Abstract
Krapp’s Last Tape, Beckett’s dramatic work of 1958, is still performed and analyzed today. This article examines how Krapp functions as the archetypal figure of Beckett’s version of the Theater of the Absurd. Krapp serves as a pattern for all major Beckettian characters — a “wearish old man,” physically impaired, addicted, and isolated — who embodies the post-modern condition of isolation, failure, and the futile manipulation of memory. Through analysis of dualism, monologue, time, and memory in the play, the article demonstrates that Krapp is not merely a pathetic figure but a deeply human one, confronting the impossibility of meaningful existence in a world without guarantee or promise.
Keywords: Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape, Theater of the Absurd, postmodernism, memory, identity, dualism
Introduction
Krapp’s Last Tape, Beckett’s dramatic work of 1958 is still performed and analyzed today. The last major production of it was performed by Harold Pinter at Royal Court Theater in October 2006. The reason behind its success as a still-performing play besides other major productions of the century is not its having anything new to discuss. In fact, the theme and characterization as well as staging and dialogue are quite Beckettian, that is to say typical. And it also shares affinities with the other major productions of the Theater of the Absurd. Yet, the reason for its dominance over half a century is the same typical qualities which are however highlighted in this play perhaps more significantly than the others, the same qualities which make Krapp the archetypal figure of Beckett’s version of the Theater of the Absurd.
Krapp as Archetypal Figure
An archetypal figure, Krapp serves as a pattern for all major Beckettian characters. “A wearish old man”, we read in the first paragraph of the play, “very near-sighted” and “hard of hearing” (Krapp, 1989: 55). Therefore he has some physical defects like other characters in Beckett’s drama. He also has problem with his constipation as his name implies. Didi has problem with his kidneys and Gogo with his boots. Hamm is blind; Pozzo also becomes blind in a scene. Lucky is numb. Nag and Nell are legless and kept in dustbins. Hamm cannot stand and Clov cannot sit.
Krapp walks laboriously and is in the habit of fumbling in his pockets as other characters in Beckett are inured to fumbling down their pockets, hats, boots, etc. He also has an absurd addiction to bananas and alcohol. As an absurd character, this addiction is perhaps what makes Krapp connected with the world of the living. Most of the characters in the Theater of the Absurd, especially in Beckett’s, have some kind of addiction or habit which serves as a life force that is nevertheless unpleasant, but keeps them busy and apparently alive.
Dualism and the Beckettian World
There is always a set or sets of contrast in Beckett. This dichotomy of light and dark, movement and stillness, past and present, silence and utterance is central to the Manichean doctrine in which the god of creation is presented as struggling in vain with evil forces that rule the universe. The same argument is almost true about Waiting for Godot and other plays in a certain way. For example, the contrasting pair in Krapp’s Last Tape is Krapp’s present voice as an old man of sixty-nine and his recorded voice of thirty years ago; so is the contrast made between his memories at any given moment compared with the recorded memory before that time.
Time, Memory and Failure
Krapp’s Last Tape is as much a social drama as it is personal and autobiographical. Twice in the play, we hear about Krapp’s opus magnum and the seventeen copies sold. Much like Beckett himself, who had the experience of writing for almost twenty years without any recognition, Krapp talks of a bitter disillusionment. He derides his own aspirations of “drinking less” and his “plan for a less… engrossing sexual life.”
In Krapp, time is manifested in fragments. He talks of moments when his mother dies and he gives the black ball to the white dog. The three phases of the recorded tape talk of moments of separation: physically from his mother and his beloved, and mentally from his aspirations as a writer and his dreams and needs as a human being. At the heart of separation, Krapp seeks reconciliation. Times and again we have the reconciliation of the opposites in the play, yet what remains is still a deeper sense of exclusion and failure.
The Post-Modern Condition
Krapp’s Last Tape is the true story of a man who lives in future when people record their memories on tapes. Now the time has come and we have even gone further in technology and advancement, and who dares challenging Beckett’s prophecy of the post-modern man who is incapable of living his own life, no matter how hard he tries. The post-modern man is lonesome and disillusioned. The more he tries to connect and to reconcile, the more he is left disappointed and isolated.
Though the resonance of death echoes all through the play Krapp is made immortal by his tape recorder which has recorded the history of a man deprived of moving and changing his life, a man who is continually manipulated by his own past as well as the conflicting forces in the universe. Krapp calls them moments, moments eternalized during the ritual of death and rebirth, a ritual which possibly brings no final salvation as Beckett foresees the future.
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