Afterwords and notes to the novel “Castle. Franz Kafka "The Castle": a review of the book Franz Kafka's castle analysis of the work

Composition

"The Castle" - a novel by Franz Kafka (ed. 1926) - one of the most famous and "paradigm-forming" works of European post-expressionism, modernism and neomythologism.

The "Castle" has been the subject of numerous and varied interpretations and deconstructions. Here we offer an understanding of this work from the point of view of analytical philosophy and, above all, the theory of speech acts.

As you know, at the center of the narrative of the novel is the story of the surveyor K., a certain person who is trying to get a job in the so-called Castle, an impregnable citadel full of officials, a mysterious and majestic building of the highest bureaucracy.

At the same time, it is not clear whether K. really is a land surveyor or only pretends to be one. As E.M. Meletinsky about Kafka’s work, “The Castle” is dominated not by disjunctive logic (either a surveyor or not - cf. mathematical logic), but by conjunctive logic (both a surveyor and a non-surveyor - cf. polysemantic logics). The same applies to most of the other characters in the novel. For example, the "assistants" who were sent to the surveyor by the Castle are both assistants and spies at the same time. Almost all officials of the Castle are both omnipotent and helpless, like children.

In order to interpret these features of the picture of the world realized in The Castle in accordance with the laws of the theory of speech acts, let us first turn to the biography of Kafka himself.

In a sense, it is monotonous and meager, it can be described in one word - failure (a term in the theory of speech acts, meaning the failure of a speech act; if, for example, you say to someone: "Immediately close the door," and he closes the door, your speech act can be considered successful; but if, in response to your words, "he" dissolves the door even more or ignores your order altogether, then your speech act is unsuccessful).

Kafka's life was a chain of unsuccessful speech acts. He hated and feared his brutal father, but could not force himself to separate from his family and live alone. He wrote the famous "Letter to the Father", in which he tried to explain their conflict, but did not send it to the addressee. He wanted to get married twice, but both times it did not go beyond the engagement. He dreamed of leaving the service he hated in the insurance agency, but he could not decide on this. Finally, he bequeathed to his friend, the writer Max Brod, all the remaining manuscripts to come to life after his (Kafka's) death, but this last will was not fulfilled either.

However, let's take a closer look at Kafka's life. We will see, perhaps, that this failure in everything is achieved by Kafka as if on purpose and pursues some secret goal. No one prevented him from renting a separate apartment, no one could prevent him, an adult European man, from getting married or leaving the service. Finally, he himself could, if he really considered it necessary, destroy his works. The last request shows a secret and well-founded hope that the executor will not comply with the order - as it happened.

As a result, a painful loser, a low-ranking official, a Jew from Prague, half-mad, driven to the grave by his mental complexes, becomes one of the most iconic writers of the entire 20th century, recognized as a genius of classical modernism. Seeming failure during life turns into hyper-success after death.

It can be seen from Kafka's diary entries that he was not only an extremely intelligent man, but a man of the deepest spiritual intuition. His mental constitution (he was a defensive schizoid, a psychopath - see characterology, autistic thinking - maybe even a sluggish schizophrenic) did not allow him to simultaneously write what was most important to him in the world, and, as they say, live a full life. But in his works, he surprisingly clearly expressed the main collision of his life - the collision between external failure and internal, ripening hyper-success.

In this mode of failure/hyper-success, almost all the characters of the "Castle" operate. Suffice it to recall the story of the official Sortini and the maiden Amalia. Sortini wrote Amalia an insulting note, which she immediately tore up. But after writing the note, he himself, instead of taking further steps to achieve his goal, suddenly left. Sortini's note led to a whole chain of unsuccessful and painful actions. Amalia's family, frightened by her insolence, began to ask for forgiveness from the Castle, but the Castle did not give forgiveness, because no one accused the family of anything (while in the village, after the story with the torn note, the whole family became a collective outcast). Then the family began to seek the Castle to determine the guilt, but the Castle refused to do so. Amalia's father went out on the road every day, hoping to meet some official or messenger to convey forgiveness, but to no avail. Olga, Amalia's sister, deliberately became a prostitute serving the servants of officials in order to get along with the servant Sortini and beg forgiveness through him, but also to no avail. The only thing that Olga manages to do is to get her brother Barnabas to work as a courier in the office of the Castle, which was perceived by the family as a great success, but if letters were occasionally given to him, then some old ones, obviously from the archive, and the young man himself, instead of to quickly send letters to the addressees, he hesitated and practically did nothing.

According to E. M. Meletinsky, the characters of The Castle live in an atmosphere where the connection between people and various institutions is reduced to nothing due to unknown in their origin, but colossal information losses. Hence the total failure of any speech action in the novel.

Klamm, one of the most influential officials of the Castle, whose favor the land surveyor K. seeks to achieve, acts surprisingly passive and even cowardly when K. actually beats off his mistress Frieda from Klamm. However, land surveyor K., at first glance, being completely opposite in his psychological attitudes to both officials and villagers - energetic and inventive, especially at the beginning, is also gradually drawn into an atmosphere of illogical unsuccessful speech actions.

So, by mistake, he ends up in the hotel room of one of the castle officials, Byurgel, who turns out to be surprisingly hospitable and talkative. He sits the surveyor on his bed and tells him about his case, but at the moment when the surveyor is about to find out what state his case is in, and possibly get valuable advice from the official, he falls asleep.

