Moorpark College a Krapps Last Tape Short Story Discussion

In Krapp’s Last Tape, we get to know the character’s thoughts at the age of sixty-nine and at thirty-nine. How would you describe Krapp’s character at thirty-nine, based on the old recordings, and how would you describe him at sixty-nine? How has he progressed? In what ways is Krapp an “everyman” figure? Despite the experimental nature of the play, how does it offer its audience a character who is like all of us and who holds many of our common assumptions about the self, experience, and time? Explain your interpretation. (400 words)

1. What is Krapp doing? Explain the situation or the premise.

2. How is the title significant? Think of possible interpretations.

3. What is the younger Krapp looking for in life? What are his ambitions and how have they affected his life?

4. What do the older Krapps think of their younger selves? What’s amusing and upsetting to them?

5. How has he changed over time and how hasn’t he changed?

6. What does he regret, or does he regret anything?

7. How is Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape similar to Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”? Between the plots and themes, what parallels can you find?

8. What life experiences are represented on the tapes? How does he react to hearing about different the topics? Which recording does he listen to twice?

9. What’s the play about, thematically? How are human nature and the human condition represented in the play? Is it about the folly of youth or does it go beyond that?

10. What is it that Krapp is thinking about as he’s staring off into space at the close of the play?