Krapp's Last Tape, by Samuel Beckett, explores the stasis of time and how it does not pass, but rather piles up around you. Krapp is, in a sense, a man trying to hold onto the past by recording retrospects throughout his life. He does not however, seem to remember much of what he has recorded in the past, for example the eclipse, which he has called memorable, but cannot seem to recall. Additionally, although Krapp's process of recording seems like a ritual, something that he has done many times before and that he should be quite familiar with, much of this ritual seems new to him as he goes about it in front of us. He explores the word "spool" as though he has never heard it before, he inspects the plug to the recording machine as if he has never used one before, and he slips on a banana as if he did not know that by placing a banana on the floor, one is bound to slip. Frustrated with the piles of tapes around him, Krapp shoves most of them onto the floor, and out of his way. .
Krapp seems to be extremely selective in what he will allow himself to recall. While he fast-forwards through moments where he recounts his mother's death and refuses to listen to himself discuss beliefs, understandings, and reality, Krapp "broods" over past recordings that describe his relations with women. Only in these sections does Krapp allow himself to revisit this time in his mind and relishes in the memory of looking into the eyes of these women from the past. When Krapp has finished listening and relistening to the old tape, he does not seem to want to continue to make a new one. Grudgingly beginning a new recording, Krapp almost immediately begins talking about these eyes of the past again. Krapp catches himself revisiting this again and orders himself to "Let that go!" However, after a few more moments, Krapp gives up and returns to listening to the old recording. Stuck in selective memories of the past, Krapp cannot move forward or refuses to.
