卡夫卡的文学创作主要成就是三部未完成的长篇小说和一些中短篇小说。
长篇小说《美国》(1912—1914年写成)，描写16岁的德国少年卡尔·罗斯曼，因受家中女仆的引诱，致使女仆怀孕，被父母赶出家门，放逐到美国的经历遭遇。作品所侧重的是人物在美国忧郁、孤独的内心感受。
长篇小说《审判》（1918年写成），作品讲述的是银行助理约瑟夫·K无故受审判并被处死的故事。约瑟夫·K在30岁生日的那天早晨醒来按铃声吃早餐时，进来的不是女仆而是两个官差，宣告他被捕，并被法庭审判有罪，他虽被捕却仍能自由生活，照常工作。他不知道自己在什么地方有罪，认为一定是法院搞错了，坚信自己无罪。约瑟夫·K不愿屈就命运，他同这场明知毫无希望的诉讼展开了一生的交战，公然向不公正的法庭挑战。在第一次审判时，他慷慨激昂地揭露法庭黑暗，为自己的无辜理奔波，找人帮忙，想搞个水落石出，亲自动手写抗辩书，从各个方面来说明自己无罪。他生怕自己在某一个最微小的地方犯过什么过错，竭力去寻找，捕捉而不可得，惶惶不可终日。然而一切努力都徒劳无益，K终于明白，要摆脱命运的安排，摆脱法律之网的束缚是不可能的。最后，他毫无反抗地被两个黑衣人架走，在碎石场的悬崖下被处死。
短篇小说《中国长城的建造》（1918—1919）描写中国的老百姓受无形权力的驱使，去建造毫无防御作用的长城，表现出了人在强权统治面前的无可奈何与无能为力。
《判决》（1912）是卡夫卡最喜爱的作品，表现了父子两代人的冲突。主人公格奥尔格·本德曼是个商人，自从几年前母亲去世后就和父亲一起生活，现在生意兴隆。他在房间里给一位多年前迁居俄国的朋友写信，告诉他自己订婚的消息。写完信来到父亲的房间，意外的是父亲对他态度非常不好，怀疑他根本就没有迁居到俄国的朋友，指责他背着自己做生意，还盼着自己早死。突然，父亲又转了话题，嘲笑格奥尔格在欺骗他朋友，而父亲自己倒是一直跟那位朋友通信，并早已把格奥尔格订婚的消息告诉他了。格奥尔格忍不住顶撞了父亲一句，父亲便判独生子去投河自尽。于是独生子真的投河死了。作品所描写的在父子两人的口角过程中，清白善良的儿子竟被父亲视为有罪和执拗残暴，在父亲的淫威之下，独生子害怕、恐惧到了丧失理智，以致自尽。父亲高大强壮而毫无理性，具有一切暴君的特征。这个貌似荒诞的故事是卡夫卡负罪心态的生动描述，父亲的判决也是卡夫卡对自己的判决。主人公临死前的低声辩白——“亲爱的父母亲，我可是一直爱你们的”，则是卡夫卡最隐秘心曲的吐露。这种故事的框架是典型的卡夫卡式的，是他内心深处的负罪感具象化之后的产物。然而作品的内涵显然不在于仅仅表现父子冲突，更在于在普遍意义上揭示出人类生存在怎样一种权威和凌辱之下。另一方面又展现人物为战胜父亲进行的一系列抗争。儿子把看来衰老的父亲如同孩子般放到床上后，真的把他“盖了起来”。从表面上看，他这样做是出于孝心；在深层含义上他是想埋葬父亲，以确立自己作为新的一家之主的地位。小说在体现了卡夫卡独特的“审父”意识的同时，也表现了对家长式的奥匈帝国统治者的不满。与此同时卡夫卡还通过这个独特的故事揭示了西方社会中现实生活的荒谬性和非理性。
长篇小说《城堡》（1922）是一部典型的表现主义小说，具有鲜明的卡夫卡特色。小说主人翁K 是一个名义上的土地测量员，应聘前往不知名的城堡工作。谁知堡内层层机构，没有人知道这项聘任，K遇上重重的阻挠，只好孤军奋战，和官僚权贵不懈地进行斗争，直到最后他始终没有进入城堡，也无法见到城堡最高当局。
《饥饿艺术家》（1922）中歌唱艺人为了生存，为了使自己的艺术达到“最高境界”，竟把绝路作为出路，以绝食表演作为谋生手段，宣称可以40天不进食而引吭高歌表演，进而发展到为绝食而绝食的“艺术”境界，仿佛饥饿真的就与人的肉体感觉离开了一样。40天过去了，他仍坚持要绝食表演下去，后被经理强迫进食。艺术家深为他的饥饿艺术未达佳境而遗憾，更为人们对他的艺术追求不理解不支持备感孤独，他把原本作为生计手段的挨饿，当成生存目的和真正“艺术”而孜孜以求，最后被送进马戏团，关在笼中与兽类一起供人参观，无异于真正的动物。骨瘦如柴的艺术家的意象有多重寓意，是人性异化、精神展品化和艺术异化的象征，是现代人痛苦悲哀现状的写照。
《洞穴》（1923—1924）是卡夫卡晚期创作中最具代表性的力作。主人公是一只不知名的人格化的鼹鼠类动物。作品采用第一人称自叙法，描写了“我”担心外来袭击，修筑了坚固地洞，贮存了大量食物，地洞虽畅通无阻，无懈可击，防御退逃自如，但 “我”还是时时处于惊恐之中，惶惶不可终日。 “我”又常年不断地改建地洞，辗转不停地把粮食从地洞的这个地方搬到那个地方，做好防御工作以防外界强敌前来袭击。它说：“即使从墙上掉下来的一粒沙子，不搞清它的去向我也不能放心。”它向一种未知的危险、向它周围无穷的一切发动了一场殊死的战斗：“我离开了世界，下到我的地洞里”，“如果我能平息我心中的冲突，我就相信自己已经很幸福了”。然而它永远在挖掘新的地道，在这个没有尽头的迷宫里，面对“一种我始终应该担心的东西，一件我始终应该有所防备的事情：有个人来了”。小说真实地反映了一次大战前后，普通小人物失却安全感、生活与生命得不到保障的恐惧心态。
《致科学院的报告》描写马戏团试图寻找“人类道路”而驯化猿猴成为会说话的人的故事。被关在狭窄笼子里的非洲猿猴，在人的逼迫下学人吐唾沫、学人喝烧酒、学人语喊“哈罗”。凄厉的哀号与悲鸣，传递出失却自由、没有出路的苦闷与悲观绝望情绪 。渐失猿性获取人性的过程畸变，正是人类异化的一种反向印证。
绝笔之作《女歌手约瑟芬或耗子民族》则描写了一个不幸族类与一个不幸艺术家，以及艺术三者之间的复杂关系。这部作品包含着卡夫卡有关艺术和艺术家以及与种族和民族关系的深刻见解。其含义比《饥饿艺术家》更为复杂深广。
