Analysis of Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett: Light and Dark

The juxtaposition between light and dark is seen throughout Samuel Beckett’s comedy Krapp’s Last Tape. For Krapp, light is something he likes to fixate on, only allowing the good and bright parts of his life to be seen by himself and others. The darkness represents the complete opposite; it is everything he wants to desperately forget or keep hidden about his life. The main action in the play is Krapp getting ready to record the moments of the year onto a new tape. These tapes he only records in the little bit of light that shines onto his desk because this one recording holds all the good memories of the year, the memories he wants to look back on. Everything that happens outside this one moment at his desk is meant to be left behind in the darkness, similar to the banana peels that Krapp throws off the stage into a dark pit where they will never be seen again. 

One of the first moments that Krapp listens to his younger self talk about on the tapes is living with his girlfriend Bianca, whose name means light in Italian, on Kedar (which can mean darkness or sorrow in Hebrew) Street (). These correlations to good and bad memories indirectly show that his relationship with Bianca was a bright moment in Krapp’s life, while he was surrounded by darker events. The more painful memories of that year he tries to erase from his memory, as is seen when he is listening to his past self use the word “viduity” when talking about his mother being a widow. Krapp has used the word before, yet he cannot recall what it means and even when he looks it up in the dictionary, he decides to go with the definition that has nothing to do with his father having died. It is a memory he does not want to remember, so he essentially blocks it from his mind. The same goes for the “small, old, black, hard, solid rubber ball” that is his mother’s death (). He ends up gently handing this black ball to a white dog, allowing it to take away this painful memory even though he “shall feel it in [his] hand until [his] dying day” (). This statement gives us  a brief look into the fact that Krapp realizes that even if he tries to keep all the bad moments hidden in the shadows, they will inevitably follow him always. Overall, this year signified one half of Krapp’s “memorable equinox,” where he saw both light from his relationship with Bianca as well as great darkness from his mother’s death, corresponding to the darkness of Kedar Street.

Furthermore, whenever Krapp does something that he does not want to acknowledge, he makes sure he is hidden in the shadows. For instance, he makes sure to go backstage into the darkness to what appears to be is drink alcohol. He does not allow anyone to see this part of him, especially after he listens to the tape that talks about his resolution to stop drinking. It is important to note that three put off the four times Krapp goes backstage, it has to do with his want for alcohol; the first time there is a sound of cork popping once, the second there are three cork pops, and the last time is the only time where it implies Krapp drinks the alcohol as he siphons the liquid into glass and comes back into the light walking unsteadily (). The act of drinking the alcohol happens soon after Krapp listens to the part of the tape where his younger self realizes that “the dark [he has] always struggled to keep under” will eventually be brought to light, no matter how hard he tries to hide from it (). Krapp keeps winding the tape forward and back in order to avoid his past revelation that “the dark [he] has always struggled to keep under is in reality” something he shouldn’t part with.