Time and Reality in Kafka's the Trial and the Castle Author(S): Margaret Church Reviewed Work(S): Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol

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Time and Reality in Kafka's The Trial and The Castle Author(s): Margaret Church Reviewed work(s): Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jul., 1956), pp. 62-69 Published by: Hofstra University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/440948 . Accessed: 20/11/2012 13:41

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This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TIME AND REALITY IN KAFKA'S THE TRIAL AND THE CASTLE

MARGARET CHURCH

Kafka once wrote in an aphor- the same place that they were in ism that one of his most import- the evening before. ant wishes was "to attain a view On his firstSunday in court, K. of life in which life, while still re- hurries to arrive at nine o'clock taining its natural full-bodiedrise "although he had not even been and fall, would simultaneouslybe required to appear at any specified recognizedno less clearlyas a noth- time."3 Despite the fact that he is ing, a dream, a dim hovering."1 late he walks more slowly as he This remark describes with some approaches the house of the exam- accuracy the styleand mood of his iners, as if now he had abundant two central works The Trial and time. If anything,Kafka is more The Castle and shows that it was adept at creating the dream than Kafka's aim to employ in his fic- the "full-bodied rise and fall" of tion the idea that time and space life. When K. leaves the examin- are illusory. ing room, the magistratemyster- The dreamlike quality of time iously gets to the door before him values and the assumption of an as in a dream people appear at interior time recognized alone by the beck and call of our fears and the officialsand K. appear through- wishes. out The Trial. In a passage deleted In the unfinishedchapter "Das from the firstchapter, Kafka had Haus" we find the curious juxta- written that the riskiest moment position of dream upon dream. As of the day is the moment when K. lies down on the couch in his one awakes. "Man ist doch im office,his thoughtshover between Schlafund im Traum wenigstensdream and reality,only here reali- scheinbarin einem von Wachen ty is that of K.'s waking life which wesentlichverschiedenen Zustand is oftenlike a dream to the reader. gewesen."'2Because K. thismorning Thus Kafka makes us aware of has found his world differentfrom various levels of reality-thedream the way it was the evening before, within the dream. K's firstdream we understand that part of the represents his alienated situation dream world has intruded into his as he views Frau Grubach's board- everydayworld. The opening of ers, many unknown to him, for he "The Metamorphosis" may be had for some time not bothered compared with that of The Trial himself about concerns of the where Kafka writes that it takes house. Then as he turnsfrom the great vigilance to see things in group and hurries into the law 62

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions court,corridors and rooms become Time has not moved on this level familiar"als wairensie seine Woh- of experience although K. has nung seit jeher."4 As K. becomes lived througha whole day of clock more deeply implicated in the time. K. deals with this situation court, the details of living lose in the realm of action by asking for him their significance, the the clerks to clear out the lumber dream becomesmore like the inner room the next day although un- dream. consciouslyhe recognizes that his In connectionwith the dream it experience is an inner one, for he should be noted that K. is often would not ask them to do this if "in the dark." Heavy curtains he thoughtthat the whipper and hang over the windows in the ad- the warders were there for the vocate's bedroom; in the cathedral clerks to see. It is K.'s fault that K. by mistakeextinguishes his lamp the warders are being whipped, and "Er blieb stehen,es war ganz thus the scene representshidden dunkel, er wusste gar nicht, an guilt. He asks the clerk to clear it welcher Stille der Kirche er sich out knowing that he cannot re- befand.'"5In this dream world one move the imprint of the scene loses one's bearings; and since K. from his mind other than by the is lost inwardly,his physical rela- destructionof its outward symbols. tion to objects and places is an Time has stood still in this back uncertainone, too. room of K.'s consciousnss,a trick When the studententers the ex- made possible by Kafka's concept aming room where K. stands alone of the idea of time as reality. with the woman who occupies the The appearance of K.'s uncle and apartmentoutside, K. experiences the mentionof his daughter,Erna, his firstmeeting with a representa- is one of the few insightswe have tive of the officialgroup on human into K.'s past. K.'s uncle under- terms as a rival.8 This meeting stands, without being told, the implies the recognition that the factsof K.'s case. K. is aware that trial is on a differentlevel from he has known all along that his "the full-bodied rise and fall." uncle would turnup, forthe uncle, Neverthelss?it is interesting to like the rest of the charactersin note that the meeting takes place the book, has reality only in re- in the same examiningroom where lation to K.'s inner life. As a K. had had his firsthearing. Kafka molder of K.'s past, the uncle, too, thus creates a link between the like the familyof Amalia in The two worlds (inner and outer), a Castle, is implicated. The uncle is link which gives artistic unity to part of the everlastingpresent of the passage. K.'s mind time, neither past nor A scene in the lumber room' in present having reality except as the bank leads to furtherinsights they are viewed by K. The Pla- into the time experience in The tonic characterof Kafka's idea of Trial. When K. returns to the time is clear when we observe that lumber room on the second eve- K. (as the initial suggests) is a ning, he finds everythingexactly symbol, not an individual, so we as he had left it the night before. are dealing here not with a specific The whipper is still standing in relationship of past and present the same position in frontof the but with a general one. warders. As K. opens the door, In the uncompleted chapter the wardersat once cry out, "Sir!" "Fahrt zu Mutter" we find the 63

