Alienation and Loneliness

As Krapp's Last Tape proceeds, the viewer understands that, during the course of his life, Krapp has systematically distanced himself from the companionship and love offered by other people. At twenty-nine, Krapp lived with a woman, Bianca, whose love he later called a "hopeless business" (despite the fact that she possessed very "warm eyes.") At thirty-nine, Krapp celebrated his birthday alone in a pub, "separating the grain" of what he felt were his great thoughts from the "husks" of his less important ones. That same year, his mother died and he told his new love that "it was hopeless and no good going on." Since then, Krapp has been completely alone, except for the occasional visit from Fanny, a "bony old ghost of a whore."

Thus, Krapp's isolation is self-inflicted; while this certainly marks him as pompous (since he felt that he could not bear to...