Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape"

Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett is about a man named Krapp who mysteriously eats three bananas before recording a final tape about his life. Through the tapes, we receive blurry clues and memories as to why he is recording them and what causes him to want to give up eating bananas.

I believed the bananas were a prop gag, while he "slips, nearly falls" over the peel like he knocks the tape boxes off the table as he gets "comfortable," so we could see the clumsiness and humor of his character. As I read further, I believe the bananas were Krapp's vice and ultimate downfall. He describes the bananas as a "fatal thing for a man with my condition." I could see what his thought process was by how he approaches the bananas. He is on the edge of a crossroads, mentally debating whether or not he should eat them and how many he should eat. After he eats them, I believe he burns the peels in the fire place, to get rid of the evidence.

I think the unfinished stories are Krapp's distant memories and are about his past loves, his diagnosis, and things he is trying to remember about his life before he dies. I believe his memories go in and out on the tapes because he remembers something else or is distracted. He is recording them to keep his life important after he is gone. Krapp recollects his time in the hospital receiving news that there is "slight improvement in [his] bowel condition" while looking through the boxes of tapes.

As he records himself on the tape, he describes his current situation and He says, "Good to be back in my den, in my old rags," leaving me to wonder if he had been in the hospital wearing a hospital gown for quite some time and he has come home to die. He confesses that he ate three bananas, yelling at himself, and declaring that he needs to "Cut 'em out!" He says, "With all this darkness round me I feel less alone," making me think he feels the hospital was too bright, full of emptiness, and not a comfortable place for him to live. When he is alone at home, he is surrounded by his memories and thoughts. After he records his current state, he starts to fall deeper into the past, with his memories of growing up, falling in love, his friends, and what brought him to the place he is currently in.

Questions

1. Who is he leaving the tapes for? Does he have children who are grown and/or grandchildren? Is the woman he loves still alive or is he a widower? Are they strictly for his own purpose?

2. Why does he feel the need to record these particular stories? Are they the most important or the most memorable?

3. Why does he keep throwing away tapes and putting on another? Is he trying to absorb them in his mind and leave no remnants? Is this the way he moves past unpleasant experiences or bad memories?

4. Why does he say he doesn't want "his chance of happiness" back when he ends the tape? Is he filling fulfilled in the life he has led and has no regrets?