I was hoping my blog would end up being a blog which analyses, Krapps Last Tape, but after watching the piece all I could do was form opinions and thoughts. The man kept his opinions and thoughts recorded throughout his life. This old man listening (to what I assume) to his younger self creates those emotions to rebuild inside him, he is once again living those memories. Much like I mentioned about memories for the Father from The Road, the character does not relive those memories physically, but instead mentally. Those emotions he had when he met various women are still seen on his wrinkle lines, and he cries for his past. He cries about his past stupidity’s, but even finds himself agreeing with things he used to say.
Although he now has wrinkles, and his hair has gone white, it appears that he still does much of the same things he used to do when he was younger. At the start of the piece, we see him eating bananas, he has trouble eating those bananas. The recording talks about eating four bananas every day, and that he just so happened to have trouble, like his older self, eating some of the bananas. His younger self calls his even younger self foolish, and that he doesn't know what he is talking about. His now older self records his "last tape" and he almost says the exact thing, "Just been listening to that stupid bastard I took myself for thirty years ago, hard to believe I was ever as bad as that. Thank God that's all done with anyway." Like his younger self he is still mesmerized by one specific woman’s eyes.
Younger self: “I asked her to look at me and after a few moments--(pause)--after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the glare. I bent over her to get them in the shadow and they opened."
Older self: "The eyes she had!"
His life is a constant reflection on his past and his past is constantly reflecting on both his past and his future. The old man talks about what he was like when he was young, and the young man talks about what he will be like when he is old, "Old Miss McGlome always sings at this hour. But not tonight. Songs of her girlhood, she says. Hard to think of her as a girl. Wonderful woman, though. Connaught, I fancy. (Pause.) Shall I sing when I am her age, if I ever am? No. (Pause.) Did I sing as a boy? No. (Pause.) Did I ever sing? No."
In reality, he is just talking to himself. Whether it be a future self or a past self, he is just analyzing his life and trying the comprehend different events. He still cries about the death of his mother, and still laughs at his old jokes, he even laughs in the same manner.
At the very end of the tape, he gives us a final reflection about his life ,"Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back." Now I have one question, does this mean he was satisfied with is life?
Box 3, Spool 5.
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