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Franz Kafka and Existentialism

Dr. Ajoy Batta
Associate Professor and Head
Department of English, School of Arts and Languages
Lovely Professional University, Phagwara (Punjab)

Abstract: Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883 at Prague. His posthumous works
brought him fame not only in Germany, but in Europe as well. By 1946 Kafka‟s works
had a great effect abroad, and especially in translation. Apart from Max Brod who was
the first commentator and publisher of the first Franz Kafka biography, we have Edwin
and Willa Muir, principle English translators of Kafka‟s works. Majority studies of Franz
Kafka‟s fictions generally present his works as an engagement with absurdity, a criticism of
society, element of metaphysical, or the resultant of his legal profession, in the course failing to
record the European influences that form an important factor of his fictions. In order to achieve a
newer perspective in Kafka‟s art, and to understand his fictions in a better way, the present paper
endeavors to trace the European influences particularly the influences existentialists like
Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and Nietzsche in the fictions of Kafka.

Keywords: Existentialism, absurd, meaningless, superman, despair, identity.

Research Paper: Friedrich Nietzsche is perhaps the most conspicuous figure among the catalysts
of existentialism. He is often regarded as one of the first, and most influential modern existential
philosopher. His thoughts extended a deep influence during the 20th century, especially in
Europe. With him existentialism became a direct revolt against the state, orthodox religion and
philosophical systems. He insists that the individual must exercise his „free choice‟ in creating
values for his own evolution into a Superman. Thus Spake Zarathustra is Nietzsche‟s attempt to
help man surpass himself, to become „Superman‟ (superman, German Übermensch, in
philosophy, the superior man, who justifies the existence of the human race. “Superman” is a

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term significantly used by Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly in Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883),
although it had been employed by Goethe and others). His basic idea is that „will‟ is the most
important aspect of all existence. Moreover, Nietzsche declares through Zarathustra that for
modern man God is dead (Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (Prologue and XXV)). This is an
interesting theme upon which the existentialists have concentrated to convey the awful fact that
the individual is thrown into a dreadful situation in which he alone is responsible for his own
choices. In this context William Hubben is of the view that, Kafka‟s men are living in that world
without God (Hubben 145). As far as Kafka‟s The Trial is concerned we sense in the whole
novel right from beginning till end, the absence of God and any kind of belief on Him. The
protagonist Joseph K. is thrown into a dreadful situation in the novel for which he alone can be
blamed responsible because of his choices that he made in his life. Thus, in this sense he
represents the existential view that an individual‟s choice determines his essence, its man‟s
responsibility to live a totally committed life, and should be prepared to defy the norms of
society for the sake of that commitment. This is what K. is trying to do. But, unfortunately the
more he tries to defend himself, with his pleadings to court, consulting the lawyer Huld, the
painter Titorelli to prove his innocence, the more he adds to his crime. It is clear from the novel
that Joseph K‟s mistake was to accept his case against him. This particular behaviour of
acceptance of his arrest is responsible for his failure as without knowing his guilt, he readily goes
for first interrogation and after that he makes every possible effort to prove himself innocent.
Thus, K. is thrown into existence first without any nature and only later he constructs his nature
through his actions, which leads him to a state of anxiety, alienation and his confrontation with
nothingness.

Despair, in existentialism, is usually demarcated as a loss of hope. It is the loss of hope

and loss of identity. Kafka‟s The Trial is full of the atmosphere of despair and it ends with the
loss of hope against the system. Joseph K. in the novel is shown to be straightaway arrested
in the morning, with the warders initially restraining him from leaving his room, and then
a seemingly endless trial where “definite acquittal” is the remotest of possibilities. The
conflict between the juridical restraining and K.‟s protestations of innocence remains
irresolvable even at the end of the novel when “the hands of one of the partners were . . .

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at K.‟s throat, while the other thrust the knife into his heart and turned it there twice.
With the failing eyes K. could . . . see . . . the final act. „Like a dog!‟ he said . . . .” It is
“the shame of it” that is “to outlive him” (Kafka, The Trial 211). Right from the arrest,
the world for Joseph K. is meaningless, irrational, and the search for his guilt brings him
into direct conflict with this universe, where unable to find any meaning of his arrested
situation he accepts his defeat. Caroline Duttlinger in The Cambridge Introduction to
Franz Kafka comments:

With The Trial, Kafka succeeded in writing a novel with a conclusion, and yet
K.‟s death points beyond the end, infecting the reader with its lingering sense of
shame. The Trial is a theatre of cruelty, a succession of lurid scenes of sex,
punishment and humiliation in which everyone is complicit, whether actor or
spectator (Duttlinger 72).

