Act 1 Scene iii Hamlet

Laertes: Farewell. Pherhaphs loves you know but you must fear.

Polonius: What is't Ophelia he hath said to you.

Ophelia: He hath made tenderous affection to me.

A Reflection of the Past

Usually, as people get older, people start to reflect about their pasts and they begin to think on all the mistakes they made in their lives. For example, in my sixteenth birthday (even though it's a pretty young age), I started to think on all the wrong decisions I made in my life. I thought on all the could-have-beens and the what-ifs, and it began to torment me. Reflecting on all the things I could have done, but I didn't, really started to pervade in my mind. As I watched and read the

the play of Krapp's Last Tape, I noticed that Krapp, as he listened to the tapes of his past birthdays, he started to reflect and regret several things he did and things he didn't do.

On his sixty-ninth birthday, after he listened to several of his tapes he said: "Just been listening to that stupid bastard I took myself for thirty years ago, hard to beleive I was ever as bad as that." Krapp's reflection of the past, shows how strongly he regreted all the mistakes he made in his life. For example, when he mentions the women he lost, he says: "I think I was still living on and off with Bianca in Kedar Street. Well out of that, Jesus yes! Hopeless business." His tone of voice indicates that he regrets not taking advantage of his "golden years" and losing several people he could have been with. In Krapp's Last Tape, reflecting on the past signifies looking back at all the wrong decisions and tormenting yourself with these thoughts.

After my birthday, I began to realize that it is useless to torture yourself with mistakes from your past. No matter what you do, you can't take them back. And that all of the decisions you made, regardless if they were right or wrong, shaped who you are and it is important to learn to accept them. Just as Krapps's last realization: "Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back."