Trauma Monologue in Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape

Abstract

This paper gives a trauma reading of Krapp’s Last Tape. While Krapp’s inability to let go the past and his desolate lifestyle demonstrate a clear symptom of melancholia, he is unable to articulate what exactly has traumatized him nor can he mourn properly for the losses. As a result, he entombs the trauma inside of him and this hidden crypt ghosts him with obsessive or compulsive behaviors. Unaddressed trauma not only withdraws Krapp from life and others but also fragments his self into warring pieces, leaving him suffer endlessly without closure. Through Krapp’s monologue of omission, evasion, and understatement, Beckett has successfully staged a trauma via absence rather than presence.