Essay on Kafka and his Portrayal of Characters - 2820 Words

Kafka’s Portrayal of Characters Franz Kafka, born on July 3, 1883 in Bohemia, in the city of Prague, has been recognized as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Virtually unknown during his lifetime, the works of Kafka have since been recognized as symbolizing modern mans distress and distorted alienation in an unintelligible, hostile, or indifferent world. None of Kafka’s novels were printed during his lifetime, and it was only with reluctance that he published a fraction of his shorter fiction. Kafka went even as far as to request that his unprinted manuscripts be destroyed after his death. His friend, Max Brod went against his wishes and published his works, although many were unfinished (Sokel 35). Kafka came from a†¦show more content†¦Samsa Sr. who had part in his son’s sudden change into an enormous bug, and Bendemann Sr. who was omnipotent and omniscient, sentences his son to death. In both works, the father-son relationship is described with bitterness. Kafka wrote his father a confession, lacerating letter over 15,000 words long (Flores and Swander 26) and sent it to his mother to give to his father, of which, his father never received. His relationship with Fraulein B. that lasted from 1913 to 1917, and his engagement to Julie Whoryzek, the daughter of a synagogue janitor, exacerbated problems with his father. His father was horrified by his engagement to a janitor’s daughter, and offended Kafka by saying he would have to sell the family store and emigrate to escape the shame to the family name by Kafka’s engagement. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In his three stories, â€Å"The Judgement,† â€Å"The Metamorphosis,† and â€Å"In the Penal Colony,† the son-figures are all guilty of original sin. The self-effacement of the son is shown: Georg Bendemann and Gregor Samsa have replaced the father as practical head and breadwinner of the family, and the condemned man on the prison-island has rebelled against military (paternal) authority (Anders 174). â€Å"The Judgement† emphasizes the son’s offense, the father’s anger, and the punishment that follows swiftly (180). In â€Å"The Metamorphosis† it is not referred to as anShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Franz Kafka s Life Essay1019 Words   |  5 Pagespsychiatry, and more so in some quarters than others. Simply put, Freud explores the unconscious mind. And although Kafka may not have meant for it to come across this way in his writing, his characters and the events that take place truly do reflect him. Knowing Fr anz Kafka’s life is a key to understand his writings for the events of his life are the clear origin of the neurotic tensions of his works. 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Lester was going to get fired from his company that he had worked for fourteenRead MoreThe Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka2465 Words   |  10 PagesThe novella, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, begins with the main character, Gregor Samsa, awaking from a bad dream to find himself transformed into a monstrous verminous bug (Kafka 255). The transformation is not questioned by Gregor nor his family, leaving them to try to adjust to this transformation without any attempt to reverse it or cure it. The significance of the drastic change that the protagonist has to face has been analyzed in various ways for its symbolic meaning. Using various