卡夫卡还留下了大量的书信作品，这些书信作品掺杂了卡夫卡个人大量思想性的东西，文学、艺术价值丝毫不亚于其正规的文学作品。保留较多的有《致菲利斯.鲍威尔》（菲利斯鲍威尔系卡夫卡定、退婚多次的情人）、《致马克思.勃罗德》（即其好友Max Brod)以及超级长信《致父亲》。其中《致父亲》虽然是一封信，但在文学、教育学、心理学、伦理学等方面均极有价值。
除此之外，卡夫卡的一位年轻朋友还记录下了卡夫卡的一部分谈话，整理成《谈话录》出版。另有《他》、《杂感》等作品被保留下来。这些作品是以对话、陈述的形式写成，几乎是卡夫卡个人世界观的直接阐述，既有他本人主观感情的宣泄，也有他以极深邃的哲学语言对世界的客观描述。
* Description of a Struggle (Beschreibung eines Kampfes, 1904–1905)
* Wedding Preparations in the Country (Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande, 1907–1908)
* Contemplation (Betrachtung, 1904–1912)
* The Judgment (Das Urteil, 22–23 September 1912)
* The Stoker
* In the Penal Colony (In der Strafkolonie, October 1914)
* The Village Schoolmaster (Der Dorfschullehrer or Der Riesenmaulwurf, 1914–1915)
* Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor (Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle, 1915)
* The Warden of the Tomb (Der Gruftwächter, 1916–1917), the only play Kafka wrote
* The Hunter Gracchus (Der Jäger Gracchus, 1917)
* The Great Wall of China (Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, 1917)
* A Report to an Academy (Ein Bericht für eine Akademie, 1917)
* Jackals and Arabs (Schakale und Araber, 1917)
* A Country Doctor (Ein Landarzt, 1919)
* A Message from the Emperor (Eine kaiserliche Botschaft, 1919)
* An Old Manuscript (Ein altes Blatt, 1919)
* The Refusal (Die Abweisung, 1920)
* A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler, 1924)
* Investigations of a Dog (Forschungen eines Hundes, 1922)
* A Little Woman (Eine kleine Frau, 1923)
* First Sorrow (Erstes Leid, 1921–1922)
* The Burrow (Der Bau, 1923–1924)
* Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk (Josephine, die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse, 1924)
Many collections of the stories have been published, and they include:
* The Penal Colony: Stories and Short Pieces. New York: Schocken Books, 1948.
* The Complete Stories, (ed. Nahum N. Glatzer). New York: Schocken Books, 1971.
* The Basic Kafka. New York: Pocket Books, 1979.
* The Sons. New York: Schocken Books, 1989.
* The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1995.
* Contemplation. Twisted Spoon Press, 1998.
* Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Penguin Classics, 2007
Novellas
* The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung, November – December 1915)
Novels
* The Trial (Der Prozeß, 1925) (includes short story Before the Law)
* The Castle (Das Schloß, 1926)
