Krapp's Last Tape

Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape was an interesting read. I actually enjoyed reading Beckett's specific stage directions. It is rather obvious that they were important to him because there is over a page of stage directions out of this four page play. I think Beckett wanted to emphasize that our actions can speak louder than our words. There are lots of things that Krapp does in this play that tell us who he is without using words. In the beginning of the play, Krapp paces and eats a banana meditatively. This told me that Krapp spends a lot of time thinking about something, but at this point in the play I wasn't sure what he was thinking about. A moment later Krapp disappears and the audience hears a cork pop and then a few seconds later Krapp returns wiping his mouth. To me this portrayed that Krapp drank a lot and was most likely an alcoholic. At the end of the play, we don't know much about Krapp. We know that he is a miserable, old man that listens to tapes that he made when he was younger and that he believes that his best years are gone.