In general, K. is not inclined to trust the results that he achieves too easily. He does not believe in the sincerity of the intentions of the Castle administration towards him and believes that these illusory successful actions are worth nothing. He strives to achieve success in a stubborn struggle. K. behaves obstinately, as if he introduces "his charter in someone else's castle." Violating the village-wide taboo on the Amalia family, he not only comes to them, but also talks for a long time with both sisters. When instead of the position of land surveyor he was appointed to the humiliating petty position of a school watchman, he behaves surprisingly staunchly, enduring the whims and open hatred of the teacher and the teacher.

The novel was left unfinished, it breaks off in the middle of a sentence. According to Max Brod, Kafka told him that the Castle received a land surveyor on the verge of death. If, in the spirit of the Judaic interpretation of the novel, the Castle is identified with the kingdom of heaven, then this is the hyper-success that the land surveyor K.

E. M. Meletinsky writes: "The most important function of myth and ritual is to introduce the individual to society, to include him in the life of the tribe and nature. This is the function of the rite of initiation." But initiation is associated with a number of difficult and painful trials that the hero must go through in order to achieve recognition as a full member of the community. If in 3. indirectly in the ordeals of the surveyor K. an initiation rite is described, the most important features of which are preserved by a fairy tale, where everything is also confused and difficult - the hut stands backwards, you need to know many spells, have magical helpers - then whether the novel is over, this is the end would be positive for surveyor K. In essence, any life has a good end - death. But not every life has a good middle. Kafka apparently understood this very well. His view of life is a mixture of Christianity and Judaism. No wonder - he was at the same time a Jew by blood, a Praguer by "registration", an Austrian by citizenship, and he wrote in German. That is, Kafka lived in conditions of cultural multilingualism, and these conditions are considered fruitful for the development of fundamental culture.

Kafka sought to fulfill the Judeo-Christian commandments, but at the same time he understood that a life built on fear, and not on shame (something like Yu.M. Lotman opposes Judaism to Christianity) is not a true life.

Kafka looked at life at the same time with an external - ordinary and internal - spiritual gaze. Therefore, in his works, life is shown both as completely devoid of meaning (since it is seen by ordinary vision) and at the same time as absolutely logical and clear, since it is also seen by the inner - spiritual gaze). This double look and double count - failure in everyday life and hyper-success in eternity - seems to be one of the most important paradoxical manifestations of the phenomenon of Kafka and his work.

Work on the novel began in January 1922. On January 22, Kafka arrived at the resort of Spindleruv Mlyn. Initially, the author planned to write in the first person, but later changed his mind. Kafka initiated his friend Max Brod into his plans for the novel. In September 1922, in a letter to Brod, the writer said that he did not intend to continue working on The Castle.

The author calls the protagonist of the novel by the initial - K. The protagonist arrived in a settlement, the name of which is not indicated. The author calls it simply the Village. The Administration of the Village is located in the Castle. K informs the castle keeper's son that he has been hired as a land surveyor and that he is awaiting the arrival of his assistants. It is impossible to enter the Castle without special permission.

Jeremiah and Arthur soon arrive, calling themselves assistants to the surveyor. K. is not familiar with these people. The messenger Barnabas and his sister Olga help the protagonist settle into a hotel, where K. falls in love with the barmaid Frida. The barmaid was the mistress of Klamm, a high-ranking official. Having found a new lover, Frida leaves the place of the barmaid. Now she is the bride of the protagonist.

K. goes to the village chief, who explains that the village does not need a surveyor. When an order was sent from the office of the Castle to prepare for the arrival of a worker, the headman informed the Castle that a surveyor was not needed. Perhaps the letter did not reach the address, and the office did not recognize the elder's answer. The main character cannot work in his specialty. However, so that his arrival would not be in vain, the headman offers K. to work as a school watchman. The main character had to accept this offer.

The protagonist wants to talk to his fiancee's former lover and is waiting for him near the hotel. But the official managed to escape without being noticed. K. comes to Klamm's secretary. The secretary invites K. to undergo interrogation. The main character refuses. Soon K. learns that they want to fire him from his job, but he does not agree with this. K. was able to keep his job.

Olga tells the land surveyor about her family. She has a sister, Amalia, who rejected the advances of one of the local "celestials". Because of this, the father of the sisters lost his position. Frida feels jealous seeing her fiancé in Olga's company. Fiancée K. decided to return to her previous workplace. The secretary, with whom K. spoke, summons the land surveyor and advises him to facilitate the return of his fiancée to her former position. The secretary claims that his boss is too accustomed to Frida and does not want to part with her.

The place in the buffet is temporarily occupied by Pepi. She invites the main character to move into the maids' room, where Pepi herself and her two friends live. Meanwhile, the groom Gerstecker offered the surveyor to work in the stable. K. comes to Gerstaker's house. At this point, the manuscript breaks off.

Character characteristics

All the characters in the novel can be divided into two camps. The first camp includes the inhabitants of the Village, the second - the inhabitants of the Castle.

The villagers are a faceless gray mass. It is possible, however, to name characters who stand out from among their own kind, for example, the barmaid Frida. The author speaks of the barmaid as a woman of indeterminate age with very mediocre external data. Frida is ugly, but this did not stop her from getting a good job in life. She was Klamm's mistress, then became the bride of a surveyor. Realizing, however, that it is unprofitable for her, Frida returns to her former lover. The barmaid has many connections that make her a useful person.