* Amerika (Amerika or Der Verschollene, 1927)
Diaries and notebooks
* Diaries 1910–1923
* The Blue Octavo Notebooks
Letters
* Letter to His Father
* Letters to Felice
* Letters to Ottla
* Letters to Milena
* Letters to Family, Friends, and Editors
长篇小说《美国》(1912—1914年写成)，描写16岁的德国少年卡尔·罗斯曼，因受家中女仆的引诱，致使女仆怀孕，被父母赶出家门，放逐到美国的经历遭遇。作品所侧重的是人物在美国忧郁、孤独的内心感受。
长篇小说《审判》（1918年写成），作品讲述的是银行助理约瑟夫·K无故受审判并被处死的故事。约瑟夫·K在30岁生日的那天早晨醒来按铃声吃早餐时，进来的不是女仆而是两个官差，宣告他被捕，并被法庭审判有罪，他虽被捕却仍能自由生活，照常工作。他不知道自己在什么地方有罪，认为一定是法院搞错了，坚信自己无罪。约瑟夫·K不愿屈就命运，他同这场明知毫无希望的诉讼展开了一生的交战，公然向不公正的法庭挑战。在第一次审判时，他慷慨激昂地揭露法庭黑暗，为自己的无辜理奔波，找人帮忙，想搞个水落石出，亲自动手写抗辩书，从各个方面来说明自己无罪。他生怕自己在某一个最微小的地方犯过什么过错，竭力去寻找，捕捉而不可得，惶惶不可终日。然而一切努力都徒劳无益，K终于明白，要摆脱命运的安排，摆脱法律之网的束缚是不可能的。最后，他毫无反抗地被两个黑衣人架走，在碎石场的悬崖下被处死。
短篇小说《中国长城的建造》（1918—1919）描写中国的老百姓受无形权力的驱使，去建造毫无防御作用的长城，表现出了人在强权统治面前的无可奈何与无能为力。
《判决》（1912）是卡夫卡最喜爱的作品，表现了父子两代人的冲突。主人公格奥尔格·本德曼是个商人，自从几年前母亲去世后就和父亲一起生活，现在生意兴隆。他在房间里给一位多年前迁居俄国的朋友写信，告诉他自己订婚的消息。写完信来到父亲的房间，意外的是父亲对他态度非常不好，怀疑他根本就没有迁居到俄国的朋友，指责他背着自己做生意，还盼着自己早死。突然，父亲又转了话题，嘲笑格奥尔格在欺骗他朋友，而父亲自己倒是一直跟那位朋友通信，并早已把格奥尔格订婚的消息告诉他了。格奥尔格忍不住顶撞了父亲一句，父亲便判独生子去投河自尽。于是独生子真的投河死了。作品所描写的在父子两人的口角过程中，清白善良的儿子竟被父亲视为有罪和执拗残暴，在父亲的淫威之下，独生子害怕、恐惧到了丧失理智，以致自尽。父亲高大强壮而毫无理性，具有一切暴君的特征。这个貌似荒诞的故事是卡夫卡负罪心态的生动描述，父亲的判决也是卡夫卡对自己的判决。主人公临死前的低声辩白——“亲爱的父母亲，我可是一直爱你们的”，则是卡夫卡最隐秘心曲的吐露。这种故事的框架是典型的卡夫卡式的，是他内心深处的负罪感具象化之后的产物。然而作品的内涵显然不在于仅仅表现父子冲突，更在于在普遍意义上揭示出人类生存在怎样一种权威和凌辱之下。另一方面又展现人物为战胜父亲进行的一系列抗争。儿子把看来衰老的父亲如同孩子般放到床上后，真的把他“盖了起来”。从表面上看，他这样做是出于孝心；在深层含义上他是想埋葬父亲，以确立自己作为新的一家之主的地位。小说在体现了卡夫卡独特的“审父”意识的同时，也表现了对家长式的奥匈帝国统治者的不满。与此同时卡夫卡还通过这个独特的故事揭示了西方社会中现实生活的荒谬性和非理性。
长篇小说《城堡》（1922）是一部典型的表现主义小说，具有鲜明的卡夫卡特色。小说主人翁K 是一个名义上的土地测量员，应聘前往不知名的城堡工作。谁知堡内层层机构，没有人知道这项聘任，K遇上重重的阻挠，只好孤军奋战，和官僚权贵不懈地进行斗争，直到最后他始终没有进入城堡，也无法见到城堡最高当局。
《饥饿艺术家》（1922）中歌唱艺人为了生存，为了使自己的艺术达到“最高境界”，竟把绝路作为出路，以绝食表演作为谋生手段，宣称可以40天不进食而引吭高歌表演，进而发展到为绝食而绝食的“艺术”境界，仿佛饥饿真的就与人的肉体感觉离开了一样。40天过去了，他仍坚持要绝食表演下去，后被经理强迫进食。艺术家深为他的饥饿艺术未达佳境而遗憾，更为人们对他的艺术追求不理解不支持备感孤独，他把原本作为生计手段的挨饿，当成生存目的和真正“艺术”而孜孜以求，最后被送进马戏团，关在笼中与兽类一起供人参观，无异于真正的动物。骨瘦如柴的艺术家的意象有多重寓意，是人性异化、精神展品化和艺术异化的象征，是现代人痛苦悲哀现状的写照。
《洞穴》（1923—1924）是卡夫卡晚期创作中最具代表性的力作。主人公是一只不知名的人格化的鼹鼠类动物。作品采用第一人称自叙法，描写了“我”担心外来袭击，修筑了坚固地洞，贮存了大量食物，地洞虽畅通无阻，无懈可击，防御退逃自如，但 “我”还是时时处于惊恐之中，惶惶不可终日。 “我”又常年不断地改建地洞，辗转不停地把粮食从地洞的这个地方搬到那个地方，做好防御工作以防外界强敌前来袭击。它说：“即使从墙上掉下来的一粒沙子，不搞清它的去向我也不能放心。”它向一种未知的危险、向它周围无穷的一切发动了一场殊死的战斗：“我离开了世界，下到我的地洞里”，“如果我能平息我心中的冲突，我就相信自己已经很幸福了”。然而它永远在挖掘新的地道，在这个没有尽头的迷宫里，面对“一种我始终应该担心的东西，一件我始终应该有所防备的事情：有个人来了”。小说真实地反映了一次大战前后，普通小人物失却安全感、生活与生命得不到保障的恐惧心态。
