"Dearest father ..."
In 1919, just a few years before his death, Franz Kafka wrote a detailed letter to his father, which he never mailed. If you are looking for a suitable introduction to putting yourself in Kafka's world without immediately reading his stories or novels, this could be the right reading. The letter contains not only a psychologically sophisticated account of Kafka's father conflict, but also some basic information about his biography.
"Letter to the Father" - To the content
Kafka's letter to his father represents less of an actual attempt to improve communication between the two, since the father never gives the opportunity got to read it, but rather the son's grappling with his own life and the problems that the broken father-son relationship triggered Has.
Already in the apparently affectionate address "Dearest Father" you can see the split relationship between Kafka and his father, whom he loves and hates at the same time, and at the same time adores and fears. This is how Kafka describes his father's question, why he feared him so much, as a concrete trigger for the letter.
- In the course of the letter, which exceeds the usual dimensions of such a letter and perhaps seems more like a sophisticated essay to you, Kafka reproaches his father various behaviors, whereby he does not only blame him, but also repeatedly looks for the guilt in himself, which makes his own inner conflict even more highlights.
- Kafka describes the main reason for the tense relationship with his father in the fact that both are like that had opposing characters and his father neither understood nor understood him and his personal ideas accept. One of the main problems here is the fact that in Kafka's eyes the father is partly responsible for the failure of his attempts at marriage, since his father is neither involved in the choice of bride nor in the decision to marry seemed.
- Another bitter, but even from today's point of view all too understandable accusation, aims at the fact that Kafka's father rules in the family that were chosen seemingly at random and that all others had to obey, while as a father he overrode them could. As a result, Kafka describes his world as being split into three parts: In one world he saw himself as a "slave" to himself had to obey incomprehensible laws, in a second world was his father, who could make rules at will, but he couldn't applied to him. The third world, on the other hand, was a world full of freedom, in which all other people resided who could live beyond rules and laws according to their own ideas.
- Religion is a crucial aspect of the letter. Kafka describes his father as a strictly religious Jew, to whom rituals and going to the synagogue are more important than personal belief. In this respect, on the one hand, he accuses his father of "nothing in Judaism" by pretending to be something that he thinks of himself Conviction here is not at all, and on the other hand the fact that he has given his son the same hypocrisy and indifference forces.
Franz Kafka wrote many short stories and novels in his life, which unfortunately ...
On the interpretation of the father-son conflict
Strictly speaking, the "Letter to the Father" is not part of the literature by Franz Kafka, as are the novels and stories, but he will certainly give you an insight into his biography and his social environment.
- Many aspects of the letter show that this is not just about coming to terms with the obviously existing father-son conflict is about, which is shaped by the desire for better communication, but also about a detailed examination of his own Psyche. In contrast to his father, Kafka always describes himself as weak, powerless and shy, while he describes his father as a "giant" who was bursting with male virtues.
- That Kafka's self-perception does not always overlap with reality is proven by the passage in which he spoke about his school days speaks, which was consistently characterized by the fear of failing, although this was not even remotely feared were.
Literary effects
The letter was written only a few years before Kafka's death, but that this is a long development that only takes place here in the form of the The writing reached a climax can be seen in some of Kafka's works, which more or less subtly refer to the difficult father-son relationship Clues.
- The harsh expression of his father, sometimes calling other people vermin, can be found in Kafka's famous story "The Metamorphosis", in which the metaphor becomes reality.
- "The Judgment" is also about a father-son conflict, which here even ends with the proverbial execution of the death sentence, which is pronounced by the father and carried out by the son.
- The novel "The Trial" is about a 30-year-old man who is arrested even though he has not committed a crime. This could possibly be a processing of the eternal accusations of his father, who always accused him without Kafka being aware of his guilt. The fact that the novel, like "The Judgment", ends with the violent death of the protagonist shows again the deep psychological significance of the father-son conflict for Kafka himself.