Most of the Villagers are not as successful as Frida. They drag out their miserable existence among gray everyday life and eternal winter. The only thing that saves them from worsening the situation is the ability to go with the flow. The protagonist K. does not have this ability. As a result, K. constantly has to get into conflict situations. Perhaps the author himself is hiding under the initial of the protagonist (K. - Kafka). The author feels out of place, in a world hostile to him, the walls of which can collapse on his head at any moment.

Castle Inhabitants

If we accept the hypothesis that by the inhabitants of the Castle the author means God, angels, archangels, etc., having studied Kafka's attitude towards officials, we can conclude how the author relates to God.

The negative traits with which Kafka endowed the "celestials" will not go unnoticed. For refusing to obey the will of one of the officials, the family of a girl named Amalia is severely punished. The inhabitants of the Castle need to be catered to, if only to ensure that life does not become even worse.

The incredible story that happened to the salesman Gregor Samza in Kafka's The Metamorphosis has much in common with the life of the author himself - a closed, insecure ascetic, prone to eternal self-condemnation.

An absolutely unique book by Franz Kafka "The Process", which actually "created" his name for the culture of the world's postmodern theater and cinema in the second half of the 20th century.

The author is disappointed not only in life in the Village, he is gradually disappointed in life "above". K. discovers that, despite the fact that getting to the Castle is a dream aisle for each of the inhabitants of the Village, those who still managed to get to a better life do not feel happy. Even Frida, who managed to adapt and take an advantageous place, admits that she is unhappy. Frida was able to become a mistress, but not the legal wife of Klamm. And this means that at any moment she can be replaced by a younger and more beautiful rival. The former barmaid invites her fiancé to leave.

According to most researchers of Kafka's work, in one of his most mysterious novels, the author touches on the problem of a person's path to God. "The Castle" is a work more metaphorical and allegorical than fantastic. The location of the novel has not been determined. It is difficult to determine it even by the names and surnames of the characters.

Presumably, the Village is a symbol of the earthly world. The Castle refers to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Village has an eternal winter, which, according to Pepi, is occasionally replaced by a short spring. Winter implies the coldness of earthly life, its hopelessness and cruelty. The arrival of the protagonist in the Village is the birth of a person in this world. Throughout their stay in the Village, that is, on earth, people are constantly looking for a way to the Castle (to God). When the Castle is eventually found, the person leaves the Village (earthly life).

Finding himself in an unfamiliar settlement, the land surveyor understands that all the laws of life familiar to him do not work on the territory of the Village. Here people live according to different rules, different logic. K. is constantly trying to solve his problems with the help of the knowledge that he used to use. But K.'s knowledge does not help him: The village (life) is too unpredictable.

For the inhabitants of a strange settlement, the opportunity to get into the Castle at least as servants is considered the highest blessing. However, not everyone gets this happiness. A candidate for the position of servant must be handsome. Perhaps physical beauty in the novel refers to spiritual beauty. He who has an ugly soul will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Dark side of life

There are no such abrupt transitions from order to chaos in The Castle. However, the disregard expressed by the author of such a fickle, such a gray and "winter" earthly life is impossible not to notice.

The novel traces an idea that is characteristic of many writers of the early twentieth century, the idea of ​​some meaninglessness of being, its absurdity. Such an idea can be found, for example, in the works of the famous French playwright Eugene Ionesco, the creator of the theater of the absurd. The beginning of Ionesco's plays does not make a special impression: the actors exchange the usual remarks against the backdrop of quite ordinary scenery. However, gradually the speech of the actors loses its meaning, becomes incoherent. The scenery is starting to change. Gradually the world collapses, everything turns into primary chaos.

You are not from the Castle, you are not from the Village. You are nothing.
Franz Kafka, The Castle

Franz Kafka's unfinished novel The Castle, recognized as one of the main books of the 20th century, remains a mystery to this day. Since its publication in 1926, a variety of interpretations have succeeded each other: from considering the conflict of the novel in a social key (the struggle of the individual against the bureaucratic apparatus that has set the teeth on edge) to psychoanalytic interpretations of the plot, which, according to a number of researchers, reflects Kafka's complex relationship with his father, brides and the surrounding world.

On a separate shelf is the novel by the existentialists, who saw in Kafka the forerunner, who for the first time spoke about the tragedy of being and the existential loneliness of man. To say that one of the interpretations is correct is to reduce the vast novel to a particularity. Thus, the French writer and philosopher Roger Garaudy wrote about Kafka's novels:

At the most, it can hint at a lack, an absence of something, and Kafka's parables, like some of Mallarmé's or Reverdy's poems, are parables of the absence of something.<…>. There is no possession, there is only being, being that requires the last breath, suffocation. His response to the assertion that it may have owned, but did not exist, was only a tremor and a beating of the heart.<…>. Incompleteness is his law.

All this is, in general, understandable. But there is another view of the novel, which considers the complex relationship of the hero K. with the Castle as a projection of the relationship of man with God. It is this interpretation that he considers in his amazing book Lessons in Reading. The Scribe's Kama Sutra » Literary critic, essayist and deep critic Alexander Genis. Why do we suggest reading it? Genis is convinced that the question of God is somehow present in every literary work, even if God himself is not in it. It is through this prism that he looks at Kafka's "Castle", helping us to look at the brilliant novel (and all literature) from a completely different angle. And it's interesting, I must tell you. So go ahead.

