On a tangent, Clifford Odets wrote 'Waiting For Lefty' in 1935, where the characters sit around discussing Lefty, an agent of the labour union and a swell guy, and someone arrives at the end to say that he has been killed by the capitalist owners.

So that's another 'main character doesn't show up' scenario - it's possible, I suppose, that Beckett got his idea from this play.

The joke about "Big Martin" also relies on the dubiousness of Martin's existence.

When was "Godot" written? Influence from "Waiting for Lefty" certainly sounds plausible, but it seems strange that Godot could be an allusion to another work. I thought Beckett's idea for theatre of the absurd was to be as weird and "out there" as possible.

Also, unlike "Lefty," it is never implied in "Waiting for Godot" that Godot is dead -- in fact, you get the sense that whoever and where ever he is, he is a lot more fortunate than the two poor guys stuck waiting for him! (This is part of what makes the TN joke so funny -- I suspect you probably knew that, though, I'm just clarifying).

You're right about the "Big Martin" connection -- I hadn't thougth of that. I guess characters like Big Martin and Godot just go to prove the old truism that what you don't see is often more powerful than what you do. Storytellers (of all sorts) have to reason the other way: what you don't show is more powerful than what you do. I read Bill Watterson talking about this in cartooning: some of the funniest strips have Calvin getting into trouble offstage, and we just see Hobbes reacting to it -- which is funnier than if we saw exactly what is happening to Calvin.



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Metaphors be with you!

'Godot' was first performed in 1952. To have been influenced by 'lefty' doesn't mean that Beckett has to be 'alluding' to it in any way - he may simply have thought that it was a good idea worth being pushed further.

Somewhere around the 1960's, Jacques Tati made some very funny (probably classed as 'droll', these days) movies featuring the central character of Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati) who could create a mess out of anything. Tati once said that the ultimate Hulot movie would not have Hulot appearing in it at all; the story would simply follow in the wake of the pandemonium that he had caused.

I like that (see sig for confirmation...)!
That reminds me of that old animated character, the (incredibly myopic) Mr. Magoo, who posessed similar talents.

As far as allusion vs. influence goes, the titles "Waiting for..." seem to me to be too similar to be just influence. If Beckett was familiar with "Lefty" he could not have given his such a similar title if he did not expect others to make the connection.



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Metaphors be with you!