Kafka's "The Castle", an intriguing masterpiece, is a perfect combination of classics and literature

The Castle is a classic by the Austrian novelist Kafka. The reason why classic works become classics is because of the classicity of the works themselves, just as literature becomes literature by virtue of literature, Kafka and his works have such a duality of classics and literature, and his masterpiece "The Castle" is such a masterpiece with classics and literature.

The story in "The Castle" is narrated from a third-person perspective, the protagonist K was ordered by the earl to go to a castle to serve as a land surveyor, but because of the snow, he got lost and came to a village under the jurisdiction of the castle, the village was covered with thick snow, and the castle hill under the fog and night was blurred, let alone the big castle. This is what K saw standing on the wooden bridge leading from the main road to the village, and it is also the beginning of the novel.

He had a hard time finding a hotel to stay in, but he was questioned by the hotel owner because he could not produce the materials to prove his identity, and in order to obtain a permit to stay, K began his fantasy journey, and to his surprise, although the castle was close at hand, he could not get there. Later, two of K's assistants arrived, but they didn't bring any land measuring tools.

The messenger, Banabas, brought a letter from the castle's chief official, Cram, but Cram never showed up. In the hotel's bar, K meets Cram's lover, Frida, and in order to achieve his goals, K manages to seduce Frida. K went to the village chief, and learned from the village chief that hiring him as a land surveyor was a mistake made by the castle many years ago. So, the village chief arranged for him to work as a handyman at a school, but in fact, there was no vacancy for handyman in the school.

At school, K meets a young child named Hans, whose mother is from the castle. This piqued K's interest, and he wanted to meet the child's mother, but frida became jealous. Orga, Banabas's sister, reveals to K her brother's grievances as a postman for Cram, and tells K about the misfortunes of their family, and Olga warns K not to expect the officials in the castle to speak for him.

Frida, unable to stand K's intimate relationship with Olga, betrays K and lives with one of K's assistants. At this point, Banabas suddenly came to K and told him that Cram's secretary wanted to see him. K meets the secretary after some twists and turns, but is ordered to send Frida back. At this time, K had broken up with Frida, and in desperation, he returned to the hotel bar, and although he tried all kinds of methods, he finally failed to enter the castle.

Although K's request to live in the village lacks a legal basis, he is allowed to live and work in the village, taking into account certain other circumstances. The nominal landsquake will be partially satisfied, and he will work tirelessly until the last moment.

As the French literary scholar Camus said: "Kafka's whole art consists in the fact that the reader has to read again and again." Its ending, or even its absence, allows for all sorts of explanations—it would be a mistake to try to explain his work in detail and without any mistake. ”

"The Castle" has no ending at the end. The protagonist K is a symbolic character, no one knows his name, origin, or the real motivation for his coming to the castle; and correspondingly, the castle that K has always wanted to enter is blurry and illusory from the time of appearance, although it can be seen, but it cannot get close to the castle, let alone find a way to enter.

The castle is a profound revelation and contemplation of the dilemma of existence, the castle asks you to give up something, but at the same time gives you complete freedom, it makes you never touch the essence of life, but gives you a piece of time and space that you have to act forever. You can't stop doubting, you can't stop being confused, you can't stop suffering, but it's all derived from the instincts of your life, and the castle doesn't directly persecute you.

Everything about K is full of uncertainty and mystery. It's like K can never enter the castle and can only walk around the village attached to the castle.

In the end, the protagonist K can't forget his job as a land surveyor and the letter of appointment of the land surveyor he was looking forward to. K, the titular landsquander, is set as the protagonist of The Castle, not as a whim and random thing from Kafka, but as a result of Kafka's careful design and deliberation.

"The Castle" is a relatively difficult novel to understand, because the things described in the book are bizarre and bizarre, and the dialogue between the characters is also full of grotesque and weird.

Some critics describe "The Castle" as "a beautiful fairy tale", "an allegorical novel", "a religious fable", these comments are all derived from a certain perspective of the novel, whether it is really close to Kafka's literary intentions and original intentions, that is, the benevolent and the wise. But one thing is certain, there are no words in the story that reveal the meaning of the fable, no philosophical hints, just a series of incomprehensible absurd events.

Absurdity is an important feature of Kafka's novels. There are many bizarre and absurd things in The Castle: K went out in the morning, but night fell only an hour or two later; the castle did not invite a land surveyor, but recognized K's status as a land surveyor; K and his assistant did not have even a measuring tool, but the castle official Cram admired their surveying work; the messenger Banabas would wait endlessly for the task; the castle secretary, Bilger, spent most of the day in bed. Absurd plots such as these abound in the text, and behind these absurd plots, there are countless possibilities for existence.

Kafka's absurdity is a kind of real absurdity, a reality that embraces details in the framework of absurdity. With this absurd brushstroke, "The Castle" exposes the real state of society at that time, expresses Kafka's hidden dissatisfaction in his heart, and lays out the depressive feeling of the entire environment and the helplessness and helplessness of personal struggle.

The will of the castle is actually the will of man himself, the will that can never achieve reconciliation, everything is in struggle, in the search, in the inability to get rid of, there is no pillar that can make you live comfortably.

The castle embodies the will of the human being with soul consciousness, and Kafka rejects all reconciliation in a determined manner, and perhaps with himself. He restores the world, and the world becomes restless.

Kafka's novels are works that need to be read with the heart, and "The Castle" is no exception. As the plot of the novel develops, the reader's heart is often suddenly attracted by the absurdity of the story and imagines a dream that develops in parallel with the story. Some scenes, though full of objectivity, are almost incomprehensible, as if they belong to a completely unknown world of experience.

Nevertheless, we never doubt their realism. It is this extraordinary reality, this almost repressive reality of every object, which gives the story itself a peculiar and sometimes frightening atmosphere.

Sometimes it is the helplessness and helplessness of personal struggle, as if fate always deliberately tricks people, when you have hope, you will encounter setbacks, when you are desperate, there will be opportunities to harass you, so people always can't catch the little tail of their fate. The metaphor in Kafka's novel is precisely that fate is fickle and people's hopes are always unattainable.

Throughout "The Castle", love is also one of the themes worth playing. Throughout the story, K and Frida's love is shrouded in Cram's ambiguous will, as if it were tightly covered by a dark cloud that could not be relieved. Eventually, the protagonist K leaves in despair. The despair brought about by the nothingness of love is indeed one of the emotions conveyed by "The Castle", but love itself is not the theme of this novel.

If the theme of this novel were merely love, there would be no uniqueness and irreplaceability of Kafka's work. People are always eager to find the whole theme from a precise image, originally looking for the exit of the labyrinth, but inadvertently creating a larger labyrinth for themselves. Perhaps, the charm of Kafka's novel lies in this, it always makes the reader daunted, but tirelessly pursues and explores, but it is always difficult to find their own goals.