Krapp’s last tape: subject, exhaustion and language

Abstract

In this article we will analyze the problem of subject in the dramaturgy of Samuel Beckett, specifically in the play Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), an issue that will be approached from the notion of dramatic character and plot. Focusing on the ontological relationship that the character maintains with his dramatic speech, we will observe how language is constituted as their only possibility to exist, a problematic question as Krapp’s subjectivity is overflowed by different voices that emerge from his tapes. In his exhaustion, the character finds himself situated at a ‘crossroads of words’, where his monologue constantly folds back on itself, constructing a static-dynamic situation. A set-up that inverts the temporal movement in the play, as it is configured from the constant retrospection to the past and the memories of the character, in an erratic rhythm that tends to circularity and installs a perpetual present, waiting for an ending that does not end to materialize.