 The stories chart the life of the book's main character, Belacqua Shuah, from his days as a student to his accidental death.Beckett takes the name Belacqua from a figure in Dante's "Purgatorio", a Florentine lute-maker famed for his laziness, who has given up on ever reaching heaven.The opening story, "Dante and the Lobster," features Belacqua's horrified reaction to the discovery that the lobster he has bought for dinner must be boiled alive.