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Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883. He was the eldest child of an upper middle-class Jewish family and he had a difficult relationship with his parents. His mother lacked the intelligence to recognise his dreams, meanwhile his father, Hermann, who owned a successful business and possessed a controlling personality. Hermann was a ‘tyrant’ of sorts, with a wicked temper and little acknowledgement for Kafka’s creative side. Due to this complicated relationship with his father, Kafka believed that this may have been the cause of many struggles in his personal and romantic life.
In his literature, Kafka’s characters were facing a tyrannical power, which could easily sever the will of men and demolish their sense of self-worth. Kafka did well in school, and he attended Charles Ferdinand University of Prague. First, he studied chemistry, then later he changed his major to law, which pleased his father, as well as gave him time to take art and literature classes. After completing his studies, he was very unlucky in his work, because he worked busy schedules and it left him with little time for writing.
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Kafka proposed to his girlfriend, Felice Bauer, twice before they went their separate ways, then he fell in love with Dora Dymant, with whom he lived in Berlin until he died. Though he was writing throughout his lifetime, his work was only acknowledged after his death.
In the twentieth century the world began to change. Both scientific and industrial inventions came to light throughout this period.
Not to mention these advancements had an impact on the philosophy, social theory and arts, as well. The new literature started to break away from literary movements of the past centuries, like romanticism and realism, authors of this time acquired new themes from anthropology, psychology, philosophy, political theory, psychoanalysis, and physics to create their works. All these new findings disputed and altered the traditional and normative way of looking at reality. Also, the theme of uncertainty becomes less important in the literary stories, instead it became a symbolic instrument that questioned the examples of reality and logic, introducing epistemological questions that quiver the reader with paradoxes.
Franz Kafka was one of the most influential authors at the time and his work, The Metamorphosis (1915) is a prime example of magical realism. Magical realism is a fictional technique that combines fantasy with raw, physical, or social reality in a search of the truth beyond that available from the surface of everyday life. In his work, Kafka uses philosophy and psychology to define certain human behaviours. His text is about Gregor, a workaholic, who turned into an “ungeheures Ungeziefer”. At first the reader has every intention to doubt the occurrence of such an event, however the narrator eliminate all concerns about this being a delusion: “»Was ist mit mir geschehen?« dachte er. Es war kein Traum.” (Kafka, 1915, p1) Therefore they accept the truth, that the transfromation is an irreversible fact. The author has not specified the circumstances how Gregor ended up like that and by doing so this text differs from other fantastic stories of transformation, in which the happening was often caused by a higher being or magical elements. Kafka is trying to put an emphasis on the psychological consequences of the transformation, not the physical part. Although, his physical transformation is a continuous disintegration and breaking down of a living organism. Meanwhile Gregor does not seem bothered about what happened, his fears and anxieties are focused about his work and boss. The reason is because he is financially supporting his family and his parent own money to the chief of the firm he works for. Because of this he has a huge weight of responsibilities lying on his shoulders. However, Gregor does not realize that his relationship with his family is not so great, because he gives no room for his father to be the provider and in the meanwhile, he tries to save money to send his sister a conservatory to play violin but fails to talk to her about that. Although he is an insect now his life is not much different than before. He is unable to communicate with his family because all they hear is a bug noises and it scares them. Gregor becomes a liability to his family, whom they do not want to care for. The protagonist is brought into the conflict between the world of everyday life and the supernatural anxiety. Though isolation is present from the beginning in the story, there is a description about Gregor’s room, which contains everyday items (such as bed, chest, table,) and these items are symbolizing his human existence before his transformation. Nonetheless in the text some pieces of his furniture are removed and by doing so it makes his loneliness and isolation from human connections more painful and acute. As time goes by Gregor’s body falls into despair because of a sickness and the abuse he receives.
“Metamorphosis is not about finality but about change” (Tara Beaney,2016, P.159) The metamorphosis was used to research the tensions of the individual with the physical and psychological experience of the transformation. Kafka uses the metamorphosis to describe how he sees society. He represents society as being close- minded and unpredictable. Additionally, the purpose of “The Metamorphosis” (1915) is to demonstrate how people change over time as a result of the circumstances in their life.
Because the characters answer to supernatural forms in the indifferent manner and the reader does not recognize himself or herself with the main character, this also indicate a specific turn of psychology. In these kinds of texts, the emphasis is not on the supernatural element, but on the abnormal change, that occurs in the man. As a result, the abnormal metamorphosis no longer focuses on the elements that happen from the outside, but rather on human psychology, that generate these unfamiliar inconsistencies.
