A Country Doctor
The writings of different authors can lead to a similar mode; a story of one can be the response or simply can be compared to the others. After reading "The Country Doctor" by Ivan Turgenev, and "A Country Doctor" by Franz Kafka, it can be seen that these two short stories share a similar bond of the portrayal of a Doctor. It can be assumed that Kafka wrote his own version of Turgenev story, "The Country Doctor," which was written a century before Kafka wrote "A Country Doctor." The two stories can be compared with the similarities they share; the parallels between them explain the quest of a doctor to perform his righteous duty and yet in the end feel hopeless, as if nothing can be done by him, and all is up to the real savior, God.In these two stories "The Country doctor" and "A Country Doctor," it is possible to derive a sense of stress the doctor's faced in their profession. Both doctors tend to go out of their way to fulfill their duty as a doctor. The stories describe the crazy journey taken by the doctors to reach their patient so they could be treated. This sense of stress and determination that the country doctor is put through can be seen in Turgenev's and Kafka's parable. The weather plays a crucial part to br
ing about the determination of the doctor to go about and fulfill his duty. It was a bad day to ride on the road, "road was hellish: streams, snow, mud, ravines, then, suddenly, a burst dam" (Turgenev 2). The weather is mentioned in Kafka's story as well. The obstacle of getting a horse on the stormy winter day once again portrays the seriousness in the doctor to reach his destiny. The country doctor being stranded in a snowstorm, knowing that the ordinary means of transportation have broken down, and sending his servant girl out for help, who comes back without success--all these make us think of the country doctor as a beleaguered fellow human being. Note the doctor's determination to treat the ominous and surreal as if it were normal--to give due acknowledgment to the satisfactory or "correct" aspects of experience: "A magnificent pair of horses, I observed, such as I had never sat behind, and I climbed in happily" (Kafka 11). When the doctor finds the groom with his two fantastic horses, he is pleased, but afraid of what this "brute" is going to do to his servant girl. Without much of a choice he was set off to see his patient. I see this as a sacrifice that the doctor made to go about with his duty as a doctor; though he didn't have much of a choice because the horses were out of control. The amazement that both doctors express when they see the incredible and healthy horses, points out that their profession does not give them wealth and luxury, and yet they take these long and severe journeys to check their patients. "We are poor men in our profession and we have to notice all these things" (Turgenev 2). With this it can be seen that the country doctors in these two stories share a common trend of anxiety as well as acceptance
Some common words found in the essay are:
Turgenev's Kafka's, Country Doctor, Kafka Turgenev's, Franz Kafka, , country doctor, fulfill duty, doctor duty, sense stress, doctor stories, doctor unable, turgenev 2, kafka wrote, stories share, short stories,
Approximate Word count = 1182
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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