THE CASTLE

Franz Kafka: The Castle

Franz Kafka: The Castle

Story Summary

The Castle is the last novel written by Czech author Franz Kafka (1883-1924). Kafka began to write the book in 1922 in a village and not, as it is tempting to imagine, in the shadow of Prague's legendary castle. A customarily Kafkaesque yoking of the absurd and the sinister, The Castle depicts an individual's fruitless efforts to achieve his objective within an incomprehensible authoritative structure.

The episodes of the Novel are divided into three periods; the first, descriptive, only towards the end alarming prelude to the atmosphere expressed in the coils of the second episode, which is longer and more elaborate, and pulls the reader in the same anguish felt by K., while the latter (third) ends the scene in muted tones, replacing in the context notation entirely realistic that sinks into darkness (Howe 1992, pp.52).

The story of The Castle is roughly as follows: Joseph K. arrives at a village and claims to be land surveyor, officially appointed for the Castle, a strange sphere that rules the village: "The Castle hill was hidden, veiled in mist and darkness, nor was there even a glimmer of light to show that the castle was there." The novel proceeds in a manner that falls somewhere between bewilderment and burlesque. Klamm is the castle superior and K. wants to meet Klamm. His assistants, Jeremiah and Arthur, are not obliging. K. and barmaid Frieda makes love, Frieda is a former mistress of Klamm. Frieda goes away from K. when she finds out that K is only using her (Howe 1992, pp.52).

Kafka's Work

As is the case with all of Kafka's major works, The Castle was never finished, but in this instance it would seem that death itself forced the truncation. An ailing Kafka wrote to Max Brod (1884-1968), editor of his major works published after Kafka's death: "I have not spent this week very cheerfully because I have had to give up the Castle story, evidently for good." The novel ends in mid-sentence (Brod 1960, pp.2).

The first two chapters of The Castle were originally written in the first person; Kafka's decision to change the "I" to a "K" (for "Kafka") invites speculation. In a letter to Oscar Pollak, Kafka opines, "Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one's own self." As with much of the author's other fiction, several elements of The Castle correspond to events and conditions of Kafka's own life. Living as a Jew during the waning years of the Hapsburgs, Kafka grew conscious and critical of the systematic exclusion effected by hierarchical governing regimes; his employment at the Workers Accident Insurance Institute in Prague immersed him in a wearisome and inefficient bureaucratic world. These experiences may be read into the novel's omnipotent yet ever-remote castle and the prohibitive protocols of its faceless tenants. Kafka's residence in the countryside at the time of writing The Castle probably informed the rural environment in which the novel is ...