"Krapp's Last Tape" Response #2

After viewing the film version of Krapp's Last Tape in lecture last week, I noticed a very important aspect of the play that I had somewhat missed while reading the text version. While watching, I payed close attention to the elements of lighting and identified the significance of shadows as well as how they add meaning that is both literal and abstract meaning. 

-Firstly, I noticed that the set was lit in a specific way where most of the stage was covered in shadows, leaving the only area of illumination to be Krapp's desk. Although not physical boundaries, these shadows seemed to restrict Krapp's area of movement. He always remained in close proximity to his desk and never interacted with the shadowed areas. I felt that this lighting element added a sense of mystery and wonder to the play: is Krapp hiding something in the dark corners? How/when/why did Krapp's house become so shadowed? Etc.

-Similarly, the element of "shadows" in Krapp's life became more apparent to me as I watched the film version. Although Krapp enjoys listening to the recordings of his past, it is obvious that even the tapes reveal a sense of false happiness. His younger selves obviously hid and suppressed many of the negative aspects of their lives, which is exactly what Krapp continues to do as an old man as he records his final tape. Although comforting at the time, these figurative “shadows” haunt Krapp and leave him as the depressed lonely man we see experience in this play. 

"Krapp's Last Tape" Response

Throughout reading Krapp’s Last Tape I found myself recognizing many similarities between Krapp and Willy from Death of a Salesman:

·         Firstly, the description of Krapp in terms physical appearance immediately reminded me of Willy Loman. The line in Krapp’s Last Tape that explains Krapp’s attire as a “grimy white shirt open at neck, no collar” especially reminded me of Willy’s attire during the garden scene of Death of a Salesman (Beckett, p.333).

·         Also, the fact that both Krapp and Willy are both old men adds to the struggles each character deals with.  Just as Willy spent much of Death of a Salesman reflecting on his younger days of success, Krapp spends most of Krapp’s Last Tape listening to himself from years back and pondering on past occurrences such as his mother’s death and his young lover.

·         Furthermore, I noticed that both Krapp and Willy share the similarity of becoming somewhat senile as they approach the end of their lives. Willy’s nighttime garden scene in Death of a Salesman where he is seen mumbling to himself represents ongoing depression as well as inability to let go of the past. Similarly, I interpreted Krapp’s actions including the constant unlocking and locking of drawers, his fascination with bananas, as well as the random pauses and unstructured speech pattern as a sign of an old man losing his grip with reality.

·         Finally, the end of each play ends similarly for both Krapp and Willy in the sense that they are both left as ultimately defeated and depressed old men. Although Willy ended up killing himself, Krapp’s Last Tape ends with the dialogue “Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness” (Beckett, p.337).



Willy Loman
Image source:
 http://www.alexanderbarnett.com/salesman.html



Krapp
Image source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/8020032/Krapps-Last-Tape-Duchess-Theatre-review.html



"The Cherry Orchard" Response

I found The Cherry Orchard to be a difficult play to fully understand, mostly due to the large number of characters (and Russian names) that were introduced. Because of this, I found myself trying to focus in on each character in an attempt at understanding their relationships and interactions with other characters throughout the play.

The character that I found myself paying close attention to was Firs, the old manservant. I felt a sense of empathy for this character because of the fact that he was belittled frequently and cruelly spoken to. An example of this is when Firs is telling a story about “the old days” and Yasha responds by telling him that he “is getting boring” and that it was time for him “to crawl off and die” (Chekhov, p.300). They ignore the things he says and don’t really seem to care about him until the end of the play when he falls ill.  

I found Firs as a character to correlate with the idea of the cherry orchard. In each case, when things were going normally and neither of them seemed to be in any sort of threat, they were not overly noticed; they just existed on a daily basis.

·         When it was found out that the orchard would be auctioned off, however, it becomes a popular topic of conversation and many people throughout the play spend their time contemplating its fate and hoping the situation has a good turnout.

·         Similarly, when Firs becomes ill, the other characters in the play seemed to pay more attention to him and treat him with more respect.

Because of these similarities, I felt it was appropriate for the cherry orchard to be bought and chopped down as well as Firs to pass away at the end of the play.