The Buddha Statue Symbol Analysis

The Buddha statue symbolizes Aston’s fixation on objects, his inability to connect with others, and, in a broader sense, his (and everyone else’s) inability to move beyond their present circumstances. Unlike the Buddha who, according to Buddhist teaching, achieved an enlightened state of present attentiveness devoid of self, suffering, and desire, Aston’s preoccupation with the present is characterized by alienation, discomfort, and unfulfilled desire. The Buddha statue represents everything that Aston wants to (but cannot) become. Aston is calm, but not attentively so: his calmness is the result of the mental fogginess that exists as a side effect of his earlier electroshock therapy, which is a facet of himself and his history that he finds difficult to accept. Unlike the religious figure Aston’s statue represents, Aston’s calmness and immobility aren’t a euphoric end state of enlightenment, but exemplify the unresolved fixations that prevent him from realizing his ambitions. Similarly, Aston’s comments about the statue are typical of how he regards most other objects in the room: he thinks it’s “quite nice” and “well made.” The Buddha statue exhibits traits Aston would like to see in his own creations, but because Aston is never able to realize these creations (such as the woodshed, for example), the Buddha, along with many of the other objects that inhabit Aston’s room, serve as embodiments of Aston’s stalled, unfulfilled state.

When Mick smashes the Buddha in Act III, he enacts a chain of events that ends in Aston expelling Davies from their home once and for all. This is one of the only moments in the play in which a character takes steps to see his ambitions come to fruition. The Caretaker might be comically bleak for much of the play, but when Mick smashes the Buddha and Aston kicks Davies out of their home, Pinter optimistically suggests that it’s still possible for people to direct their own lives, to make them meaningful and purposeful, and to find fulfillment.