Conditioning The Moment

In Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, we audience a moment in the life of a peculiar character. In the performance we witness him and none else, almost as if there were none left, if not for his story. And be it that you read it, watch it or do both (which greatly adds to the picture), one easily realizes that the subject is not a very ordinary man, but rather one who demonstrated signs of what could be a mental condition. It is this condition and the role it plays in the telling of a story that intrigued me. It is this condition that made me dig onto its meaning. It is this condition that i'd like to discuss.

It can all be summarized in the way he peels his bananas, the meticulous process by which he eats them, calculating every move, almost as if following some invisible tempo. He eats them not for that human satisfaction of placing flavors in contact with the senses, but rather as a routine, as a process to follow in his scrutinous reality. And not far down we encounter the bananas again as part of the recording, helping establish them as a pattern. It is here that the man recognizes his condition, the presence of one, at the least.

As we move into the moment and the more we listen to the tape, we realize that there are certain similarities with the narration and the man listening, as if things repeated in his story. Even without much talk about his condition, there are hints to its implications. A loss of memory is evident, especially when listening about his mother. Not only does it shock him to find out about her "viduity," but he goes as far as looking for the word in a dictionary, a word he once used so naturally. Both the memory and its meaning fade from the former Krapp.

And his condition is further described in an incident narrated by the younger voice, the one in the tape. When we listen to the voice narrate his experience with a woman who "had her eyes on me. And yet when I was bold enough to speak to her--not having been introduced--she threatened to call a policeman." I came to wonder if there was more to his condition, some denial on his part. He seemed startled at the reaction from the woman, and quite honestly, so would i under the circumstances narrated. Then I wonder what must have triggered her reaction and concluded in fear, fear to something abnormal. He has a condition that is easily identified when relating to others, but he denies it, accepting his condition only as a minor element.

With his condition described to some extent I wonder if I could get more from reading it over again, some more hints, extra evidence. And I did, for every time I read a group of words for a second time it became more evident to me, and the longer I watched the video the more convinced I was. I find it hard to believe the narration would have any thrill if the protagonist was an ordinary individual with the typical human behavior. Is it possible, then, that every word, every movement, every element is a hint to his condition, that his condition is the whole point of the moment?