《致科学院的报告》描写马戏团试图寻找“人类道路”而驯化猿猴成为会说话的人的故事。被关在狭窄笼子里的非洲猿猴，在人的逼迫下学人吐唾沫、学人喝烧酒、学人语喊“哈罗”。凄厉的哀号与悲鸣，传递出失却自由、没有出路的苦闷与悲观绝望情绪 。渐失猿性获取人性的过程畸变，正是人类异化的一种反向印证。
绝笔之作《女歌手约瑟芬或耗子民族》则描写了一个不幸族类与一个不幸艺术家，以及艺术三者之间的复杂关系。这部作品包含着卡夫卡有关艺术和艺术家以及与种族和民族关系的深刻见解。其含义比《饥饿艺术家》更为复杂深广。
卡夫卡还留下了大量的书信作品，这些书信作品掺杂了卡夫卡个人大量思想性的东西，文学、艺术价值丝毫不亚于其正规的文学作品。保留较多的有《致菲利斯.鲍威尔》（菲利斯鲍威尔系卡夫卡定、退婚多次的情人）、《致马克思.勃罗德》（即其好友Max Brod)以及超级长信《致父亲》。其中《致父亲》虽然是一封信，但在文学、教育学、心理学、伦理学等方面均极有价值。
除此之外，卡夫卡的一位年轻朋友还记录下了卡夫卡的一部分谈话，整理成《谈话录》出版。另有《他》、《杂感》等作品被保留下来。这些作品是以对话、陈述的形式写成，几乎是卡夫卡个人世界观的直接阐述，既有他本人主观感情的宣泄，也有他以极深邃的哲学语言对世界的客观描述。
* Description of a Struggle (Beschreibung eines Kampfes, 1904–1905)
* Wedding Preparations in the Country (Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande, 1907–1908)
* Contemplation (Betrachtung, 1904–1912)
* The Judgment (Das Urteil, 22–23 September 1912)
* The Stoker
* In the Penal Colony (In der Strafkolonie, October 1914)
* The Village Schoolmaster (Der Dorfschullehrer or Der Riesenmaulwurf, 1914–1915)
* Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor (Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle, 1915)
* The Warden of the Tomb (Der Gruftwächter, 1916–1917), the only play Kafka wrote
* The Hunter Gracchus (Der Jäger Gracchus, 1917)
* The Great Wall of China (Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, 1917)
* A Report to an Academy (Ein Bericht für eine Akademie, 1917)
* Jackals and Arabs (Schakale und Araber, 1917)
* A Country Doctor (Ein Landarzt, 1919)
* A Message from the Emperor (Eine kaiserliche Botschaft, 1919)
* An Old Manuscript (Ein altes Blatt, 1919)
* The Refusal (Die Abweisung, 1920)
* A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler, 1924)
* Investigations of a Dog (Forschungen eines Hundes, 1922)
* A Little Woman (Eine kleine Frau, 1923)
* First Sorrow (Erstes Leid, 1921–1922)
* The Burrow (Der Bau, 1923–1924)
* Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk (Josephine, die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse, 1924)
Many collections of the stories have been published, and they include:
* The Penal Colony: Stories and Short Pieces. New York: Schocken Books, 1948.
* The Complete Stories, (ed. Nahum N. Glatzer). New York: Schocken Books, 1971.
* The Basic Kafka. New York: Pocket Books, 1979.
* The Sons. New York: Schocken Books, 1989.
* The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1995.
* Contemplation. Twisted Spoon Press, 1998.
* Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Penguin Classics, 2007
