Topdog/Underdog (Characters)

Characters

Best Customer

The Best Customer is a "miscellaneous stranger" who visits the arcade daily to shoot Honest Abe. The Best Customer "[s]hoots on the left whispers on the right." Link is unsure whether the Best Customer, a black male, knows that Link is also a "brother." The Best Customer utters cryptic messages that possess a quasi-metaphysical quality. He goes so far as to whisper a message in Honest Abe's ear after he has been shot. Link does not think much of the Best Customer, though, ironically, he acknowledges that the Best Customer "makes the day interesting." Booth, on the other hand, regards him as "one deep black brother."

Booth

Booth is Link's younger brother, who aspires to become a master of the three-card monte. He rents the room the brothers share, although he does not hold down a job. Instead, he earns his living as a petty thief. Booth tries to get Link to show him how to throw the cards, but Link refuses, which infuriates Booth. Booth believes that if he knew how to throw the cards, he could earn lots of money with which he could win Grace's heart. Booth calls himself "3-Card" to bolster his confidence. However, Grace plays games with him and thus keeps him uncertain about their future. The frustration Booth feels as a result of these personal relationships finds an outlet through the girlie magazines he peruses constantly and through violence, which forever separates the symbiotic bond that binds the brothers together.

Cookie

Cookie is Link's wife from whom he is now divorced. One night, she comes over to Booth's apartment looking for Link, who is out drinking, but ends up having sexual relations with his brother, who promises to marry her if she leaves Link. She justifies her actions because Link is sexually impotent, which contradicts his portrayal of himself as a ladies man.

Grace

Grace is Booth's girlfriend. She attends cosmetology school, thus differentiating her from the "fly-by-night gals" Booth saw before her. Grace is ambitious and career-oriented, yet she also knows how to have fun. Booth describes her as "Wild. Goodlooking." According to him, Grace is so sweet she makes his teeth hurt. She was with Booth for two years before they broke up. She needed time to think, and he had what he refers to euphemistically as a "little employment difficulty." Booth tries to woo her back with gifts and empty promises like the ones he made to Cookie. She is supposed to come over to the apartment for a romantic dinner Booth has arranged, but she never appears. Booth reacts to being stood up by shooting her dead.

Honest Abe

Honest Abe is the name Lincoln uses to refer to himself when he is in character, including the time when a kid riding on the bus asks him for an autograph. Link, seeing that the kid comes from a rich family, charges him ten dollars for the autograph. When the kid hands Link a twenty-dollar bill, Link promises to meet him on the bus the next day to give him his change. Instead, he spends the entire twenty dollars buying drinks at Lucky's.

The Ladies

The Ladies are unidentified women whom Pops conducts affairs with on the sly. He brings Link along as an alibi, but sometimes Pops would let Link watch him make love, "like it was this big deal this great thing he was letting me witness," says Link. One of the ladies liked Link and took him to bed once Pops fell asleep, thus initiating Link further into the world of adult sexuality.

Lincoln

Lincoln is Booth's older brother, who impersonates Abraham Lincoln — Honest Abe — at an arcade. Before he took the job at the arcade, Lincoln was a master of the three-card monte, but he stopped hustling tourists and other passersby when his stick-man, Lonny, got shot. Ever since Cookie left Lincoln, he has shared a room in a boarding house with his brother Booth. Lincoln once thought of himself as a ladies man, much as Booth does throughout the play, although Lincoln understands that his philandering contributed to the demise of his marriage. He is grateful to have a job with "benefits" that allows him to sit down and think his private thoughts all day. Lincoln's concerns about the security of his job cause him to fall into despair, especially when he learns that he has been replaced by a wax dummy. He briefly entertains the thought of throwing the cards again when he sees that he has lost none of his technique. At play's end, Lincoln's display of talent and his mocking tone cause Booth to shoot him in a pique of anger and jealousy.

Link

See Lincoln.

Lonny

Lonny was Link's "stickman" when he was master of the three-card monte. The stickman is the member of the crew who looks like another member of the crowd but knows every aspect of the game in progress. One day, Link is throwing the cards, and the next day he discovers that Lonny has been shot dead. Lonny's death serves as a warning to Link to stop living such a dangerous life hustling people on the street.

Lucky

Lucky is the proprietor of the eponymous bar Link frequents whenever he has a little cash to spare. Lucky has a dog he keeps behind the bar.

Mom

Mom was the first of the brothers' parents to leave. She left two years before her husband did. Before she leaves, she gives Booth a nylon stocking filled with five hundred-dollar bills. Until the time of her departure, she had a lover who visited the house regularly on Thursdays. For this reason, Booth refers to him as his mother's "Thursday man." Booth once overheard his mother and her Thursday Man discussing a problem, which was most probably an unwanted pregnancy. How she resolved this problem remains unclear, though her asking her Thursday Man for money suggests that she intended to have an abortion.

Pops

Pops names his sons Lincoln and Booth as a joke. He leaves the house two years after Mom deserted him and the boys. Pops visits his mistress at the same time Mom sees her Thursday Man. Before he leaves the boys to start a new life, Pops gives Link ten fifty-dollar bills wrapped in a handkerchief and tells him not to mention a word about the money to anybody, "especially that Booth."

3-Card

See Booth

Thursday Man

The Thursday Man is Mom's lover, who visits her at the house every Thursday. Booth knows about his visits, but he does not say anything to anyone about them.