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions same general relation between past recordsof earlier acts which in life and present. K.'s motheris almost are often inaccessible because blind, so unlike the uncle, she is pressed into the unconscious.That ignorant of K.'s plight. Her re- this unconscious level is unreason- fusal to be implicatedin K.'s prob- able and primitive is seen in lem is furthershown by her pres- Huld's remark that the officials ent indifferenceto K.'s visit, for are children.10The court and its earlier she had been anxious to see officialsexist in everylife, in every him. The mother,like the uncle, time and place. And K. comments is part of K.'s mind, but the blind that "so many people seem to be part, thatwhich is suppressed:"die connected with the court."" The Mutter hielt ihn sogar trotz aller Trial representsman's self-trialto Widerrede fiir den Direktor der determinehis success or failure in Bank, und dies schon seit Jahren."8 the pursuit of an inner ideal. To In another unfinished chapter claim, as criticshave, that Kafka's "Staatsanwalt"K. attributesto the books representa specifictheology, early death of his father and the psychology,or philosophyseems to mistaken tendernessof his mother me to miss the point of Kafka's a childish quality he possesses.' writingwhich was to embrace all Thus despite her 'blindness' the quests withoutpointing to any one mother is implicated in K.'s fate. as the way. The search for and But the conscious recognition of following of an inner ideal is an his mother remains in the back- old theme in literature put into ground; for several years he had words by innumerablewriters, but intended to visit her, but he had Kafka's distinctionseems to lie not never done so, and the fragment in his theme but in his technique ends before the visit is made. whichdepends to a large extenton That the charactersare projec- his abrogation of the time values tions of K.'s mind appears again of the outer world so that his odys- in his interviewwith the advocate sey is described in terms of the who at once knows all about K.'s inner world where in the final case although, as K. reflects,this analysisall our odysseystake place. advocate is attached to the court "You see, everythingbelongs to the at the Palace of Justice,not to the Court,"12 the painter tells K.-even one with the skylight.As he pon- the girls on the stairs outside the ders this incongruity the Chief painter's room. When Titorelli Clerk of the Court (the one with opens the door behind his bed, K. the skylight) appears in a corner recognizesthe same Law-Court of- of the room where K. had not ficeseven though the painter lives noticed him. The link between in a differentpart of the city. the two courtsis thus inwardlyes- "There are Law-Court officesin al- tablished for K. The interview most every attic," Titorelli ex- progressesand the advocate asks plains. "Why should this be an K. no questions; he either talks of exception?"'8 And when Huld re- his own affairsor strokeshis beard. flectsthat "aftera certain stage in K. is, Kafka shows,his own advo- one's practice nothing new ever cate and as such the facts are happens" he is expressingin differ- known to him. K. learns thatsince ent terms the universal nature of the proceedings are not public, the human quest. legal records are inaccessible to The scene in the Cathedral the accused and to his counsel-- should, therefore,not be interpret- 64

