Reading Samuel Beckett’s Portrayal of the Self from a Buddhist Perspective

Abstract

Samuel Beckett's evocation of the self through the discussion of the intertwined themes of language, relativity/dependency, memory, time and change invites diverse perspectives from which the self could be read. Beckett, through the delineation of the self as constantly revising itself in relation to its memories and the larger social exterior, portrays the self as fragmented and impermanent. The delineation of the self in the plays Waiting for Godot (1956), Endgame (1958) and Krapp's Last Tape (1958) as disintegrated, dependent and lacking in certitude, resonates with the Buddhist's consideration of the self as a mental formulation.