"Krapp's Last Tape"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how "Krapp's Last Tape" is a play about endings, about old age and memory. It looks at how, when analyzing what the protagonist, Krapp, perceives as the single most important incident in his life, and examining how this affected his character and the direction of his life, it is perhaps most important to ask how live events did not effect Krapp, or rather how Krapp allowed his life to remain at a standstill. It also examines how Krapp marks the passage of his years not by spending time with loved ones or moving forward, but listening to his own voice on tape. The character's life is like an endless loop, on a spool of recorded sound.

From the Paper:

"The repetitive and static nature of Krapp's life finds its most potent metaphor in an encounter Krapp had with a woman on a barge. But rather than a long, lost love that has affected Krapp in a positive or negative way, this seems more like a relationship that never really deepened, and is only yet another thwarted possibility in a life that is a succession of thwarted possibilities. Krapp's haunting by many images from his past that fleetingly promised happiness are demonstrated by his obsessive listening to a tape recording of his own voice. The tape contains a journal entry from long ago, to which Krapp reacts, verbally and physically. Krapp cannot let go of the past, and even the past has few concrete memories of significance, he can only listen to his younger self's articulation of hopes that things will get better."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Beckett, Samuel. "Krapp's Last Tape." Modern Irish Drama. Edited by John P. Harrington. New York: Norton Critical Edition.

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