Editing Waiting for Godot (section)

==Related works==
* [[Jean Racine|Racine]]'s ''[[Bérénice]]'' is a play "in which nothing happens for five acts."<ref>[[Vivian Mercier|Mercier, V.]], ''Beckett/Beckett'' (London: Souvenir Press, 1990), p. 74</ref> In the preface to this play Racine writes: "All creativity consists in making something out of nothing." Beckett was an avid scholar of the 17th-century playwright and lectured on him during his time at [[Trinity College Dublin|Trinity]]. "Essential to the static quality of a Racine play is the pairing of characters to talk at length to each other."<ref name="Cronin, A. 1997 p. 60" />
* The title character of [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]]'s 1851 play ''Mercadet'' is waiting for financial salvation from his never-seen business partner, Godeau. Although Beckett was familiar with Balzac's [[prose]], he insisted that he learned of the play after finishing ''Waiting for Godot''.
* Many critics, including [[Al Alvarez]] and [[Christopher Ricks]], regard the protagonists in Beckett's novel ''[[Mercier and Camier]]'' as prototypes of Vladimir and Estragon.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Kennedy |editor1-first=Seán |title=Mercier et Camier |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |location=London |isbn=9780571266951 |edition=2012 |chapter=Preface|date=4 October 2012 }}</ref> "If you want to find the origins of ''Godot''", Beckett told Colin Duckworth once, "look at ''[[Murphy (novel)|Murphy]]''."<ref>Cooke, V., (Ed.) ''Beckett on File'' (London: Methuen, 1985), p. 14</ref> Here we see the agonised protagonist yearning for self-knowledge, or at least complete freedom of thought at any cost, and the [[dichotomy]] and interaction of mind and body. Mercier and Camier wander aimlessly about a boggy, rain-soaked island that, although not explicitly named, is Beckett's native Ireland. They speak convoluted dialogues similar to Vladimir and Estragon's, joke about the weather and chat in [[pub]]s, while the purpose of their odyssey is never made clear. The waiting in ''Godot'' is the wandering of the novel. "There are large chunks of dialogue which he later transferred directly into ''Godot''."{{sfn|Bair|1990|p=376}}
* ''Waiting for Godot'' has been compared with [[Tom Stoppard]]'s 1966 play, ''[[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead]]''. Parallels include two central characters who appear to be aspects of a single character and whose lives are dependent on outside forces over which they have little control. There are also plot parallels, the act of waiting as a significant element of the play, during the waiting, the characters pass time by playing [[Questions (game)|Questions]], impersonating other characters, at times repeatedly interrupting each other while at other times remaining silent for long periods.<ref>{{cite book | title=Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, Jumpers, Travesties, Arcadia |first=Jim|last=Hunter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ohoJihItGSoC |publisher=Macmillan |year=2000 |isbn=9780571197828}}</ref>
* The 1991 West End production ([[#WestEnd1|see above]]), inspired Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson to develop ''[[Bottom (TV series)|Bottom]]'', which Mayall described as a "cruder cousin" to ''Godot''.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Maume|first1=Chris|title=Rik Mayall: Comedian and actor who helped revolutionise the British comedy scene as the punk poet and Cliff Richard fan, Rick|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rik-mayall-comedian-and-actor-who-helped-revolutionise-the-british-comedy-scene-as-the-punk-poet-and-9517289.html|access-date=31 March 2018|newspaper=The Independent|date=9 June 2014|archive-date=31 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180331173231/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rik-mayall-comedian-and-actor-who-helped-revolutionise-the-british-comedy-scene-as-the-punk-poet-and-9517289.html|url-status=live}}</ref>