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ed to mean that the end of the ary."6The reader fillsin the emo- quest is to be found in orthodoxy tional content, the philosophical of any kind. Rather the Cathedral content, directed by symbols like symbolizesan inner spiritual goal the beards of the assistantsor the which has no relation for Kafka soft luxuriousness of the sleigh to the Cathedral as such. cushions. Normal space and time As K. nears the end of his quest values are abrogated so that reality in the Cathedral Square, he is is that which exists within the startled by the recollection that mind, not independent of it. even when he was a child the cur- When K. returnsto the inn early tains in thissquare had been pulled in Chapter 2 of The Castle, he is down. Inside the Cathedral he surprised to see that darkness has watches the verger,whose limp re- set in. "Had he been gone forsuch minds him of his childhood imi- a long time? Surely not for more tation of a man riding horseback. than an hour or two,by his reckon- These two memories serve simple ing. And it had been morninlg as touchstonesof the world of ob- when he left."17 As in Kafka's jects and of the "full-bodied rise short story "A Common Confu- and fall" of life. As links their sion" the length of the trip does existence in the passage is import- not determine the time it takes. for ant, through them Kafka re- Kafka does not write: "K.'s trip minds us that his purpose is to seemed to take a whole day." Ra- mirrorlife, but a life disguised so ther despite all of K.'s outward that it is in the semblance of all reckonings,the inner time of the lives. subconsciousmind prevails,and it Clemens Heselhaus sums up the is actually dark when K. reaches question of realityin The Trial by the inn. The Castle is related in pointing out that the court itself termsof the primitive,unreasoned is not real; only the reactions of drives and evaluations of our un- K. to this unrealityare real. Be- conscious lives which for Kafka cause the court is unreal all sup- are more real than what appears positions are possible, but only as on the surface as distortedreflec- suppositions, not as fixed truths. tions of these lives. Barnabas' One cannot say that the court speed in outstrippingK. is so great means this or that. One can only that beforeK. can shout to him he say that the physicalrealization of has coveredan impossibledistance. the court is made concrete in the Thus time again is observed physicalreactions and deeds which through an unconscious estimate destroya life.'4 of it, and Barnabas is character- ized in termsof a speed experience. II. Another insightinto Kafka's ap- Kafka's extraordinaryuse of sym- proach to time comes when bol, dream and parable'" reachesits dragged on by Barnabas, K. re- culmination in The Castle. Giin- creates a scene from childhood therAnders writesthat the strange evoked by the difficultyof "keep- element in K.'s experience is not ing up." He finds himselfby an that so much strangehappens, but old church in a marketplace sur- that nothing that happens, even rounded by a graveyard,in turn the self-evident, is self-evident. surroundedby a high wall. K. had There is no distinction between failed to climb the wall until one the ordinary and the extraordin- morningin an emptymarketplace, 65

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions flooded by sunlight, he had suc- pret our dieties in human terms, ceeded. The sense of triumph of however,is shown by Kafka when, that moment returnsnow to suc- for instance,Momus, the secretary, cor him. Evoked by a chance ex- crumbles salt and carroway seeds perience,the past becomes present. on his paper. One noticesthat throughout The Reality in the village is what the Castle Kafka avoids measuring people make it. Thus Klamm's ap- time.'s For instance,when K. goes pearance fluctuates.He looks one to see the superintendentin Chap- way in the village and anotherway ter 5 there is no mention of how on leaving it. He looks different many days or hours later this visit when he is awake fromthe way he occurred after he left Frieda and looks when he is asleep. On one the landlady. Thus the reader is point only all the villagers agree- shocked to learn fromPepi at the he wears always a black morning end of the book thatonly fourdays coat with long tails. The differ- have elapsed since Frieda left her ences, Kafka explains, are the re- work at the bar. It is, of course, sult of the mood of the observer- part of Kafka's technique to reveal of his degree of excitement,hope, this only at the end where it does or despair. They are the varied not distort his time values which impressions that the supplicant are not of calendar or clock. That holds of the featuresof the oracle, the inner timeof the mind prevails the confessedof his confessor,or in the book is suddenlyproved by the patient of his psychoanalyst. Pepi's remark which is incredible The people's confusionof Momus except on the level of idea. Earlier and Klamm and Barnabas' doubts in the book to learn the day would about the real Klamm are also ex- have only oriented us to conven- plained by Kafka's concept of real- tional time values and spoiled the ity. Likewise, in a passage deleted effectof the allegory.But now that by Kafka, K. feels as if Barnabas hour and day have ceased to have is two men whom only K., not out- meaning, to be reminded of them side judgment, can keep distinct. produces in the reader the sur- Barnabas, the messenger,and Bar- prise that Kafka wishes to induce nabas, the brotherand son, do not, so that they suddenly seem much therefore,ever reallymerge for the more unreal than the flowof mind reader but remain,as for K., differ- time in which the reader is im- ent, one of the castle, the other of mersed. the village. This points to the real Telephone calls to the castle are nature of the Barnabas symbol- of no avail, for the superintendent the man divided by having only tells K. that all K.'s contactswith partially attained his goal. Reality the castle have been illusory,"but depends then on the observer,not owing to your ignorance of the on a set of unchangingvalues. Fe- circumstancesyou take them to be lix Weltsch sees in these "Doppel- real."'" All outside contact is il- wesen" a comic element. "Eine lusion. K. mistakenlytries to use Zweiheit,die also Einheit erkannt human logic and reason in dealing wird, und eine Einheit, die immer with the castle and its officials; wieder in Zweiheit zerfaillt."20 therefore,he and the officialsnever The castle diginitarieshave the talk on the same level, for their distinction of being freed from reasoning is incomprehensibleto memory. Although K. challenges the human mind. That we inter- the landlady's remark about 66