Novellas
* The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung, November – December 1915)
Novels
* The Trial (Der Prozeß, 1925) (includes short story Before the Law)
* The Castle (Das Schloß, 1926)
* Amerika (Amerika or Der Verschollene, 1927)
Diaries and notebooks
* Diaries 1910–1923
* The Blue Octavo Notebooks
Letters
* Letter to His Father
* Letters to Felice
* Letters to Ottla
* Letters to Milena
* Letters to Family, Friends, and Editors
《变形记》（德语Die Verwandlung，英语The Metamorphosis）是卡夫卡的短篇小说代表作之一,是卡氏艺术上的最高成就，被认为是20世纪最伟大的小说作品之一。 在西方现代小说史上占有重要地位.小说写人变成动物,故事神秘离奇。《变形记》作为西方现代派文学的奠基之作，也是卡夫卡也被公认为现代派的鼻祖的重要作品之一，对后来的现代主义发展产生了深远的影响，可以说二战后的欧洲兴起的“荒诞派戏剧”、法国的“新小说”和美国的“黑色幽默”小说都受到了卡夫卡的启发。主人公格里高尔是个小人物。父亲破产，母亲生病，妹妹上学。沉重的家庭负担和父亲的债务，压得格里高尔喘不过气来。他拼命干活，目的是还清父债，改善家庭生活。在公司，他受老板的气，指望还清父债后辞职。可以说，对父母他是个孝子，对妹妹他是个好哥哥，对公司他是个好职员。变成甲虫，身体越来越差，他还为还清父债担忧，还眷恋家人，甚至为讨父亲欢心，自己艰难地乖乖爬回卧室。这样善良、忠厚而又富有责任感的人，最终被亲人抛弃。格里高尔的悲剧是令人心酸的，具有丰富的社会内涵。
《变形记》-作者简介
弗兰兹·卡夫卡弗兰兹·卡夫卡
弗兰兹·卡夫卡（Franz Kafka，1883年7月3日—1924年6月3日），奥地利小说家，20世纪德语小说家。文笔明净而想像奇诡，常采用寓言体,背后的寓意人言人殊，暂无（或永无）定论。
卡夫卡他是一位用德语写作的业余作家，他与法国作家马赛尔·普鲁斯特，爱尔兰作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯并称为西方现代主义文学的先驱和大师。卡夫卡生前默默无闻，孤独地奋斗，随着时间的流逝，他的价值才逐渐为人们所认识，作品引起了世界的震动，并在世界范围内形成一股“卡夫卡”热，经久不衰。
后世的批评家，往往过分强调卡夫卡作品阴暗的一面，忽视其明朗、风趣的地方，米兰·昆德拉在《被背叛的遗嘱》（Les testaments trahis）中试图纠正这一点。其实据布劳德的回忆，卡夫卡喜欢在朋友面前朗读自己的作品，读到得意的段落时会忍俊不禁，自己大笑起来。
卡夫卡一生的作品并不多，但对后世文学的影响却是极为深远的。美国诗人奥登认为：“他与我们时代的关系最近似但丁、莎士比亚、歌德与他们时代的关系。”卡夫卡的小说揭示了一种荒诞的充满非理性色彩的景象，个人式的、忧郁的、孤独的情绪，运用的是象征式的手法。三四十年代的超现实主义余党视之为同仁，四五十年代的荒诞派以之为先驱，六十年代的美国”黑色幽默“奉之为典范。
卡夫卡1909年开始发表作品，1915年因短篇小说《司炉工》获冯塔纳德国文学奖金。卡夫卡创作勤奋，但并不以发表、成名为目的。工作之余的创作是他寄托思想感情和排谴忧郁苦闷的手段。许多作品随意写来，并无结尾，他对自己的作品也多为不满，临终前让挚友布洛德全部烧毁其作品。布洛德出于友谊与崇敬之情，违背了卡夫卡遗愿，整理出版了《卡夫卡全集》（1950—1980）共九卷。其中八卷中的作品是首次刊出，引起文坛轰动。
《变形记》-内容简介
背景
1914年至1918年的第一次世界大战，使许多资本主义国家经济萧条，社会动荡，人民生活在水深火热之中。黑暗的现实，痛苦的生活，使得人们对资本主义社会失去信心，一方面寻求出路，锐意改革，一方面又陷于孤独、颓废、绝望之中。19世纪末至20世纪初，一些思想敏锐的艺术家认为世界是混乱的、荒诞的，他们著书立说，批判资本主义的人际关系，批判摧残人性的社会制度。第一次世界大战前后和第二次世界大战前后，现代主义文学应运而生。现代主义文学作品反映了资本主义社会的黑暗，人和人之间关系的冷酷，人对社会的绝望。艺术上强调使用极度夸张以至怪诞离奇的表现手法，描绘扭曲的人性，表现人的本能和无意识的主观感受，开掘个人的直觉、本能、无意识、梦幻、变态心理以至半疯狂、疯狂的言行、心理。现代主义的优秀文学作品探索人的心灵，为揭示人的内心世界提供了新的艺术手法。
内容
小说写人变成动物,故事神秘离奇：在《变形记》中，职业为推销员的主人翁一觉醒来，发现自己变成了一只巨大的跳蚤。
