Krapp’s Last Tape was first produced in the year of 1958 and has often been described as Samuel Beckett’s most perfect work for the theatre. It is unique among Beckett’s major plays, it received immediate recognition in the world of drama by drama critics and was perceived by the literary world as a masterpiece.
Since its exploration of familiar themes, compared with Beckett’s other plays, it achieved popularity faster due to its accessibility. Krapp’s Last Tape despite its theatrical innovations, is almost old-fashioned in presenting a dramatic situation that is not abstract or metaphorical, and in exploring familiar human themes.
Table of Contents
Krapp’s Last Tape Themes
The most notable of these themes is that of lost love, or rather abandoned love, alienation, memories and regret etc. The only character presented on stage is Krapp although audiences get to see different versions of Krapp which further brings out the in the play.
There is no communication between Krapp with any other character which further carries the theme of isolation and loneliness. Krapp has systematically distanced and disconnected himself from the companionship and love offered by other people in his way. The themes in turn bring us to some exceptional characteristics of the play in terms of style and presentation.
The play also highlights an artist’s condition in the world. Krapp falls under the category of a writer whose work has reached a limited number of people and whose artistic ‘‘vision’’ is a total failure. Showing the audience that the ‘‘magnum opus’’ that Krapp devoted his life to creating has sold only seventeen copies, is instrumental in showing the suffering artists like him are destined to. Franz Kafka’s short story ‘The Hunger Artist’ bears a similar resemblance of themes in terms of the artist’s suffering in the world.
Production
Beckett wrote Krapp’s Last Tape after hearing the Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee reading extracts from Molloy and from An Abandoned Work on the BBC Third Programme in December 1957. He was impressed after hearing the actor and the play premiered as a curtain raiser to Endgame (from 28 October 1958 to 29 November 1958). It was originally titled ‘Magee monologue’, performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, starring Magee and directed by Donald McWhinnie.
Presentation and Style
In Krapp’s Last Tape, Krapp’s pauses, silences and hesitation tend to function like ellipsis and indicate the suppression of thought, words and ideas. Silence in such cases acts like a catalyst to speech, breaking the continuity of words and conveying meaning in its totality.
Beckett also uses monologue to show the breakdown of language in Krapp’s Last Tape and Krapp’s alienation from others due to the lack of interaction among the Krapp. Numerous monologues within the play tell us about Krapp’s inability to maintain a conversation because of his egocentricity, which becomes a reason why, he just wants to express their own thoughts and does not pay attention to others’ discourses. That is also why characters like Krapp must repeat their questions several times before they can get answers.
Krapp’s Last Tape Plot
It is a one-act play, written in English, in 1958. With the cast of one man, it was written after being inspired by Beckett’s experience of listening to Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee’s reading extracts from Molloy and From an Abandoned Work.
Krapp, the play’s protagonist and the only character present on the stage, spends his 69th birthday at his desk and listens to the tapes he had recorded earlier in his life. Filled with bitterness and regret, the words of his younger self, leave Krapp feeling broken, alone and dejected. He records a new tape, which is to be his last ever tape and although it is never confirmed in the text, it is suggested that this is the last tape he will ever make.
Conclusion
“Beckett instructed the actor Pierre Chabert in his 1975 Paris production of the play ‘to become as much as possible one body with the machine … The spool is his whole life.'”
According to Beckett, the memories on the tapes are no longer owned by Krapp. His mind is no longer capable of holding onto memories of the past. The recorder also serves as a proxy. When actors like John Hurt, are featured as Krapp, they were transfixed by the retelling of the events in the punt by literally cradling the machine as if it were the woman.
They recall Magee’s original performance. Beckett in a letter dated 21 November 1958, took pains to point this out to Alan Schneider, who was at the time preparing his own version of the play, that the gestures be incorporated in future productions in which he was involved.
FAQs
What is the meaning of ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’?
Written and set by the absurdist playwright Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape was intended to represent the complexities of the human mind and its thought processes through Krapp himself. The tape-player represents the memories of the elder Krapp, as he looks back upon his younger self.
How old is Krapp in ‘Krapp’s last tape‘?
Krapp is a 69-year-old man, listening to his audio recordings of his 39-year- old self-talking about life and love. Hearing it in retrospect, he gets angry, feels alone, he gets sad, and finally, he resigns himself to his fate.
Where does ‘Krapp’s Last Tape‘ take place?
Krapp’s Last Tape is set in Krapp’s den, a room that to a large degree, is a reflection of Krapp himself and his mental condition bereft with loneliness. It is left bare, except for a small table to represent and emphasize Krapp’s emotional sterility and isolation. As he is without any human interaction, his room is without anything that suggests comfort or human touch.
What happens at the end of ‘Krapp’s last tape‘?
Krapp’s Last Tape ends with the thirty-nine-year-old Krapp being determined to not regret the choices he has made. He is certain that in the years to come what he would produce would more than compensate him for any potential loss of happiness. Krapp making no response to this, allows the tape to play on until the final curtain.