous medical student and friend of Pickwick, known for his chaotic parties.

### [Benjamin Allen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/characters/benjamin_allen)

_friendship_

Benjamin Allen is Bob Sawyer's close friend and fellow medical student, often sharing lodgings and escapades.

### [Benjamin Allen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/characters/benjamin_allen)

_friendship_

Benjamin Allen is Bob Sawyer's close friend and fellow medical student, often sharing lodgings and escapades.

## In the story

### [How the Pickwickians made and cultivated the acquaintance of a couple of nice young men belonging to one of the liberal professions; how they disported themselves on the ice; and how their visit came to a conclusion.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/chapters/xxx)

Medical student and friend of Allen, joins the breakfast and skating, collides with Winkle.

### [A Bachelor's Party at Mr. Bob Sawyer's](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/chapters/xxxii)

Hosts the bachelor's party but is anxious about Mrs. Raddle's demands for payment.

### [How Mr. Winkle, when he stepped out of the frying-pan, walked gently and comfortably into the fire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/chapters/xxxviii)

Meets Winkle in Bristol, shows him his medical practice and its dubious advertising schemes.

### [Relates how Mr. Pickwick, with the assistance of Samuel Weller, essayed to soften the heart of Mr. Benjamin Allen, and to mollify the wrath of Mr. Robert Sawyer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/chapters/xlviii)

Initially furious about losing Arabella, but after a drink he toasts the Winkles' happiness.

### [Chapter L](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/chapters/l)

Acts boisterously during the journey and at Mr. Winkle Sr.'s house, performing practical jokes and making inappropriate advances toward the servant girl, much to Mr. Pickwick's dismay.

### [In which Mr. Pickwick encounters an old acquaintance—to which fortunate circumstance the reader is mainly indebted for matter of thrilling interest herein set down, concerning two great public men of might and power.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/chapters/li)

Bob Sawyer is present during the journey and the fight, feeling 'floored' by the weather and excitement, and later provokes the editors.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/characters/bob_sawyer
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/characters