'Though [Krapp] regards the mind as spirit alien to body, he tries with the only instrument he possesses, namely his mind, to understand this separation and to effect a possible reconciliation between the two … The consequence of this view of the incompatibility of sense and spirit and of Krapp's attempts to reconcile them intellectually is seen embodied in the play in frequent images of light and dark, of eyes opening and closing, of light, fire and clear water on the one hand, and of darkness, mist, and heat on the other'

-observes the eminent Beckett critic, Dr. James Knowlson.

Examples to consider:

Krapp distracted himself from his mother's death by throwing a small black ball to a little white dog [VCR: 29.10]

'…sat before the fire with closed eyes, separating the grain from the husks …
The new light above my table is a great improvement. With all this darkness around me I feel less alone. [Pause.] In a way. [Pause.] I love to get up and move about in it, then back here to … [hesitates] … me. [Pause.] Krapp.' [VCR: 15.20]

'…living on and off with Bianca in Kedar Street. Well out of that, Jesus yes! Hopeless business. [Pause.] Not much about her, apart from a tribute to her eyes. Very warm. I suddenly saw them again. [Pause.] Incomparable! [Pause.] Ah well …' [VCR: 18.30]

A dark young nurse 'all white and starch … with a big black hooded perambulator, most funereal thing'. When he looked at her, 'she had her eyes on me … The eyes! Like … [hesitates] … chrysolite!' [VCR: 27.55]

'… that memorable night in March at the end of the jetty, in the howling wind, never to be forgotten, when suddenly I saw the whole thing. The vision, at last. This I fancy is what I have chiefly to record this evening, against the day when my work will be done and perhaps no place left in my memory, warm or cold, for the miracle that … [hesitates] … for the fire that set it alight. What I suddenly saw then was this, that the belief I had been going on all my life, namely - [Krapp switches off impatiently, winds tape forward, switches on again] - great granite rocks the foam flying up in the light of the lighthouse and the wind-gauge spinning like a propeller, clear to me at last that the dark I have always struggled to keep under is in reality my most - [Krapp curses, switches off, winds tape forward, switches on again] - unshatterable association until my dissolution of storm and night with the light of the understanding and the fire - … [Pause.] Past midnight.' [VCR: 30.42]

'She lay stretched out on the floorboards with her hands under her head and her eyes closed. Sun blazing down, bit of a breeze, water nice and lively. I noticed a scratch on her thigh and asked her how she came by it. Picking gooseberries, she said. I said again I thought it was hopeless and no good going on and she agreed, without opening her eyes. [Pause.] I asked her to look at me and after a few moments - [Pause.] - after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the glare. I bent over her to get them in the shadow and they opened. [Pause. Low.] Let me in.' [VCR: 33.35]

'The eyes she had! [Broods, realizes he is recording silence, switches off, broods. Finally.] Everything there, everything, all the - [Realizes this is not being recorded, switches on.] Everything there, everything on this old muckball, all the light and dark and famine and feasting of … [hesitates] … the ages! [In a shout.] Yes!' [VCR: 44.08]

'Crawled out once or twice, before the summer was cold. Sat shivering in the park, drowned in dreams and burning to be gone. Not a soul. [Pause.] Last fancies. [Vehemently.] Keep 'em under!' [VCR: 48.50]

'Scalded the eyes out of me reading Effie again, a page a day, with tears again.' [VCR: 49.55]

Beckett's reference is to a favourite German novel, 'Effie Briest', by Theodor Fontane (1895), about young Effie's adulterous and tragic affair in the sand dunes with her lover.

'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.' [VCR: 58.10]