In regard to The Trial Osborne offers a general comment. He says: “The human
condition cannot be improved, it can only be suffered. Nor is there anything ennobling in
human endurance: man has no choice. Whatever is, is just” (Osborne 82). Kafka has
given us a protagonist who manifests complexes of the author, history of his race and the
general human condition with concomitant problems. There are problems, just as we all
have problems in life, but we have to tackle them and come to grip with reality. Minus
the existential baggage, in the case of Joseph K. he is not able to separate the outward
injustices from the inward broodings. Joseph K. attempts to continue with his struggles
right till the end, and of course this is a tribute to human forbearance and perseverance.
The protagonist in the text and human beings in life have to continue with the wrestle a nd
the struggle. Franz Kafka through the efforts of Joseph K. is able to imprint this indelibly
on the minds of the readers. To most readers, the death of Joseph K. would seem
unreasonable. But what Kafka might have in his mind is to tell that death is bet ter than a
lengthy, incomprehensible and illogical existence in the grips of authorities. Boag
concerning this says: “Kafka explores what it means to continue to be „I‟ in a world that
offers neither confirmation nor personal meaning to the „I‟” (Boag 81).

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Finding the similarities between the existential writers Kierkegaard, Nietzsche,

Dostoevsky, Kafka, we may say that these philosophers as true existentialists try to
explain the condition of a modern man who is a solitary figure and his absurd relation ship
with the world. Joseph K. is an existential protagonist, who emphasises the existence of
human beings, the lack of meaning and purpose in life and solitude of human existence.
Kafka, through K. propagates the existentialist belief of “Existence preced es essence,”
(Sartre 1) that is, nothing can rationalize or explain our existence, as K. in The Trial is
unable to find out any meaning of his arrest and trials. He presents a human being who is
lost in a meaningless, irrational universe and it is his search for guilt and order that
brings him into direct conflict with his absurd world and law. Unable to f ind any meaning
to his arrested existence, K. succumbs before the absurd authorities as he could no longer
live with absolute individuality and absolute freedom. William Hubben talks of the
existential quality of Kafka by relating him to Kierkegaard, Dosto evsky and Nietzsche:

Kafka is the most existentialist among the existentialist writers employing

insecurity and defeat as the fatalistic „solution‟ of that same sense of
suspense and motion which Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and Nietzsche
welcomed as the very element in which to rise above accident and fate. He
expresses an existentialist Weltgefuhl with stronger visionary force than his
French colleagues, and speaks undoubtedly to the condition of untold men
and women in Europe (Hubben 139).

K. of Kafka‟s The Castle also represents the same existential view that an individual‟s
choices determine his essence, its man‟s responsibility to live a totally committed life, and
should be prepared to defy the norms of the society for the sake of that commitment. K. in The
Castle is thrown into existence and only later he constructs his nature or essence through his
actions, which leads him to a state of anxiety, loneliness, alienation, and his confrontation with
nothingness. The more he tries to get closer to the villagers, the more they get about him, the
more he tries to know about the Castle, the more he is contravened. The existential attitude in the
novel can be seen through a sense of bewilderment and misperception in the face of a seemingly

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worthless or absurd world which K. encounters. Here K. is visualised as a rootless wanderer on a

quest haunted by forcing a sinister atmosphere. The absurdity gets into the novel through the
roads of the village which are actually non-road, endless road, which never leads K. to his
destination. Fatemeh Azizmohammadi comments on the absurdity of the road in The Castle and
says:

Walking in this shadow is as if taking a walk on a non-existent road towards a

non-existent castle. [K.] is merely taking a walking posture, as if he is performing
a mime before our eyes on a bare stage, walking a sham road towards a sham
castle. K. is absolutely stagnant and floating in a vacuum . . . he is doomed to
remain in this state of indeterminacy, uncertainty and the vacillation between
hope and disappointment. . . . What remains before K. is only a maze with no way
out (Azizmohammadi 2244).

The village with closed rooms, closed windows, closed doors represents absurd, barren, spiritless
world, where K., creates makeshift stratagems foredoomed to fail. In the novel, the possibility of
salvation is linked with the idea of failure and despair. K.‟s search for salvation, in order to find
entry in the Castle results in despair, because he struggles against a world that turns a deaf ear to
his pleas for any help to K. The world he is encountering is none other than a full stop. He proves
to be a slavish and passive traveler with threatened freedom, journeying in a modern wasteland.
Hannah Arendt views K. as a lonely stranger seeking to find his rightful “Place in the world,”
“the inalienable rights of man” (Ardent 72). Arendt says further that in this Kafkaesque world,
however, there is no guarantee to such rights, and that is why Kafka made his K. die as an
uprooted, lonely, superfluous figure. He is the hallmark of modern European man locked up in a
myth of inaccessibility in a pre-modern world, where he is struggling to find the right key to get
his entry into the Castle. But it goes to the credit of K. that he remains unshaken in his ideology
and proves himself to be the only man in the village who refuses to submit to the monstrous
bureaucratic authorities that arrogate to themselves his sense of freedom

Kafka‟s most popular novella “The Metamorphosis” is also based on the existential view,
that an individual‟s choice determines his essence, a person has two sides - one is individual, and