一天早晨,格里高尔从梦中醒来时发现自己躺在床上变成了一只巨大的甲虫,全身长出了许多只细得可怜的小腿,坚硬得像铁甲一样的背贴着床而仰卧着,不能翻身,也下不了床. 但他必须起来。他要静悄悄不受打扰地起床,穿起衣服,最要紧的是吃饱早饭,再考虑下一步该怎么办,因为他非常明白,躲在床上瞎想一气是想不出什么明堂的. 他还记得过去也是因为睡觉姿势不好,躺在床上时往往会觉得这儿那儿隐隐作痛,及至起来,就知道纯属心理作用,所以他殷切地盼望今天早晨的幻觉会逐渐消逝。格里高尔,虽然人己'物化'为虫子,但他还存在人的思维,还要象正常人一样生活和思考.由于担心赶不上五点钟的火车.格里高尔心情既焦急又恐慌,又生怕公司来人,自己这种面目如何见人!他竭力挣扎。 格里高尔慢慢地把椅子推向门边,接着便放开椅子,抓住门来支撑自己——他那些细腿的脚底上倒是颇有粘性的。他在门上靠了一会儿,喘过一口气来.接着他始用嘴巴转动插在锁孔里的钥匙.不幸的是,他并没什么牙齿。他得用什么来咬住钥匙呢 ？钥匙需要转动时,他便用嘴巴衔住它,自己也绕着锁孔转了一圈,好把钥匙扭过去,或者不如说,使用全身的重量使它转动.终于屈服的锁发出了响亮的咔塔一声,使格里高尔大为高兴··· ···
《变形记》-情节和主题
《变形记》创作于1912年，发表于1915年。小说分成三部分，用一、二、三标明。课文节选了原小说的一半内容。
第一部分
格里高尔发现自己变成“巨大的甲虫”，惊慌而又忧郁。父亲发现后大怒，把他赶回自己的卧室。
第二部分
格里高尔变了，养成了甲虫的生活习性，却保留了人的意识。他失业了，仍旧关心怎样还清父亲欠的债务，送妹妹上音乐学院。可是，一个月后，他成了全家的累赘。父亲、母亲、妹妹对他改变了态度。
第三部分
为了生存，家人只得打工挣钱，忍受不了格里高尔这个负担。妹妹终于提出把哥哥弄走。格里高尔又饿又病，陷入绝望，“他怀着深情和爱意想他的一家人”，“然后他的头就自己垂倒在地板上，他的鼻孔呼出了最后一丝气息”，死了。父亲、母亲和妹妹开始过着自己养活自己的新生活。
情节的发展由两条线索交互展开：
格里高尔：变成甲虫——成为累赘——绝望而死
家里亲人：惊慌、同情—— 逐渐憎恨——“把他弄走”
格里高尔自始至终关心家庭、怀恋亲人，可是亲人最终抛弃了他，对他的死无动于衷，而且决定去郊游。
作者描写这种人情反差，揭示了当时社会生活对人的异化，致使亲情淡薄，人性扭曲。《变形记》的主题具有强烈的批判性。卡夫卡创作的文学作品的主题，不同的读者从不同的角度，会有不同的体验和理解。有人认为《变形记》的主题是：表现人对自己命运的无能为力，人失去自我就处于绝境。也有人认为，格里高尔变成甲虫，无利于人，自行死亡；一家人重新工作，走向新生活；存在就是合理，生活规律是无情的。
《变形记》-人物和心理描写
主人公格里高尔是个小人物。父亲破产，母亲生病，妹妹上学。沉重的家庭
《变形记》《变形记》
负担和父亲的债务，压得格里高尔喘不过气来。他拼命干活，目的是还清父债，改善家庭生活。在公司，他受老板的气，指望还清父债后辞职。可以说，对父母他是个孝子，对妹妹他是个好哥哥，对公司他是个好职员。变成甲虫，身体越来越差，他还为还清父债担忧，还眷恋家人，甚至为讨父亲欢心，自己艰难地乖乖爬回卧室。这样善良、忠厚而又富有责任感的人，最终被亲人抛弃。格里高尔的悲剧是令人心酸的，具有丰富的社会内涵。
小说用心理描写的方法刻画格里高尔这个人物。格里高尔过去的生活、变甲虫后的思想感情和个性特点，都是通过心理描写表现出来的。
小说用许多笔墨写了变形后格里高尔悲哀凄苦的内心世界，格里高尔虽然变成了甲虫，但他的心理始终保持着人的状态，他突然发现自己变成大甲虫时的惊慌、忧郁，他考虑家庭经济状况时的焦虑、自责，他遭亲人厌弃后的绝望、痛苦，无不展示了一个善良、忠厚、富有责任感的小人物渴望人的理解和接受的心理。只是这种愿望终于被彻底的绝望所代替，弥漫在人物心头的是无边的孤独、冷漠与悲凉。应该说，《变形记》的内在主线就是格里高尔变成甲虫后的心理—情感流动的过程，主人公变成甲虫后的内心感受和心理活动是小说的主体。小说用内心独白、回忆、联想、幻想等手法，去表现人物的心理活动。他不断地回忆、联想过去和今后的事情，不时由于恐惧焦虑、痛苦和绝望而产生幻想、幻觉，并且在自由联想中经常出现时空倒错、逻辑混乱、思维跳跃等，具有一定的意识流特征。
《变形记》-评价
表现主义
卡夫卡的创作旺盛期正值德国表现主义文学运动的高潮时期。他的短篇小说《变形记》可以说是表现主义的典型之作。
表现主义的创作主张是遵循“表现论”美学原则而与传统现实主义的“模仿论”原则相对立的。它反对“复制世界”，即不把客观事物的表面现象作为真实的依据，而主张凭认真“观察”和重新思考去发现或洞察被习俗观念掩盖着的，而为一般人所不注意的真实。为此就需要一种特殊的艺术手段，把描写的客观对象加以 “陌生化”的处理，以造成审美主体与被描写的客体之间的距离，从而引起你的惊异，迫使你从另一个角度去探悉同一个事物的本质。这种艺术手段通称“间离法”，在布莱希特那里叫作“陌生化效果”。《变形记》的变形即是一种间离（或“陌生化”）技巧。作者想借以揭示人与人之间——包括伦常之间——表面亲亲热热，内心里却是极为孤独和陌生的实质；之所以亲亲热热，因为互相有共同的利害关系维系着，一旦割断这种关系，则那种亲热的外观马上就消失而暴露出冷酷和冷漠的真相。正如恩格斯在《英国工人阶级状况》一文中所揭示的：“维系家庭的纽带并不是家庭的爱，而是隐藏在财产共有关系之后的私人利益。”可谓一针见血。
当格里高尔身体健康，每月能拿回工资供养全家的时候，他是这个家庭里一名堂堂正正的而且受人尊敬的长子。但当他一旦患了不治之症，失去了公司里的职务，因而无法与家庭保持这种经济联系的时候，他在家庭里的一切尊严很快被剥夺干净，甚至连维持生命的正常饮食都无人过问。他变成“非人”，他的处境无异于动物。当然也可以让主人公得一种致命的重病或遭遇一次丧失劳动力的重残，然后写他被家人厌弃的过程。但这样的构思其艺术效果不如变形那样强烈。因为作为病人，他有口会说话，有眼睛会看人，你不能当着他的面表现出对他的厌倦，或不给他送饭吃。而一只甲虫，既不会说话，也没有表情，他的孤独感就更加令人感到凄然了——以上是从社会学观点去看的。
