The Calmative

"It is not my wish to labour these antinomies, for we are needless to say in a skull, but I have no choice but to add the following few remarks. All the mortals I saw were alone and as if sunk in themselves."

In The Calmative Beckett indirectly questions the ability of thought to be outside of the real physical self. Humans are "sunk in themselves" leaving each of us "alone". It seems this lonliness is a result of each of us only being able to communicate what is going on in our skulls incompletely. Though the main character in the story is telling this story from the grave (figuratively). Therefore, he is purely thought without a body. In his story he has a body, but he is telling the story without any indication to the reader that he is an actual physical form as the story teller. This is how his pure thoughts can be alluded to throughout the story.
It is because these interactions with the living in his story are experiencing pure thought that the great majority are scared or do not notice at all. If we really knew what was happening inside a persons skull it would be scary, some of us however pay no attention to the thoughts of others anyway and wouldn't notice the difference.

"Then atlast, before, I fell, first to my knees, as cattle do, then on my face, I was in a throng. I didn't lose consciousness, when I lose consciousness it will not be able to recover. They paid no heed to me, though careful not to walk no me, a courtesy that must have touched me, it was what I had come out for."

In the above passage Beckett makes two major points. Firstly, after all thought is gone, there's no getting it back. Secondly, though people are courteous they ignore him. This demonstrates the mental disconnectedness of individuals, and the perfect contintment of that lack of true interaction between most humans.

"All I say cancels out, I'll have said nothing."

Why then does he tell the story?In order to communicate fully with the reader. Beckett is trying to allow the reader to experience the thought of the main character.