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the other societal. It is man‟s responsibility to maintain balance between these two. If a person
chooses individuality over society, he will lose the support of society. However, if a person
chooses society, he will lose his individuality. Initially, before his transformation, Gregor, the
protagonist chooses society over himself, which in turn transforms him into a working machine
and gives him the feeling of the dependency of the family on him. After his transformation into
an insect, he chooses himself; looks for his own comforts as an insect, his entertainment, etc. In
doing so, he completely rejects his society, and thus loses all his confidence in his capabilities.
As an insect, he feels himself worthless for his family and for society; these feelings not only
make him alienated, but also become largely responsible for his death. Thus, Gregor is thrown
into existence first without a predetermined nature and only later he constructs his nature or
essence through his actions, which lead to him in a state of anxiety, alienation and his
confrontation with nothingness that results in his death. In this context Hamedreza Kohzadi,
along with Azizmohammadi, and Nouri in their paper “A Study of Franz Kafka The
Metamorphosis” rightly observe:
Thus, with the loss of his world and of his position as bread-winner, which he
unconsciously rejects in the course of the metamorphosis, Gregor loses the
foundation on which his existence has been built up. The realization of this loss of
foundation brings, with it both a deep feeling of anxiety and a bad conscience: the
being that has lost its foundation sees itself as „vermin‟; the terrifying outward
appearance is in itself the result of an unconscious self-punishment (Kohzadi
1606-07).
So in the end we can say that Franz Kafka was influenced by the philosophy of
first generation existentialists like Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and Nietzsche. Kafka can be
related to these writers on the basis of his physical problems and temperament, as
Kierkegaard suffered from the problem of hunchback, Dostoevsky suffered from
epilepsy. Similarly, Kafka suffered from tuberculosis. Due to their physical problems
these writers became introverts, got alienated and isolated from their societies. All three
of them, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and Kafka were physically and temperamentally
different and they projected their differences as the source of their creative power. These

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three were depressed men at war with their societies and with themselves too and this
unhappiness that they have projected in their works through the uncomfortable subject
matters—suffering, solitariness, alienation, and loss of identity. The characters they
create are strangers and outsiders in their own lands. Their characters believe in the
inherent freedom of man. Their protagonists feel insufficiency and are hesitant to identify
themselves with „the crowd‟. It‟s not that they have been rejected by the society; rather
they themselves do not want to belong and have rejected the society. They desire to live
authentically and stress on their own self and identity become the reason of their
suffering for this attitude. Existentialists have concentrated on the theory that the individual is
thrown into a dreadful situation in which he alone is responsible for his own choices. They
emphasis the existence of human beings, the absence of importance, meaning, purpose in
life, and solitude of human existence. Almost all the protagonists of Kafka project the
same existential philosophy.

Works Cited:

Arendt, Hannah. “Franz Kafka: A Revaluation.” Essays in Understanding. Ed. Jerome Kohn.
New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994: 68-77. Print.

Azizmohammadi, Fatemeh. “A Psychological Analysis on Franz Kafka‟s The Castle.” Journal of

Basic and Applied Scientific Research 2.3 (2012): 2243-2248. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
<www.textroad.com/.../J.%20Basic.%20Appl.%20Sci.%20Res.,202(3)22>.

Boag, Cara Ingrid. Solitude, Suffering and Creativity in Three Existentialist Novels. Diss.
Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch, 2009. Web. 20Nov.2013.
<scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.1/1713/Boag,%20C.I.pdf>.

Brombert, Victor. “Dostoevsky‟s Underground Man: Portrait of the Paradoxalist.” Academic

Journal EBSCO HOST (H.W. Wilson) 15.1 (1995): 4-12. Print.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from the Underground. 1864. Ed. J. Kentish. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1992. Print.

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Duttlinger, Caroline. The Cambridge Introduction to Franz Kafka. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2013. Cambridge Books Online. Web. 1 Jan.2014.
<http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebooks.jst?bid=CBO9781139049207>.

Hubben, William. Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche & Kafka. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1997. Print.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories. Trans. Joachim
Neugrochel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Print.

---. The Trial. 1925. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. London: Vintage, 2001. Print.

---. The Castle. 1926. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir with additional material translated by Eithne
Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser. London: Vintage, 2005. Print.

Kierkegaard, Soren. Papers and Journals: A Selection, 1835-1854. London: Penguin, 1996.
Print.

Kohzadi, Hamedreza, et al. “A Study of Franz Kafka „The Metamorphosis‟.” Journal of Basic
and Applied Scientific Research 2.2 (2012): 1600-1607. Web. 1 June 2014.
<www.textroad.com/.../J.%20Basic.%20Appl. %20Sci. %20Res.,%202 (2)16>.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra.1883. New York: Cosimo, 2009. Print.

Osborne, Charles. Kafka. London: Oliver and Boyd, 1967. Print.

Sartre, Jean - Paul. Existentialism is a Humanism. 1946. Trans. Carol Macomber. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2007. Print.

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