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Klamm's memory as "improbable are bound together indistinguish- and indemonstrable,"we are told ably in the symbols and shadows by Kafka that anyone whom of his dream world.2 As in a Klamm "stops summoning he has dream, all that goes on is known forgottencompletely, not only as at once by everyonein the village; far as the past is concerned, but for instance, the maids enter the literally for the future as well."21 room to move in with all their K. himselfhas practicallyno past; clothes hardly after K. has spoken we hear hardlyanything of earlier the words acceptingthe post at the events in his life. The other char- school. The landlady is aware of acters as well are without child- all that happens to K. as is every- hood or ancestors. True, Frieda one K. meets. This disconcerting claims a childhood acquaintance state of affairsis furtherevidence with Jeremiah with whom she of the dream atmosphere of the played on the slope of the castle book, for in a dream our enemies hill, and K. accuses Frieda of hav- and friendsalike know with uner- ing succumbed to the influenceof ring certitudeall the hidden em- memories,the past, in her "actual barrassmentsand decisions of our present-daylife,"22 but for all prac- lives.2" tical purposes there is no distant As the culmination of Kafka's past in The Castle. With the ex- work, The Castle depicts general ception of the storyOlga tells K. themes: the alienation of man, the or the hints of the landlady's af- incomprehensibilityof the divine, fair with Klamm, there is little the quest of the hero for the ful- perspectivein even the recentpast. fillmentof an ideal. Behind Kaf- The larger racial past of the hu- ka's theme lies a concept of time man species is, however,often im- based on the realityof idea which plied in the allegory,for the sub- gives rise to his technique of par- conscious level of the mind is, of able couched in a dream world. course, much concerned with our Kafka's attitudes toward time and primitiveorigins. Thus one sees, reality alone make possible his for example, in the connection of method of writing. Reality is of the villagers and K. to the castle the mind; thereforethe dream is the bafflementof man in relation real and our ideas are real. to forcesof nature and in relation Kafka's emphasis on the dream to deity. Kafka, however,seems to world and interestin an innerreal- imply that too much concern with ity springfrom a great many sour- the immediateand individual past ces.26 Primarilyhis whole attitude cluttersthe mind, for the officials toward realityis deeply colored by have no memory.It is well to note, his personal problems of adjust- nevertheless,that it is only the offi- ment to life. His. relationshipsto cials who lack memory of a dis- his family,to the women to whom missed case.23 The villagers and he was engaged, to Milena were K. do have memory,though it is painful ones. As a Jew his rela- little exercisedbecause The Castle tionshipto the communitywas also is writtenin the realm of dream an involved one. These unsolved where the past is disguised and in- relationships led to conflictsbe- tegratedwith the present. tweenthe innerand the outer man, Kafka probes deep by placing so that he eventuallytook cover in his entirestory on the unconscious his writingbehind the highlycom- level. For Kafka past and present plicated screen of symboland par- 67

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions able as a refugefrom the impinge- In The Castle we find Kafka's ments of the world of action and dream world and his idea of truth. events.Thus the doctrineof ideas is for Kafka a successfuldefense. Purdue University

