The Company of One’s Own Voice: Loneliness in Samuel Beckett’s ’Krapp’s Last Tape’

This paper had been presented for promotion at the University of Khartoum. To get the full text please contact the other at gamaralbooni@gmail.comSamuel Beckett is regarded as one of the great masters of twenties century literature, his position as a giant of his trade continues after his death and is still regarded as an incontestable figure in postmodernism. This paper examines the notion of loneliness as an inevitable part of the human condition in Beckett’s highly successful one-act play Krapp’s Last Tape. Beckett demonstrates the ultimate solitude of the individual self. through the genius, yet poignant idea of the protagonist listening and reacting, or not, to his own voice recordings of the past. The paper concludes that Beckett generalises his own personal experience through his plays, including the play under discussion. This conclusion is reached through an examination of his life story, his own non-fictional remarks and critical explorations on his work