Also, hesitation over reality is one of the characteristics of fantastic literature, as stated by Todorov, the deficiency of hesitation in Kafka’s work implies that either the text is not fantastic or represent a separate kind of fantastic literature. According to Todorov’s fantastic the narration hints at the supernatural by giving the reader a series of indirect indications, creating and continuing feeling the mystery towards the climax, the fantastic, in other words, starts from a natural situation to reach its climax, in the supernatural (Todorov, 1975). However, Kafka’s text is the opposite he starts the story with the supernatural then a natural atmosphere takes over. Todorov said they represent a generalized fantastic, in which “what in the first world was an exception here becomes the rule” (Todorov, 1975).
In 1917 Franz Kafka wrote a remarkable short story with the title “The Country Doctor” (1917), which presents a few hours of a doctor’s day. The most outstanding aspect of Kafka’s style in this story is the intimate associations of contraries like how he is infusing the real and the fantastic. The story is written in first person narration, which is dreamlike and also gives an exciting amount of immediacy to the story. The opening lines are realistic in every detail until the irrational world interrupts. The doctor is confused and feels helpless because there is a blizzard outside, which makes him unable to travel to his patient and his horse died the previous night, making it even more difficult for him to go and perform his duties as a healer. The doctor is waiting outside in the snow for the return of his maid, who tries to ask the villagers for help and he feels frustrated, because of the unkindness of the villagers, who call upon him when they are in need, but refuse to help him. The physician symbolizes a helpful man who is demonstrated helpless. After a little time, the salvation comes in a form of a stranger, a groom, who appears with two healthy horses in front of him. However, the circumstances and the mean of how the groom ended up there is a mystery. At the beginning of the story a maid was mentioned but her name was not disclosed until the stable boy says her name for the first time in the story, Rose. This also makes the doctor realise his moral sense towards the girl. After much persuasion he accepts the help of a young stranger. On his journey the animals are slowing him down because it is hard for him to control them and this makes him very frustrated. He knows that he is desperately needed by the patient who is ten miles away, but in the meanwhile he leaves Rose behind with the groom, who has strong sexual desires. When he arrives to the patient, the boy seems healthy however according to his parents he gave up on life. At the second examination he notices a wound on the boy. Thought the doctor tries to fulfil his duties as a healer of the body and he also realizes that his treatments are shallow. Due to the rapidly changing world in this century the people turned to a healer for solutions instead of the religion. During his time in the boy’s house he likewise thinks of Rose and ways to rescue her from the grasp of the groom. Towards the end of the story it is clear that the doctor failed to complete both of his ‘missions’. He could not save the boy from the sickness, nor Rose from being sexually assaulted by the groom.
“The Country Doctor” (1917) is centralized about responsibility and the story is about self-absorption and Kafka expresses his fears about modernization. The doctor is torn between his professional and private duties and as the physician confronts his own struggles and attempts to deal with the outside world. He failed to take control of the events because he did not manage to take hold of himself. “The Country Doctor” (1917) accomplished to induce the absurdity of going to war, because the doctor could represents the soldier, who must fight for his country and he was determined. Only when there is no turning back, he realized what sacrifice he has to make in order for him to succeed.
Franz Kafka was one of the founders of modern literature. He manages to make his own way in the dominant language, German, by constructing minor idioms in it. He plays with the tone, refuses metaphors and genealogical connections, and focuses on the small things around him, produces a flood of letters rather than an overall vision. He wrote from his own personal experience and many of his stories explored the dangers of modern bureaucracy and the institutions created to maintain it. He also inspired many authors and artists all around the world. In reading Kafka, the reader is reminded that we do matter, and our actions have an impact on others. His message seems no less relevant today as it did a century ago.
Reference List:
1.The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Franz Kafka”, Britannica.com[online] updated 01 November 2019 [cited 23 April 2019]. Available from:
2.Beaney, Tara. Metamorphosis in Modern German Literature: Transforming Bodies, Identities and Affects, New Edition, (Cambridge: Legenda, 2016) vol.9
3.Chotiudompant,S. The Fantastic: Towards a Dynamic Notion of Genre. Manuysha Journal of Humanities, Volume 4.2 (2001): pp.9-23. [Accessed on 22 April 2020]
4.Siraj, Subooni. An Analysis of Franz Kafka’s Method of Story Telling with Reference to His Stories. (Masters thesis. Aligarh Muslim University,1993)
5.Cliff Notes, “Summary and Analysis A Country Doctor” (Ein Landarzt)”” Cliffnotes.com[online]. N/A [cited 23 April 2020] Available from:
6.Apter,T.E. Fantasy Literature. (London:The Macmillan Press LTD,1982).
7.Reeds, Kenneth. “Magical Realism: A problem in Definition,” Neophilologus,Volume 90.(2006): pp. 175-196. [Accessed 23 April 2020]
A Life Path and Biography Of Franz Kafka. (2024, Feb 29). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/a-life-path-and-biography-of-franz-kafka-essay
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