A Feast of the Eyes: The Body in Parts in Krapp’s Last Tape Josie Reynolds College

Beckett’s depiction of the human body is noteworthy for a few reasons. The parts of the body he emphasizes are all linked to some sort of sensory experience, specifically sight and touch. The choice to evoke these two senses specifically, as opposed to sound and smell, for example, is particular because it further underscores the sexual undertones of the play itself. Sight and touch, while clearly not solely associated with sexual experiences, are arguably the two most prominent senses in experiencing sexuality for most people. These senses are manifested in Krapp’s ideas of the eyes and his strange obsession with consuming bananas in a remarkably hand-centric way. In Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, the depiction of the body in individual parts rather than a whole highlights the titular character’s longing for the sensory pleasures of the past.

Krapp’s focus on the eyes in particular highlights a duality in the experience of sensual pleasures. On one hand, Krapp talks about eyes almost incessantly in reference to his female partners. When talking about Bianca, a romantic partner from his twenties, he says, “Not much about her, except for a tribute to her eyes. Very warm” (2). He uses her eyes as a synechdoche for her as a...