如果从西方流行的“异化”观念去看，这篇小说也是写人与人之间、人与自我之间关系的一篇杰作。在实际生活中，卡夫卡在家庭里与父亲的关系确实是不和谐的，但与母亲关系是正常的，与他第三个妹妹特别要好。但卡夫卡却在一封信中说：“我在自己的家里比陌生人还要陌生。”现在卡夫卡通过《变形记》暗示我们：即使像他的妹妹那样爱着哥哥，但一旦这位哥哥得了一种致命的绝症，久而久之，她也会像小说中的那位女郎那样厌弃他的。这里，卡夫卡写的是一种普遍的人类生存状况。人的变形，也是自我“异化”的一种写照。尤其是主人公变成甲虫以后，人的习性渐渐消失，而“虫性” 日益增加，仿佛格里高尔异化出人的世界以后，倒是在动物的世界里找到“虫”的自我了。这样的写法是绝妙的。
在人与人之间还没有取得和谐关系的世界里，人的变形也是一种象征，一切倒霉人的象征：人一旦遭遇不幸（丧失工作能力的疾病、伤残、政治袭击等），他就不再被社会承认，从而失去作为人的价值的“自我”，成为无异于低等动物的“非人”。
在现代艺术创作中，变形是一种怪诞的表现手段，是一种创造 “距离”或“陌生化”的技巧。按照美国美学家桑塔那那的说法，怪诞也是一种创造；它违背客观事物的表面真实，却并不违背客观事物的内在逻辑，因此它已进入现代美学的范畴，成为表现主义文学艺术偏爱的一种手法。表现主义文学创作强调从主观的内心感受出发，作品往往具有一种个人的真实性，这在卡夫卡笔下呈现为自传色彩。不仅主人公的身份（公司雇员）和心理（作为长子必须尽家庭义务）与作者近似，其他人物如父亲、母亲和妹妹几乎都可以与卡夫卡的家庭成员进行比较。
内涵
《变形记》这个故事表面看来荒诞不经，实则蕴涵了丰富而深刻的内容，主要包括以下方面：
1、首先，它真实地表现了西方现代资本主义社会里人的异化.在西方现代资本主义社会人(例如金钱,机器,产品,生产方式等)所驱使，所胁迫，所统治而不能自主,成为物的奴隶，进而失去人的本性，变为非人.。《变形记》主人公里高尔的故事正是人异化为非人这一哲学生存现状.。
2、其次，作品还表现了在现代社会里人的一种生存恐惧。人变甲虫，在这里象征着莫明其妙的巨大灾难的降临，这种人不能掌握自己命运的感觉表现 了现代西方人的某种精神状态，尤其是进入20世纪以后，两次世界大战的灾难，周期性的经济危机，超级大国的军备竞赛，核战争的威胁，环境污染和自然界生态平衡的破坏，这一切使人们对未来的命运处于一种不可知的恐惧状态之中。《变形记》中格里高尔的命运正反映了这种精神状态本质的东西。
3、再次，《变形记》还表现了现代社会中人与人之间的冷漠关系。小说详细的描写了家人对他从关心到厌恶到必欲置其于死地的过程，这一过程实际上是希望他恢复赚钱的能力到彻底绝望的过程。这是一个为家庭奉献了一切，却由于失去了原有的价值而被家庭抛弃的小人物的悲剧，这类悲剧在人情冷漠的现代社会里并不罕见。
作品创造的艺术世界，涵盖思想内容和艺术形式两个方面，是内容和形式的有机统一。就思想而言，较为曲折地反映了资本主义社会的种种弊端，将荒唐、人性异化看着特定历史条件下人类社会不可避免的现象，赋予作品以浓厚的虚无主义和悲观主义情调;就艺术而言,善于运用怪诞和象征的表现手法，特别是用富有表现力的手法去表现抽象的思想感情。
受存在主义学说的影响，作品深刻反映了世纪末情绪，表现了人的孤独与恐惧，展示在人们面前的是荒诞的世界和异化的主题, 形成了独持的“卡夫卡式”艺术风格和思想内容。特别是卡夫卡对表现主义手法运用自如,达到登峰造极之境界。其作品往往寓荒诞于真实之中，融幻想和怪诞于一体，或描写人与“非人”的人有机碰撞;或执著于精神层面的不可逾越，真理的不可寻求，或寄寓象征形象的塑造来展现人物的痛苦和困惑等等，构建了“卡夫卡式”艺术风格的美学概念。
《变形记》-世人心中的卡夫卡与《变形记》
卡夫卡是现代主义文学的开山祖师，《变形记》是他的代表作品之一。如果你想了解现代主义文学，最好的办法就是从反复阅读《变形记》开始。
在本书中卡夫卡描述了小职员格里高尔·萨姆沙突然变成一只使家人都厌恶的大甲虫的荒诞情节，借以揭示人与人之间--包括伦常之间--表面上亲亲热热，内心里却极为孤独和陌生的实质，生动而深刻地再现了资本主义社会中人与人之间的冷漠。在荒诞的、不合逻辑的世界里描绘"人类生活的一切活动及其逼真的细节"，这正是著名小说家卡夫卡的天赋之所在。
阅读《变形记》，有一种思维的乐趣，有一种睿智的感觉，思想上的所得显然多于心灵的收获，能从那极度的变形与夸张里体会到生命的悸动与冲突。本书比较完整地代表了卡夫卡的思想深度与创造特点，是西方现代主义文学的经典作品之一。
卡夫卡的《变形记》把我们带往不熟悉的另一世界，而其实，那另一世界原本属于我们的人性之邦，只是卡夫卡试图用另一套叙述方式与技巧来展示我们人性内部的黑暗王国。因为我们平时不朝它看上一眼，初见之下，才会感到它是如此的陌生、怪异和难以理解。
在描写人被物化的作品中，奥地利著名的"现代艺术的探险者"卡夫卡１９１２年完成的中篇小说《变形记》，是西方现代派文学中描写人被异化的杰作。
《影响历史进程的一百本书》：
西方文坛推崇"卡夫卡是本世纪最佳作家之一"，并说"如果要举出一个作家，他与我们时代的关系最近似但丁、莎士比亚、歌德与他们时代的关系，那么，卡夫卡是首先会想到的名字"。尽管这些赞词未免有过甚其词之嫌，但以《变形记》为代表的卡夫卡的作品，的确对西方现代派文学产生了很深的影响，以至形成了一门专门研究和讨论其作品的"卡夫卡学"。
《卡夫卡传》：
如果你读书是为了找乐赶时髦，卡夫卡的《变形记》绝对不适合你，不适合你美酒加咖啡的浪漫。书中荒诞的痛苦，会将你刚刚举起的酒杯轻易击碎。如果你不是一个盲目的乐观主义者，此书可谓精彩至极，可反复阅读、细细品味。
陌生的卡夫卡