But if you can't write about God, you can read it. We can read it into every text and subtract it from any<…>. Such a tactic cannot be hindered even by the absence of God.

So, Franz Kafka, "The Castle" and the problem of God.

Talking about god

While reviewing Mr. Fitzpatrick's Thoughts on God, Chesterton remarked that it would be much more interesting to read God's Thoughts on Fitzpatrick.

It is difficult to argue with this, because there is nothing to write about God. After all, about Him, that one, with a capital letter, in essence, nothing is known: He is on the other side of being. Because God is eternal, He has no biography. Because He is everywhere, He has no home. Since He is one, He has no family (we will keep silent about the Son for now). Since God is obviously larger than our ideas about Him (not to mention experience), everything we know about the divine is human.

But if you can't write about God, you can read it. We can read it into every text and subtract it from any - as Salinger's heroes did:

They sometimes look for the creator in the most inconceivable and inappropriate places. For example, in radio advertising, in newspapers, in a damaged taxi meter. In a word, literally anywhere, but as if always with complete success.

Such a tactic cannot be hindered even by the absence of God. If there is no Him for the author, then we want to know why we will not rest until the book explains to us the gaping in the most interesting place. After all, literature, and indeed a person, has no more exciting occupation than to get out of himself and get to know the unknowable. Even without knowing anything about the otherworldly, we definitely use it. Like an ax under a ship's compass, it changes the route and abolishes maps. It is not surprising that, striving for inaccessible, and perhaps non-existent knowledge, we hope to find in books what we have not coped with in life.

In vain, of course. Everything that is possible has already been told to us, but those who know for sure always inspire doubts. It would seem that the easiest way to read about God is where it is supposed to be, but I have never been able to do it. At the university, I did the worst in scientific atheism, but only because the program did not have the Law of God. God, like sex, avoids a direct word, but each page, including the erotic one (“Song of Songs”), wins if it always talks about Him in equivocal terms.

How Kafka did it. He created the canon of the agnostic, on which I have been building my doubts since the fifth grade. I remember the day my father returned with the loot, a plump black tome of stories and The Trial. In 1965, getting Kafka was more difficult than getting a ticket abroad. Although we didn't yet know they were the same thing, the aura of mystery and the halo of prohibition was awesome, and I gasped as my father swaggered his signature on page 17, which he explained was meant for a library stamp. Since then, he may not have revealed Kafka, but he certainly did not part with him. This fetish of the old - book - time was inherited to me, and now the volume stands next to the others.

Buying Kafka now is not a trick, the trick is always to figure it out. However, judging by how many books have been written about him, it is not so difficult. Like any parable, Kafka's text is fruitful for interpretation. One thing is said, another is meant. Difficulties begin with the fact that we do not quite understand not only the second, but also the first. As soon as we are convinced of the correctness of our interpretation, the author twists out of it.

Under Soviet rule, it was easier for the reader: “We were born,” as Bakhchanyan said, “to make Kafka come true.” I knew this aphorism long before I became friends with its author. Then everyone thought that Kafka wrote about us. It was the well-known world of a soulless office that demanded to follow the rules known only to it.

On the eve of the death of the USSR, I arrived in Moscow. Two Americans stood in line at the customs officer - a novice and an experienced one. The first one came too close to the window and was yelled at.

“Why,” he asked, “not draw a line on the floor so that you know where you can stand and where you can’t?”

“As long as this feature is in the head of officials,” said the second, “it is in their power to decide who is guilty and who is not.

Kafka put it this way: It is extremely painful when you are governed by laws that you do not know.

What we (and certainly I) did not understand was that Kafka did not consider the situation correctable, or even wrong. He did not rebel against the world, he wanted to understand what he was trying to tell him - life, death, illness, war and love: In the struggle of man with the world, you must be on the side of the world.. At first, in this duel, Kafka assigned himself the role of a second, but then he took the side of the enemy.

Only by accepting his choice are we ready to begin reading a book that tells as much about God as we can bear.

Castle, - Oden said, our Divine Comedy.

K. goes to the Village to be hired by the Duke of Westwest, who lives in the Castle. But, although he was hired, he never managed to start it. Everything else is the intrigues of K., who is trying to get closer to the Castle and ingratiate himself with him. In the process, he gets acquainted with the inhabitants of the Village and the employees of the Castle, to get into which neither the first nor the second helped him.

In the retelling, more noticeable than in the novel, is the absurdity of the enterprise. Describing the vicissitudes extremely accurately and in detail, Kafka omits the main thing - motives. We do not know why K. needs the Castle, nor why does the Castle need K. Their relationship is an initial given that cannot be disputed, so we are left to find out the details: who is K. and what is the Castle?

K. is a surveyor. Like Adam, he does not own the earth; like Faust, he measures it. A scientist and official, K. is above the villagers, their labors, worries and superstitions. K. is educated, intelligent, understanding, selfish, self-centered and pragmatic. He is overwhelmed by a career, people for him are pawns in the game, and K. goes to the goal - albeit unclear - without disdaining deceit, temptation, betrayal. K. is vain, arrogant and suspicious, he is like us, but he never likes himself an intellectual.

