Krapp's Last Tape Essay

The final line of Samuel Beckett’s play, Krapp’s Last Tape is a demonstration of the resonating power of silence. Beckett’s choice to end the pay with such a potent and somber stage direction implicates the viewer (or reader) and forces them inside the melancholic mind of Krapp. Krapp’s Last Tape centers upon a “wearish old man”(774) reflecting on fragments of his life via audio tape. Through the artifice of the audio recordings we are able to examine Krapp at different stages of his life. The play delineates the problem of critical self-analysis and the results are poignant.

The image of Krapp staring motionlessly off into space is so affecting because it is in essence, a cathartic moment of realization. Krapp’s stupefied stare indicates that the acceptance of the fact that his life is only going to become worse and worse until his ultimate demise was a sadly epiphanic moment for him. Krapp’s acceptance of defeat is palpable, especially in the portrayal by the actor whom Beckett intended for the role, Patrick Magee. Although Krapp recorded the tape, ‘box three, spool five’ at an earlier

The tape demonstrates his acceptance of his fate after the aforementioned avowal with the caveat, “But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now”(781). It is clear that Krapp has accepted the consequences of his actions, and has come to terms with them. The ‘fire’ that is within him could be seen as an allusion to the fires of hell, which he might already feel consumed by having never attained the life or success he wanted. The inevitability of death could in some way be seen as comforting (much like a fire could be) is once you have reconciled yourself to it. For Krapp, death could serve as an end to his suffering and his continual search for meaning and his acceptance it explains why he’s content to live without a “chance of