'Franz Kafka, The Great Wall of von aiussersterAbstraktion und Anony- China, Stories and Reflections,trans. mitait;"Kahler writes. (p. 38) Willa and Edwin Muir (New York, Although Kafka's work does have 1946), p. 267. many elements in common with the 2Franz Kafka, Der Prozess (Berlin, parable, I do not feel that this term 1935), p. 267. is sufficientto describe the technical SFranz Kafka, The Trial, trans. complexityof the novels which include Willa and Edwin Muir (New York, symbols within the parables and in 1937), p. 43. Quotations have been which the parable is often couched taken from translationsof the origin- in termsof the dream. Furthermore, als when they were available. Kafka's parables lack the outspoken 4Der Prozess,p. 257. didactic purpose of most works in this 5Der Prozess,p. 272. form. 6The Trial, p. 69. "'Giinther Anders, Kafka Pro und "The Trial, p. 113. Contra (Miinchen, 1951), p. 25. 8Der Prozess,p. 247. 17Franz Kafka, The Castle, trans. 9Der Prozess, pp. 253-254. Willa and Edwin Muir (New York, x0The Trial, p. 154 1941), p. 23. x The Trial, p. 170. 18Fora discussionof Max Brod's ar- 12The Trial, p. 189. rangement of the material in The x'The Trial, p. 206. Trial (one which may cast doubt also "Clemens Heselhaus, "Kafkas Er- on his arrangementsin The Castle) Deutsche zi'hlformen," Vierteljahrs- see Hermann Uyttersprot,"Zur Struk- schriftfiir Literaturwissenschraftund tur von Kafkas 'Der Prozess'," Revue Geistgeschichte,XXVI (1952), 353- des Langues Vivantes (1953), pp. 332- 376. 76. x"Erich Kahler in his excellent dis- 1"The Castle, p. 95. cussion of Kafka's technique in "Un- 20Felix Weltsch, Religidser Humor tergang und Ubergang der epischen Bei Franz Kafka (Winterthur,1948), Kunstform" (Neue Rundschau, LXIV p. 129. (1953), 1-44) points out that Kafka's 21The Castle, p. 109. stories move in a sphere which tran- 22The Castle, p. 325. scends the senses. His characterslive 23Some critics understand Kafka's daydreamsin which vision and specu- officialsas our deities, for as Secretary lation are one. Since by the symbol Burgel remarks, "We recognize no thoughtis directed from the concrete differencebetween ordinarytime and to the abstractand by allegorythought working time." Edwin Muir sees in is directed from the abstract to the Kafka's world the influenceof "Kier- concrete, Kahler rejects both these kegaard's doctrine of incommensura- terms as descriptiveof Kafka's works. bility of divine and human law." "Ex- He prefersto call them parables. "Die cerpts from Final Passages of 'The modern Parabel spielt auf einer Ebene Castle'," trans. Sophie Prombaum in 68

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions A Franz Kafka Miscellany: Pre-Fascist ment of German"poetic nihilism"Kaf- Exile (New York, 1940), p. 80. And ka read and admired Grillparzer and Edwin Muir "Franz Kafka" in A Stifter. He was especially interested Franz Kafka Miscellany,p. 62. in Grillparzer's"Der arme Spielmann" 24The long winters in the village with its theme of a transcendantreal- lend an atmosphereof darknessfitting ity for the artist and in Stifter'sDer to the dream. In fact,spring and sum- Nachsommer in which the characters mer seem to Pepi no longer than two are scarcely more than incidental in days. "Excerpts from Final Passages the presentingof Stifter'sidea of the of 'The Castle' " in A Franz Kafka permanentcharacter of truth.Further- Miscellany, p. 94. more, he had read, Brod writes,Flau- 25Kafka'sdream is overburdenedby bert's The Temptation of St. Anthony anxieties, for almost all of the vil- and A SentimentalEducation. In both lagers seem to be hostile, indifferent, of these books Flaubert's devotion to or fearfultoward K. idea is strong. In fact, in the former 2Emphasis on an inner realitymay all movement is in the realm of the he seen in many of the authors read spirit. The theme of a transcendant by Kafka. In both the biography by reality may also be seen in Goethe, Brod and the diaries Kafka's interest Kleist, and H61derlin, all of whom in Plato is mentioned. In the move- Kafka read.

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