Tears and Sweat

In Krapp's Last Tape, Krapp sits and listens, with his occasional outburst, comments, laughs, interruptions, pauses, or silent sobs, with a sheen of glistening sweat running down his face, mixing with the fat tear drops as they run down, and eventually fall of his face to the awaiting table.

During the brief interruptions, we can infer that Krapp makes his way to a backroom in order to take a drink from an alcoholic beverage. This can therefore be linked to the sweating. "Sweating after drinking aclhohol is common, because alcohol has a tendency to dilate the vessels in the skin. This leads to an increase in body heat and temperature. To keep the body temperature at its optimum, the body releases sweat. Click here to know more about alcohol addiction" (cited from this website).

Obviously he is drinking with the intent of steadying his nerves. He is depressed. He has been drinking for -most likely- many years. The alcohol creates a means of escape, but must be drunken in increasing amounts so that it still has the same effect. It is "a central nervous system depressant with a range of side effects. The amount and circumstances of consumption play a large part in determining the extent of intoxication" (wikipedia). Krapp is intoxicated, and the effects of the alcohol mingle with the feelings that are hiding inside him. Thus leading to tears.

The regretful Krapp, peering into the past, with sadness enveloping him during the duration of the tapes, listens, at the point where the regret and sadness and remembrance of the happy times are all that remains for him.

Therefore, he drinks. And drinks some more. All the while bathing in his depression, and wallowing in the could-have-beens, and used-to-be-s.