Worse, we see the Castle through his eyes and know as much as he knows. And this is clearly not enough. You are appallingly ignorant of our affairs here,- they tell him in the Village, because K. describes the Castle in the only system of concepts available to him. Having adopted Christianity, European pagans could not recognize God as anyone other than a king. Therefore, they even painted Christ in royal robes on the cross. K. is the hero of our time, therefore he depicts the highest power as a bureaucratic apparatus.

No wonder the Castle is disgusting. But if he is hostile to man, why does no one but K. complain? And why does he want it so much? Unlike K., the Village does not ask the Castle questions. She knows what is not given to him, and this knowledge cannot be transferred. You can only come to him yourself. But if there are many roads from the Castle to the Village, then there is not a single one to the Castle: The more closely K. peered into it, the less he saw, and the deeper everything sank into darkness.

The castle is, of course, Heaven. More precisely, like in Dante, the whole zone of the supernatural, otherworldly, metaphysical. Since we can understand the unearthly only by analogy with the human, Kafka supplies the highest power with a hierarchy. Kafka wrote it out with that scrupulous thoroughness that so amused his friends when the author read chapters of the novel to them. Their laughter did not offend Kafka at all.

“His eyes were smiling,” recalled Felix Welch, a close friend of the writer, “humor permeated his speech. He was felt in all his remarks, in all judgments.

We are not accustomed to considering Kafka's books funny, but other readers, such as Thomas Mann, have read them that way. In a certain sense, the "Castle" is truly divine comedy full of satire and self-irony. Kafka laughs at himself, at us, at K., who is able to describe the higher reality only through the lower and familiar.

The service ladder in the "Castle" begins with obedient lay people, among whom the righteous-rescuers from the fire department stand out. Then come the officials' servants, whom we call priests. Dividing life between the Castle and the Village, they behave differently upstairs than downstairs, because the laws of the Castle in the Village no longer apply. Above the servants is an endless succession of angel officials, among whom there are many fallen ones - too often they limp, as befits demons.

The pyramid is crowned by God, but Kafka mentions Him only on the first page of the novel. I don't see the Earl of Westwest again. And, as the most radical - Nietzschean - interpretation of the novel says, it is clear why: God is dead. Therefore, the Castle, as K. first saw it, did not make itself felt by the slightest glimmer of light. That's why flocks of crows circled over the tower. Therefore the Castle none of the visitors like, and the locals live poorly, sadly, in the snow.

The death of God, however, did not stop the activity of his apparatus. The castle is like the city of St. Petersburg in the middle of the Leningrad region: the former government has died, but this news has not yet reached the provinces from the capital. And yes, it's hard to accept. God cannot die. He can turn away, withdraw, be silent, limiting himself, as Enlightenment persuaded Him, to creation, and leave its consequences to the mercy of our difficult fate. We do not know why this happened, but Kafka knows and explains the trouble.

The causes of the disaster are revealed by an inserted, from K.'s point of view, but central to the history of the Village episode with Amalia. She rejected the Castle's claim to her honor and insulted the messenger who brought her the good news. Refusing to be connected with the Castle, Amalia rejected the share of the Virgin Mary, did not accept her martyr's fate, did not submit to the highest plan of the Castle about the Village, and thus stopped the divine history, depriving her of a key event. Amalia's terrible punishment was the silence of the Castle and the revenge of the villagers who were left without grace.

K., preoccupied with his trade with the Castle, cannot appreciate the tragedy of the world, which missed the chance of salvation. But Kafka, acutely sensing the depth of our fall, considered it a retribution for an unsacrifice.

Probably we - he said - suicidal thoughts that are born in the head of God.

Is it possible to learn more about God from Kafka than we knew before we read it?

Certainly! But not because Kafka multiplies theological hypotheses, changes established interpretations, renews the theological language and gives actual names and nicknames to the eternal. The main thing in Kafka is the provocation of truth. He questions her, hoping to wrest as much truth from the world as it can reveal to him.

You stroke the world - he said to the young writer, instead of grabbing it.

The action takes place in Austria-Hungary, before the November Revolution of 1918.

K., a young man in his thirties, arrives in the Village on a late winter evening. He settles for the night at an inn, in a common room among the peasants, noticing that the owner is extremely embarrassed by the arrival of an unfamiliar guest. The son of the castle caretaker, Schwarzer, wakes up K. who has fallen asleep, and politely explains that without the permission of the count - the owner of the Castle and the Village, no one is allowed to live or spend the night here. K. is at first perplexed and does not take this statement seriously, but, seeing that they are going to kick him out in the middle of the night, he explains with irritation that he came here on the call of the count, to work as a land surveyor. Soon his assistants with instruments should drive up. Schwarzer calls the Central Chancellery of the Castle and receives confirmation of the words of K. The young man notes for himself that they work in the Castle, apparently, in good conscience, even at night. He understands that the Castle "approved" for him the title of land surveyor, knows everything about him and expects to keep him in constant fear. K. tells himself that he is clearly underestimated, he will enjoy freedom and fight.

In the morning, K. goes to the Castle, located on the mountain. The road turns out to be long, the main street does not lead, but only approaches the Castle, and then turns off somewhere.

