Symbols of Life and Death in Franz Kafkas The Castle - Book Report/Review Example

Symbols of Life and Death in Franz Kafka's "The Castle" Franz Kafka represents existentialistic perspective in literature, and his novel "The Castle"is known as quintessence of the philosophy claiming that human existence is pointless, but one might find there sincere absurd and comedy, mixed with personal tragedies, identified as trivial issues. The writer began his novel on January, 22, 1922 and hadn't managed to complete it because of the rapid development of tuberculosis. Even though Kafka instructed Max Brod, his closest friend, to destroy all his writings, the latter published began to publish them - step by step. "The Castle" came into being in 1926, but it needs to be mentioned that by that time Brod had heavily edited the novel in order to approach and adjust it to potential reader's expectations -and therefore replaced the emphasis from existentialistic issues (emptiness of human life and the pain of 'trivialism') to religious symbols of castle and bureaucratic problems, typical problems faced by 'small' person dealing with huge institutional machine. Today it is barely possible to guess the extent of distinction between the original version and Brod's publication. The present essay is designed to stress precisely the symbols of life and death in 'The Castle'. The novel itself is to great extent contradictory, as it contains peculiar dichotomies, balancing between logic and absurd, natural and supernatural as well as between life and death. "The Castle" implies the existence of two parallel worlds, a hypertextual reality, where life and death are closely interwoven. At the very beginning of the novel Kafka introduces these symbols to operate and manipulate, when developing the plot: the protagonist arrived at the village at late winter night, when the road was covered by snow, and only a narrow wooden bridge was visible in this darkness. K. at first was mesmerized by the appearance of the castle at night, as the landscapes caused unusual thoughts - such as those about uncertainty and unreality of this cold night. As one can see, winter and night serve as the symbols of death, because they create specific mood and engender the thought about the emptiness in the protagonist, as K. seems to have pessimistic anticipations concerning the castle - and the settings, created by the author, reinforce these expectations. On the other hand, wooden bridge is introduced as a symbol of life, or more precisely - a path to survival. The protagonist's name, K., can also be viewed as a symbol of death, as it points to impersonality, unimportance of human life, reduced to the single letter. The author cues that no-one stands behind this name, the single letter is lifeless or simply unable to withstand the impact of social and bureaucratic routines. In future, Kafka proves this position, primarily by showing the appointment of his protagonist as a mistake - in fact, the hypertext implies that K. should not have 'come into being' in this particular town and that the character's existence is an error itself. On the other hand, K.'s appearance (this term is most accurate) - from nowhere and into the matrix of uncertainty (as declared in the documents, which can be found in the castle) symbolizes life-establishment and the manifest of the person's existence. When K. tries to communicate the castle by phone, he hears a magical melody in the receiver - this melody, as one can remember, resembles humming, child chorus women's voices and roaring at the same time. This acoustical cacophony can serve as a symbol of life as well as death: on the one hand, the noise serves as a demonstration of life flows and its infinity, whereas the aspect of death in this sound is also evident: as a rule, before the death, an individual hears similar noises, reminding him/her about the end, about the gradual disappearance of life. This melody is to certain degree a product of human subconscious: everyone finds there his/her own thoughts, desires, aspirations, kaleidoscope of life, symbolizing, however, approaching death. Furthermore, the life is also presented in the sense of existence, articulated by the representatives of 'lower' population - Frieda, Barnabas, Olga, Amelia and many others, distinguished from grey 'lower town crowd' - have intensions and dreams, i.e. seem concerned about each existential moment. When K. becomes familiar with village inhabitants, he realizes that life (as a linear process) is extremely vibrant in this location and each person moves towards his/her goal, and K. even feels confused, as he is barely able to distinguish between them. In 'The Castle' the details of so-called 'daily basis' apparently dominate, but by depicting the aspects of castle life Kaffka simply extrapolates the existential universalities into human behavior, logically weaves his plot by showing the life matrix as a complex of human interactions and interrelations between their behaviors. Due to the fact that the protagonist is not directly involved into village life, he observes it as an impartial viewer, who looks down, climbing a skyscraper. The main character is thus an outsider, a stranger, who can't take admission test because he already knows he will fail it. The idea of doom is also articulated by the author - Kafka spends so much time to describe the tragic character that the reader clearly understands K. is fated to the total collapse of his plans and following frustration. In this sense, 'The Castle' resembles the structure of Greek tragedy: for instance, Oedipus' fate is pre-determined before the beginning of the play ( it is commonly known that the character will commit murder and incest), and the novel by analogy pursues the goal of showing the logical chain of adversities and troubles, leading to the character's personal tragedy. Death is thus a redline of the novel, since it 'acts' a peculiar code of tragedy, systematic occurrences, finally bringing negative outcomes. On the other hand, as one can notice, the component of hope is also strong in the novel, and it can be attributed to life embodiment. As the novel narrates, K. keeps requesting and appealing to the castle officials: for instance, when speaking to the landlord, the protagonist showed a sort of naivety, as he didn't know yet the true nature of the castle, so that the official had literally nothing to discuss with such an unconscious person. The greatest K.'s hope is his recognition in the castle, or, more precisely - an access to the 'secreted' institution. The land surveyor cannot imagine any concern other than the penetration into the castle. Since the Castle's will is subjective, it gives K. real freedom and thus spurs him on to let himself "be fooled" over and again. This is an atmosphere that becomes omnipresent; wherever K goes, the atmosphere always ominously says "no." Nevertheless, gaining negative response from the environment, the protagonist continues his search for new sources of hope. Furthermore, the ending of the novel suggests that K.'s journey is never-ending and automatically points to the continuation of life - in this sense it might seem that the protagonist will live until he completes his mission. Another symbol of life is the protagonist's affair with Frieda, a local barmaiden. Their relationship is positioned as pointless, but in fact it cues at the presence of love, infatuation or affection between two persons - even though it is temporary or momentous. Such kind of relationship contains underlying emotions, which can be considered a universal symbol of life. The dissimilarity of life missions and intentions separate K. and Frieda, but their relationship to some extent upgrades the plot level from impersonal to concrete and individual, as the author is forced to fall into details of character and personality when depicting K. and Frieda's episodes. Furthermore, I would like to say that Frieda can also be considered a symbol of life - she literally emanates with vitality and optimism. Frieda is happy in terms of the deep contextuality of her life: the woman is familiar with castle officials and for the certain period manages to maintain the prestigious status of Klamm's lover. The character, opposite to Frieda and thus the symbol conflicting with the embodiment of life, is Olga's personality. The castle desires the death of this woman, as she hasn't been obedient enough and has rejected the castle official's advancements. Olga is fated to experience the whole set of misfortunes - deprivation of family, threats from the castle, poverty and humiliation, and in addition, she is depicted as the deviant tried and sentenced by the highest power, the castle. To sum up, the symbols of life and death in 'the Castle' can be found in the depictions of nature (winter, night, snow), of villager's trivial issues and relationships as well as in certain characters: for instance, one can come to conclusion that Frieda embodies life and optimism, whereas Olga, even being a consistent character, symbolizes death. The village life itself can also function as a symbol, due to its vibrancy and brightness, even though all characters seem obsessed by the same intention - to penetrate into the castle or to find a job there. Works cited Kafka, Franz. The Castle. New York: Schocken Books Inc, 1998 Read More