“What remains of all that misery?” Time, habit and memory in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape

Fernando Aparecido Poiana

doi:10.37389/abei.v17i0.3541

Abstract

This article discusses how the flow of time in Krapp’s Last Tape constitutes an element of suspense to keep the audience’s attention and interest throughout. It also analyses the way Beckett’s play explores the paradoxical connection between time and meaning which, along with the corrosively comic potential it holds, offers the audience the opportunity to philosophize in concrete and existential terms. Keywords: Samuel Beckett; Krapp’s Last Tape; existentialism.

Highlights

This article discusses how the flow of time in Krapp’s Last Tape constitutes an element of suspense to keep the audience’s attention and interest throughout
Rather life is a succession of habits, since the individual is a succession of individuals. (Beckett on Proust)
Krapp’s Last Tape was written in English in early 1958, the same year when it was first published in Evergreen Review and performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London

Summary

Introduction

This article discusses how the flow of time in Krapp’s Last Tape constitutes an element of suspense to keep the audience’s attention and interest throughout. This article looks into how the flow of time in Krapp’s Last Tape constitutes the leading motif that generates and maintains suspense throughout Beckett’s one-act play. Beckett invites the audience to feel the passage of time, and to a certain extent to sympathise with Krapp’s irreparable losses.

Results

Conclusion