K. returns to the inn, where two "assistants" are waiting for him, young guys he does not know. They call themselves his "old" assistants, although they admit that they do not know land surveying work. It is clear to K. that they are attached to him by the Lock for observation. K. wants to ride with them on a sleigh to the Castle, but the assistants say that without permission from outsiders there is no access to the Castle. Then K. tells the assistants to call the Castle and seek permission. Assistants call and instantly get a negative answer. K. picks up the phone himself and hears strange sounds and buzzing for a long time before a voice answers him. K. mystifies him, speaking not in his own name, but in the name of assistants. As a result, a voice from the Castle calls K. his "old assistant" and gives a categorical answer - K. is forever denied access to the Castle.

At this moment, the messenger Barnabas, a young lad with a bright open face, different from the faces of local peasants with their "as if on purpose distorted physiognomies," sends K. a letter from the Castle. In a letter signed by the head of the office, it is reported that K. has been accepted into the service of the owner of the Castle, and his immediate superior is the headman of the Village. K. decides to work in the Village, away from the officials, hoping to become "his own" among the peasants and thereby achieve at least something from the Castle. Between the lines, he reads in the letter a certain threat, a challenge to fight if K. agrees to the role of a simple worker in the Village. K. understands that everyone around him already knows about his arrival, peep and get accustomed to him.

Through Barnabas and his older sister Olga, K. gets into a hotel intended for gentlemen from the Castle who come to the Village on business. It is forbidden for outsiders to spend the night in the hotel, the place for K is only in the buffet. This time, an important official Klamm is staying here for the night, whose name is known to all the inhabitants of the Village, although few can boast that they saw him with their own eyes,

Barmaid Frida, serving beer to gentlemen and peasants, is an important person in the hotel. This is a nondescript girl with sad eyes and a "pathetic little body." K. is struck by her look, full of special superiority, capable of solving many complex issues. Her look convinces K. that such questions concerning him personally exist.

Frida invites K. to look at Klamm, who is in the room adjacent to the buffet, through a secret peephole. K. sees a fat, clumsy gentleman with cheeks sagging under the weight of years. Frida is the mistress of this influential official, and therefore she herself has great influence in the Village. She made her way straight from the cowgirls to the position of barmaid, and K. expresses admiration for her willpower. He invites Frida to leave Klamm and become his mistress. Frida agrees, and K. spends the night under the buffet in her arms. When in the morning the “imperiously indifferent” call of Klamm is heard from behind the wall, Frida twice defiantly answers him that she is busy with the surveyor.

K. spends the next night with Frida in a small room at the inn, almost in the same bed with assistants, whom he cannot get rid of. Now K. wants to marry Frida as soon as possible, but first, through her, he intends to talk with Klamm. Frida, and then the landlady of the inn Garden, convince him that this is impossible, that Klamm will not, cannot even talk to K., because Mr. Klamm is a man from the Castle, and K. is not from the Castle and not from the Village, he is - " nothing, alien and superfluous. The hostess regrets that Frida "left the eagle" and "got in touch with the blind mole."

Gardena admits to K. that more than twenty years ago, Klamm called her to him three times, the fourth time did not follow. She keeps as the most expensive relics a bonnet and a handkerchief given to her by Klamm, and a photograph of the courier through whom she was summoned for the first time. Gardena married with the knowledge of Klamm and for many years at night spoke with her husband only about Klamm. K. has never seen such an interweaving of official and personal life as here.

From the headman K. learns that the order to prepare for the arrival of the surveyor was received by him many years ago. The headman immediately sent an answer to the office of the Castle that no one needs a land surveyor in the Village. Apparently, this answer got to the wrong department, an error occurred, which could not be recognized, because the possibility of errors in the office is completely excluded. However, the control authorities later recognized the error, and one official fell ill. Shortly before K.'s arrival, the story finally came to a happy end, that is, to the abandonment of the surveyor. The unexpected appearance of K. now nullifies all the years of work. The correspondence of the Castle is stored in the house of the headman and in the barns. The headman's wife and K.'s assistants shake out all the folders from the cabinets, but they still fail to find the necessary order, just as they fail to put the folders back in their place.

Under pressure from Frida, K. accepts the mayor's offer to take the place of the school watchman, although he learns from the teacher that the village needs the watchman no more than the surveyor. K. and his future wife have nowhere to live, Frida tries to create a semblance of family comfort in one of the school classes.

K. comes to the hotel to find Klamm there. In the canteen, he meets Frida's successor, the blooming maiden Pepi, and finds out from her where Klamm is. K. lies in wait for the official for a long time in the yard in the cold

e, but Klamm still slips away. His secretary requires K. to go through the “interrogation” procedure, to answer a series of questions in order to draw up a protocol, filed in the office. Upon learning that Klamm himself does not read the protocols due to lack of time, K. runs away.

On the way, he meets Barnabas with a letter from Klamm, in which he approves of the land surveying carried out by K. with his knowledge, K. considers this a misunderstanding, which Barnabas should explain to Klamm. But Barnabas is sure that Klamm will not even listen to him.

K. with Frida and assistants are sleeping in the gymnasium of the school. In the morning, their teacher Giza finds them in bed and makes a scandal, throwing the remnants of dinner from the table with a ruler in front of the happy children. Giza has an admirer from the Castle - Schwarzer, but she loves only cats, and she tolerates an admirer.

