Kafkas Basteele

A detailed Summary of Kafkas Basteele

As presented by Franz Kafka, Karl Rossmann's life has a pattern of confinement. Kafka takes great pains to show us that Karl's reactions to nearly every instance of confinement neatly stems from one formative incident: Johanna Brummer's seduction of Karl. That one scandal seemingly affects how Karl reacts to every other attempt to confine him, who and what he allows to box him in, and his acceptance and/or rejection of that imprisonment.

Johanna is noticeably physical with Karl: she "[leads] him into her room," takes off his clothes, "[lays] him on her bed," and nearly chokes him in her frenzied passion. Karl himself in no way advances the action. In fact, he barely seems conscious of what's happening around him: "his eyes [see] nothing," he can't respond when she asks him to speak, and she can "not bring him to" listen to her breast. Johanna is in control of Karl in every way, and most notably in the physical realm. Karl is uncooperative, but allows the seduction to happen nonetheless. And Johanna's passionate actions are effective in that she essentially gets what she wants out of Karl.

Suddenly, what had been harmless objects and structures turn against Karl and participate in his confinement: Johanna "would shut the kit

In the chronology of Karl's life, as per Kafka, the stoker is the next person after Johanna that confines Karl. Confining objects exist here as well: "the wretched cubbyhole in which a bunk, a cupboard, a chair and the [stoker] were packed together." The "cubbyhole" conjures an image of a restricting space, just as the fact that the items and the stoker were all "packed together" suggests close quarters. Just as Johanna confined Karl to her room, the stoker "suddenly [seizes] the door handle and [pulls] the door shut with a hasty movement [to sweep] Karl into the cabin" (Kafka 4). Again, objects-"the door handle" and "the door"-suddenly turn against Karl to help imprison him. Even the paragraph structure of the conversation between Karl and the stoker is crammed into a small space; the dialogue spans three full pages without a paragraph break (Kafka 5-8).

We see the same juxtaposition of pleasure and pain in Karl's bout with Clara that we saw in the Johanna incident. Karl's scene with Clara is wrought with sexual tension. He twists his hips, follows her close, and Kafka even notes that "it was easy enough to grip her in her tight dress." In return, she whispers and sighs while he holds her close to him. If Karl were any other young male character, we would expect him to be excited by such sexual innuendoes. However, the incident with Clara merely leaves Karl in a "confusion of rage" (Kafka 68).

In the same vein, another confining episode, between Karl and Clara Pollunder, shows that Karl is in search of that "glimmer" of light. Sitting on the window-ledge, he "[stares] out into the darkness." He even "[feels] sorry that he had not brought the electric torch which his uncle had given him." Just as Uncle Jacob gave Karl the freedom to go to the Pollunder's house, he gave him an electric torch; that is, artificial light to use in the darkness of his confinement. Kafka states that "in [that] house an electric torch was absolutely indispensable," meaning that light-or rather,

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Approximate Word count = 1342
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English