An Analysis of Kafka’s “Letter to His Father”, Essay Example

Franz Kafka wrote ‘The Judgement’ in “a semi-conscious state of mind”, (Brod). Considering this observation, such “creative outburst”was produced in ‘The Judgement’ through an unconscious effort which Kafka himself acknowledges. The consciousness of the mindis built from life and not vice versa; meaning consciousness comes from the experience of life produced in interaction with society. Considering the above notion, it can be observed that ‘The Judgement’ has parallels to Kafka’s experience with his father as can be seen in relation to the ‘letter to his father’ which was an artistic response to contradict the repression undergone by Kafka. However, the notion of ‘art’ as an ‘argument’ against such repressionwas materialised both in Kafka’s letter to his father as well as in the short story, ‘The Judgement’.

The Oedipal rivalry proposed by Sigmund Freud can be clearly traced in the short story whereas it was more direct in Kafka’s letter which however was not directly intended for the readership of his father alone as the letter did not reach Kafka father and also because of the fact that Kafka approximates the probable response from his father in the letter itself.Moreover, the Freudian notion of art materialising against repression can be clearly traced in Kafka’s work-in one instance,“He carried his father to bed in his arms. He had a terrible feeling as he noticed, in the course of the few steps towards the bed, that his father was playing with the watch-chain on his chest. He wasn’t able to put him into bed straight away; he clung so tightly to the watch-chain”-(Kafka); here Kafka presents the protagonist, Georg carrying his father who acts childlike in this instance which shows how a son’s repression of being a ‘son’ iscontrasted in realizing his desire to be a father figure for his ‘father’.

Kafka as a dark existentialist brings out the ambivalence of marriage through the short story considering that Georg does want to get married but is worried to inform the same to his friend who lived in Russia.The friend who lived in Russia can be considered as artistic personality of Kafka who was actually doing business as his occupation at the time of producing ‘The Judgement’ and in fact Georg’s frienddid not exist; this is indicated by his father’s remark-“You have no friend in St Petersburg. You’ve always been a joker”-(Kafka 24).The fact that there has been heavy emphasis on Georg’s friend who occupies every scene of the story indicates that the friend’s character acts as a bridge between the rest of the characters, Georg, his fiancée, and his father.Moreover, Georg vividly describes his friend, his physical and psychological scenario, which indicates Georg’s intimacy with his unconscious identity which is but his friend.

Kafka’s ambivalence of getting married was shown in the protagonist unwilling to disclose his engagement and of marriage plans to his friend in Russia who represents his artistic personality-here the ambivalence of marriage is in relation to its effect on art-, and also because of him being overwhelmed by his father’s personality. Moreover, Georg does not post the letter that contains the news of the engagement to the addressee and also maintains to his fiancée thathe does not want him to be present for the marriage in order not to divert him-“I mean, he would probably come, at least I believe he would, but he’d feel forced to come, and hurt; perhaps he would envy me, and certainly feel dissatisfied, and, unable ever to get rid of this dissatisfaction, he would return alone. Alone — do you know what that is?”- (Kafka 21), replied Georg to his fiancée when asked why he was not inviting his friend for the marriage.On the other hand, instances in Kafka’s letter that point to his ambivalence of marriage and also of his failure to get married in real life due to his father’s personality are:

“But I showed no foresight at all with regard to the significance and the possibility of a marriage for me…But these attempts at marriage were in reality my greatest and most hopeful attempts to escape you — though then of course their failure too was correspondingly great. I am afraid, because I fail in everything that has to do with it, that I shall never succeed in making my attempts at marriage comprehensible to you”-(Kafka 130). Therefore, the ambivalence of Kafka’s marriage is produced in two ways- one by the overwhelming personality of his father and the other being Kafka’s love for art, i.e. his desire to write. Also, Georg’s friend is bachelor—as the indication goes that he was Georg’s unconscious personality and his taste for art—indicates that as a writer, Kafka’s ambivalence of marriage was realized due to his desire to dedicate to that art which however might not be possible through a marriage. In fact, Kafka’s engagement failed thrice for the above observations attributing to his ambivalence to marry.

The dark and dreamlike settings of the story fertilize the oedipal rivalry between Georg and his fatherand the same runs as a long theme in Kafka’s 40 pages ‘letter to his father’.In the story the father remarks to Georg, “because she lifted her skirts like this and like this and like this, you went for her, and so that you can have it off with her undisturbed you have dishonoured our mother’s memory”-(Kafka 26)—here the father’s dislike and despise at his son getting married is portrayed where the father alleges the son’s infatuation is betrayal and dishonour for his mother where the oedipal rivalry was its peak.From his letter the oedipal rivalry is clearly evident—“First of all, you place the failure of my attempts at marrying as one in a series of my other failures; fundamentally, I would not object to that, provided you accept my previous explanation for those failures…you underestimate the importance of the matter to me, and you underestimate it to such a degree that when we talk about it we are actually talking about quite different things…nothing that has happened to you in your entire life was as important to you as my attempts at marriage were for me”-(Kafka 130).

Further, the father succeeds in the oedipal rivalry both in Kafka’s life (given that his father never got to see his letter) as well as in the story where the son was sentenced to die by drowning which was completely illogical and equally intriguing. However, Kafka was able to reproduce the argument­—that the father was a dominant and overwhelmingly oedipal in repressing the son—quite beautifully and equally poignant both in the story and the letter to his father.Writing is seen as an escape to such ‘repression’ and is uncensored, however, Kafka still insisted-“And if I try to answer you here on paper, it will still be very incomplete, because even in the writing, the fear and its consequences still get in the way when I am confronted with you”-(Kafka 100). On the other hand, Kafka comes in full scale and unleashes his argument in a complete manner and ends it in such a manner to depict the illogical nature of having a father figure who blocked not only creativity but the possibility of the protagonist becoming a ‘father’.

Writing is free from repressive forces where the letter in its written form is at one level of escaping repression and the story as another form of writing brings out the argument at another level.The theme of writing about writing as an art is also evident in ‘The Judgment’. In conclusion, the conflict between the ‘father figure’ and son produced guilt in the latterand that guilt is reconciled through punishmentto the son to die- these interrelated themes of ‘guilt’ and ‘death’ reminds me of what Socrates observed, “Death is better than guilt”.While the ‘letter to his father’ was written in an overwhelming situation where Kafka was placed due to his father influencing his decision to marry invisibly viewing it as patricidal, the story, “The Judgment’ presents the same theme with slightly reversed father-son relationship which could not be maintained and with guilt as a form of reconcilement for overthrowing the ‘father figure’.

Works cited

Brod, Max. (in German) Über Franz Kafka. Hamburg: Fischer Verlag, 1966.

Kafka, Franz. Letter to his father: Collection of Franz Kafka’s works. Trans. Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins. Schocken Books, 1966.

The Judgement: Arkadia. Ed. Max Brod and Kurt Wolff. Leipzig, 1913.