K. notices that in the four days of living together with his fiancee, a strange change takes place. Her closeness to Klamm gave her "mad charm", and now she "fades" in his hands. Frieda suffers, seeing that K. only dreams of meeting Klamm. She admits that K. will easily give her to Klamm if he demands it. In addition, she is jealous of him for Olga, Barnabas' sister.

Olga, a smart and selfless girl, tells K. the sad story of their family. Three years ago, at one of the village holidays, official Sortini could not take his eyes off his younger sister, Amalia. In the morning, a courier delivered a letter to Amalia, written in "vile terms", demanding to come to the hotel to Sortini. The indignant girl tore up the letter and threw the pieces in the face of the messenger, the official. She did not go to the official, and not a single official was pushed away in the Village. By committing such misdeeds, Amalia brought a curse on her family, from which all the inhabitants recoiled. Father, the best shoemaker in the Village, was left without orders, lost his earnings. He ran after the officials for a long time, waiting for them at the gates of the Castle, begging for forgiveness, but no one wanted to listen to him. It was unnecessary to punish the family, the atmosphere of alienation around her did its job. Father and mother with grief turned into helpless invalids.

Olga understood that people were afraid of the Castle, they were waiting. If the family hushed up the whole story, went out to the villagers and announced that everything was settled thanks to their connections, the Village would accept it. And all family members suffered and sat at home, as a result they were excluded from all circles of society. They tolerate only Barnabas, as the most "innocent". For the family, the main thing is that he be officially registered in the service in the Castle, but even this cannot be known for sure. Perhaps the decision on it has not yet been made, in the Village there is a saying: "Administrative decisions are timid, like young girls." Barnabas has access to the offices, but they are part of other offices, then there are barriers, and behind them again offices. There are barriers all around, as well as officials. Barnabas does not dare to open his mouth, standing in the offices. He no longer believes that he was truly accepted into the service of the Castle, and does not show zeal in transmitting letters from the Castle, doing it late. Olga is aware of the dependence of the family on the Castle, on the service of Barnabas, and in order to get at least some information, she sleeps with the servants of the officials in the stable.

Exhausted by insecurity in K., tired of an unsettled life, Frida decides to return to the buffet. She takes with her Jeremiah, one of K.'s assistants, whom she has known since childhood, hoping to create a family hearth with him.

Secretary Klamm Erlanger wants to receive K. at night in his hotel room. People are already waiting in the corridor, including the groom Gerstecker, whom K. knows. Everyone is happy about the night call, they are aware that Erlanger sacrifices his night's sleep of his own free will, out of a sense of duty, because there is no time for trips to the Village in his official schedule. This is what many officials do, holding a reception either in a buffet or in a room, if possible at a meal, or even in bed.

In the corridor, K. accidentally runs into Frida and tries to win her over again, not wanting to give her to the "unappetizing" Jeremiah. But Frida reproaches him for treason with the girls from the “dishonored family” and for indifference and runs away to the sick Jeremiah.

After meeting Frieda, K. cannot find Erlanger's room and goes to the nearest one, hoping to get some sleep. There, another official, Burgel, is dozing, who is glad to have a listener. Invited to sit down by him, K. collapses on his bed and falls asleep under the official's reasoning about the "continuity of official procedure." Soon he is demanded by Erlanger. Standing at the door and getting ready to leave, the secretary says that Klamm, who is used to getting beer from Frida's hands, is hindered by the appearance of a new maid, Pepi, in his responsible work. This is a violation of habit, and the slightest interference in work should be eliminated. K. must ensure the immediate return of Frida to the buffet. If he justifies the trust in this "little business", it may be useful to his career.

Realizing the complete futility of all his efforts, K. stands in the corridor and watches the revival, which began at five o'clock in the morning. The noisy voices of officials outside the doors remind him of "waking up in the poultry house." The servants deliver a cart with documents and, according to the list, distribute them to the officials in their rooms. If the door does not open, the documents are stacked on the floor. Some officials "fend off" documents, while others, on the contrary, "pretend", snatch, get nervous.

The owner of the hotel drives K., who has no right to roam here, "like cattle on a grazing." He explains that the purpose of the night calls is to quickly listen to the visitor, whose appearance during the day is unbearable to gentlemen officials. Hearing that K. visited two secretaries from the Castle, the owner allows him to spend the night in the beer hall.

The red-cheeked Pepi, who replaced Frida, laments that her happiness was so short. Klamm did not appear, and yet she would have been ready to carry him to the buffet in her arms.

K. thanks the hostess for the night. She strikes up a conversation with him about her dresses, remembering his casual remark that offended her. K. shows a certain interest in the appearance of the hostess, in her outfits, reveals a taste and knowledge of fashion. Haughtily, but interested, the hostess admits that he can become an indispensable adviser for her. Let him wait for her call when new outfits arrive.

Groom Gerstaker offers K. a job at the stable. K. guesses that Gerstacker hopes to get something from Erlanger with his help. Gerstaker does not deny this and takes K. to his house for the night. Gerstacker's mother, who is reading a book by candlelight, gives K. a trembling hand and sits her down next to her.

Retelling - A. V. Dyakonova

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Villagers

Headman's family

· The village headman is a friendly, "smooth-shaven fat man."

Mizzi - the headman's wife, "a quiet woman, more like a shadow."

Innkeeper family (tavern "At the bridge")

Hans - innkeeper, owner of the inn "At the bridge", a former groom.

