Taking off ‘Hat’ and ‘Boots’: A Buddhist Reading of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the main characters’ hat and boots allegorize skandhas (five aggregates) that are supposed to compose the self; their hat seems to represent samjna (perceptions), sankhara (mental activity or formations) and vijnana (consciousness) while their boots, rupa (form) and vedana (sensations). And Godot might be seen as the essence of the self. Then, Vladimir and Estragon’s hopeless waiting for Godot implies that they do not possibly fulfill their essential self-identity.BR As well-known, the Buddhist view of self, rejecting any inherent components of the human self, asserts that the five aggregates constitute the human being’s mental and physical existence. And suffering arises when humans cling to the aggregates. Then, because the main characters do not stop waiting for Godot, they cannot evade despair and mental instability. However, there is a Buddhist hole through which they can escape; Pratityasamupata (the Buddhist theory of dependent arising) allows the human beings to be freed from sufferings that arise when they identify with the five aggregates. Then, Vladimir and Estragon would fulfill freedom when they quit their hopeless waiting. In other words, they can ‘move’ when they realize the dharma that their self (skandhas) is in a ceaseless process of dependent interaction with other selves.