The works of Franz Kafka are unique in their blend of the ordinary and the extraordinary, creating worlds where everyday situations evolve into terrifying scenarios.
Kafka's characters are, for the most part, mediocre bureaucrats placed in situations that are beyond their comprehension and control. They are sad, ill-fated heroes whose only quest is to gain control of the insurmountable obstacles thrown in their way and restore normalcy to their lives. In this article, we'll explore briefly some of these characteristics of Kafka's heroes, as shown in The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle.
1. Mediocre Heroes and the Quest for Normalcy
It is common for Kafka's characters to be nondescript white-collar workers (as he himself was). They are hardworking but not necessarily ambitious; and if they are, as is Josef K. in The Trial, they have nonetheless not been brilliant enough to reach the very top. Josef K. works at a bank; Gregor Samsa (from The Metamorphosis) is a traveling salesman who has worked hard to keep his family out of debt; and K. from The Castle is a land surveyor who doesn't have as much clout as he at first believes.
Once they're thrown into conflict, these protagonists seem more concerned with returning to their everyday duties than to understand the bizarre events around them. Gregor Samsa, for example, is planning to go to work, and wondering whether his colleagues will be scared of the fact that he is now a giant insect. Meanwhile, Josef K. confronts a judicial nightmare for a crime that's never explained to him, so he can "clear" his name and not have his hard-earned reputation at the bank sullied. Land surveyor K., for his part, doesn't give up on fulfilling his summons by the castle officials, even when they admit they hadn't intended to call for him.
2. Bureaucratic Nightmares and Impossible Tasks
The conflicts faced by Kafka's protagonists are of an extraordinary nature. Gregor Samsa awakes one morning turned into a vermin; Josef K. is charged with a crime whose nature is never revealed; and K. desperately attempts to contact the castle officials who have summoned him, but who remain maddeningly out of reach.
In all these cases, the characters must unravel a complex web of unspoken, unwritten procedures and interactions. In The Trial, Josef K. is made to visit a rundown building that houses court offices in its maze-like corridors; visit after visit proves fruitless, as Josef is unable to learn anything about his case. In The Castle, land surveyor K. does all he can to understand the customs of the village in order to gain access to its castle. And in The Metamorphosis, Gregor struggles to adapt to his new identity and forge new relationships with his increasingly hostile family.
3. The Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary
All these situations are made frightening not only by their nature, but also because they take place in worlds that are otherwise normal to the point of being dull. The stories are set in offices, banks, boarding houses, rundown tenements, and family apartments. They are also filled with the objects of everyday life: one of the most poignant scenes in The Metamorphosis involves Gregor having the furniture confiscated from his room, one piece at a time, and his final attempt to keep a portrait hanging on the wall. Kafka's stories pay close attention to such details: the objects on the table next to the transformed Gregor, the routine meetings at Josef K.'s bank, the endless paperwork waiting for land surveyor K.
It is a also an element of the unknown that makes these everyday activities and scenarios so nightmarish. Imagine never being able to find the correct office in a courthouse, when one's very life depended on it. Or not being able to speak, and tell one's family that whatever had turned one physically into a cockroach had nevertheless left one's mind and essential humanity intact.
Also left unknown are the reasons behind the transformations, misunderstandings, and accusations. Moreover, the protagonists themselves don't seek out answers to these unknowns; instead, they set out to eliminating the bizarre disruptions to their lives, no matter how insurmountable they turn out to be.