Gardena - innkeeper (tavern "At the bridge"), Klamm's former lover.

Barnabas/Barnabas family

· Barnabas / Barnabas - a messenger.

Olga is the elder sister of Barnabas.

Amalia is the younger sister of Barnabas.

· father and mother

Other residents

Artur is K's new assistant.

Jeremiah - new assistant to K.

Frida - the bride of K., a barmaid in the tavern "Master's Compound", Klamm's mistress.

· The teacher is small, narrow-shouldered, holds himself straight, but does not make a funny impression. The little teacher had a very imposing appearance.

Gizza - teacher

· Lazeman - tanner.

· Otto Brunsvik - shoemaker, son-in-law of Lazemann.

Hans - fourth grade student, son of Otto Brunswick

· Gerstaker - a driver, "a short, lame man with a haggard, red, watery face."

· Schwarzer - the son of a junior castellan, who neglected the right to live in the Castle because of unrequited love for the village teacher. The young man had "the face of an actor, narrow eyes and thick eyebrows".

· Innkeeper (tavern "Master's Compound")

Residents of Count Westwest's Castle

· Klamm - head of the X office.

· Erlanger - one of the first secretaries of Klamm.

Mom - secretary of Klamm and Wallabene in the Village

Galater - an official who sent Jeremiah and Arthur to K.; "a very immobile man."

Fritz - junior castellan.

· Sordini - official, Italian, known in the Village as an unusually active person.

· Sortini - an official whose proposal was vehemently rejected by Amalia.

Burgel - the secretary of a certain Friedrich; "small, handsome gentleman."

Castle”, analysis of the novel by Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka's The Castle, written in 1922, is one of the most significant and enigmatic philosophical novels of the 20th century. In it, the writer raises an important theological problem of man's path to God. Combining the literary features of modernism and existentialism, The Castle is a work that is largely metaphorical and even fantastic. The realities of life are present in it insofar as: the artistic space of the novel is limited by the Village and the Castle towering above it, artistic time changes irrationally and without explanation.

The location of the "Castle" cannot be inscribed in specific geographical realities, since it absorbs the whole world: the Castle in it is a prototype of the heavenly world, the Village is the earthly one. Throughout the novel, various characters emphasize that there is not much difference between the Village and the Castle, and this clearly shows one of the main provisions of the Christian dogma about the fusion and inseparability of earthly and heavenly life.

The duration of the "Castle" has no historical points of support. All that is known about him is that it is winter now and it will most likely last for an eternity, since the arrival of spring (according to Pepi, who temporarily replaces the barmaid Frida) is short-lived and often accompanied by snowfall. Winter in the novel is the author's perception of human life, immersed in cold, fatigue and constant snow obstacles.

The composition of the novel does not lend itself to any analysis due to the incompleteness and special plot development of The Castle. There are no sharp ups and downs in this work. The main character - K. - comes to the Village (is born) and stays there forever in order to find the way to the Castle (to God). The novel, like all human life, does not have a classical plot, development and climax. Rather, it is divided into semantic parts, representing different stages in the life of the protagonist.

In the beginning, K. pretends to be a surveyor and is surprised to learn that he is the surveyor. From the Castle, K. receives two assistants - Arthur and Jeremiah. In the novel, these characters are partly reminiscent of angels (guardian and "destroyer"), partly - children. K.'s immediate superior is Klamm, an important official from the Castle. Who is Klamm? What does he look like? What does it represent? What does he do? Nobody knows. Even Klamm's messenger - Barnabas - and he never directly saw this character. It is not surprising that K., like all the inhabitants of the Village, is irresistibly attracted to Klamm. The protagonist understands that it is he who will help him find his way to the Castle. In a sense, Klamm is God for the village population, except for the fact that a certain Count Westwest is declared the head of the Castle, who is mentioned only once - at the very beginning of the novel.

As in any major work, The Castle has its own inserted story - the story of Olga, Barnabas's sister, about the misfortune that happened to her family. The story of the girl can be called the informational climax of the novel, explaining to the reader the true relationship between the villagers and the castle officials. The first, as it should be for ordinary people, idolize the second, who are heavenly creatures (which ones: good or evil - everyone can decide for himself). It is customary in the Village to please the officials from the Castle, to fulfill all their whims. When Amalia (the younger sister of Barnabas and Olga) refuses to come to the hotel on a date with Sortini, the news instantly spreads around the district, and the girl's family finds herself in complete isolation - they stop working and communicating with them. The attempts of the father of the family to ask for forgiveness (begging) for his family end in a serious illness. Olga, who spends her nights with servants of officials, cannot even make herself remembered in the Castle. And only Barnabas, burning with sincere zeal to get to serve in the Castle, gets to the very first chancelleries (churches), where he sees petitioners (people), officials (clergy) and sometimes even Klamm (God) himself.

The love storyline in the novel is connected with the relationship between K. and Frida. The protagonist pays attention to her, having learned that she is Klamm's mistress. He is attracted to Frida for two reasons: she is good both as a means to achieve the goal (a personal meeting with Klamm), and as the personification of Klamm and the Castle. What drives Frida herself, who left a good position (life) and an influential lover (God) for the sake of a poor surveyor, is difficult to understand. One can only assume that the girl wanted to challenge society in order to become even more visible and beloved by Klamm upon returning to him (after atonement for sins).