什么是好小说这是个永远可以谈论却又永远难以求解的问题。但好小说不一定是好看的小说，不一定适合大众读者的阅读口味，因为好小说都是新鲜的、独特的。它在与传统阅读习惯"对抗"过程中提供了新的艺术因素，使习惯于传统阅读的读者不得不陷入难解之谜的深渊，所以也往往给人们留下了不怎么好看的印象。阅读卡夫卡的《变形记》，对读者是一种智力、情感上的挑战，因为他的作品是文学上的一个变数，很陌生，用传统的阅读方法很难解读。
《变形记》超越时空的限制，对事件的交代极其模糊，不指明具体的时间、地点和背景。甚至泯灭了幻象和日常生活之间的界限，虚幻与现实难解难分地结合成一个整体了。看来，卡夫卡的《变形记》把我们带往不熟悉的另一世界，而其实，那另一世界原本属于我们的人性之邦，只是卡夫卡试图用另一套叙述方式与技巧来展示我们人性内部的黑暗王国。因为我们平时不朝它看上一眼，初见之下，才会感到它是如此的陌生、怪异和难以理解。
捷克作家米兰·昆德拉在《小说的艺术》中称小说家为"存在的勘探者"，而把小说的使命确定为"通过想像的人物对存在进行深思"，"揭示存在不为人知的方面"。卡夫卡的《变形记》就是探究存在之谜的，但他所关注的重点是"不可视的内心生活"--人的内心同样作为现实的一部分而存在。他的《变形记》就是以深邃的寓意体现人类的某种常常被遗忘的存在状态。
卡夫卡的小说是"梦与真实的绝妙混合。既有对现代世界最清醒的审视，又有最疯狂的想像"。所以如果我们联想一下现实生活中类似的事情，当我们自身的存在被一些谁也无法预料、无法逃避的境况所决定时，生活的荒诞与这个故事的荒诞就有了一种比拟的联系，那么摆在我们面前的问题就尖锐了：当我们突然无法动弹，在完全无能为力，丧失了人的一切自主性的情况下，我们应该怎么办卡夫卡的小说带出了我们深深的疑问。显然，在如此荒诞的突变中，卡夫卡敏锐地觉察到现实生活某些带本质性的问题，才用这种象征、夸张甚至荒诞的手法加以表现。
卡夫卡冷峻的眼光聚焦的是"真"。在他看来，"真"若要体现，就必须借助于"丑"。于是《变形记》中出现了大量的丑陋的意象，卡夫卡毫不客气地放逐了文学的审美价值，似乎他觉得丑就是丑，甚至根本没必要用美作为小说结束之前的一点安慰。所以，一直到小说的结尾，卡夫卡也没有让这些丑陋的意象从背面发出一点美的光芒。
最后引用一句王小波的话来结束本文，他说："我正等待着有一天，自己能够打开一本书不再期待它有趣，只期待自己能受到教育。"《变形记》就是一本这样的好书。
在西方文学中我学到了卡夫卡这位作家及他的作品，对于卡夫卡，我不是很熟悉，但他诸多成果中的一部《变形记》却让我难以忘怀。
《变形记》为现代主义文学的奠基之作，卡夫卡是现代主义文学的先驱，对后来现代主义文学的发展产生了深远的影响。卡夫卡的创作旺盛期正值德国表现主义文学运动的高潮时期。他的短篇小说《变形记》可以说是表现主义的典型之作。1998 年，英国BBC广播电台作了一个系列节目，回顾20世纪的艺术经典，介绍100部20世纪最有影响的艺术作品，第一集就是关于卡夫卡的《变形记》。变形似乎一直是人类的一种理想，也是文学、影视作品中的经典题材，我小时便羡慕孙悟空的七十二变，今天的孩子也看着变形金刚一类的动画片中威风凛凛的变形动作兴奋不已，而且百看不厌。变形似乎是童话的专利。但卡夫卡的《变形记》却是极为独特的，格里高尔也变形了，但他似乎变得并不轻松，让我们读起来也并不觉得兴奋，卡夫卡究竟想要告诉我们什么？
“一天早晨，格里高尔。萨姆沙从不安的睡梦中醒来，发现自己躺在床上变成了一只巨大的甲虫。”（选自北京燕山出版社中篇小说集《变形记》中第86页）这便是故事的开篇，我本以为是科幻小说，谁知道不是。卡夫卡用一种介呼于身临其境的独白，平静的表叙着这个极尽荒诞的故事。但在他的笔下，不会有荒诞，有的只是真实，让人感觉恐慌的真实。一种新的写法的诞生，让后世不少人为之惊诧，“原来文学也可以这么写！”。又一位大师就这样横空出世了。记得美国作家奥登说过：就作家与其处的时代的关系而论，当代能与但丁、莎士比亚和歌德相提并论的第一人是卡夫卡。
表现主义的创作主张是遵循“表现论”美学原则而与传统现实主义的“模仿论”原则相对立的。它反对“复制世界”，即不把客观事物的表面现象作为真实的依据，而主张凭认真“观察”和重新思考去发现或洞察被习俗观念掩盖着的，而为一般人所不注意的真实。为此就需要一种特殊的艺术手段，把描写的客观对象加以“陌生化”的处理，以造成审美主体与被描写的客体之间的距离，从而引起你的惊异，迫使你从另一个角度去探悉同一个事物的本质。这种艺术手段通称“间离法”，在布莱希特那里叫作“陌生化效果”。《变形记》的变形即是一种间离（或“陌生化”）技巧。作者想借以揭示人与人之间——包括伦常之间——表面亲亲热热，内心里却是极为孤独和陌生的实质；之所以亲亲热热，因为互相有共同的利害关系维系着，一旦割断这种关系，则那种亲热的外观马上就消失而暴露出冷酷和冷漠的真相。正如恩格斯在《英国工人阶级状况》一文中所揭示的：“维系家庭的纽带并不是家庭的爱，而是隐藏在财产共有关系之后的私人利益。”可谓一针见血。你看，当格里高尔身体健康，每月能拿回工资供养全家的时候，他是这个家庭里一名堂堂正正的而且受人尊敬的长子。
但当他一旦患了不治之症，失去了公司里的职务，因而无法与家庭保持这种经济联系的时候，他在家庭里的一切尊严很快被剥夺干净，甚至连维持生命的正常饮食都无人过问。
他变成“非人”，他的处境无异于动物。当然也可以让主人公得一种致命的重病或遭遇一次丧失劳动力的重残，然后写他被家人厌弃的过程。但这样的构思其艺术效果不如变形那样强烈。因为作为病人，他有口会说话，有眼睛会看人，你不能当着他的面表现出对他的厌倦，或不给他送饭吃。而一只甲虫，既不会说话，也没有表情，他的孤独感就更加令人感到凄然了。
如果从西方流行的“异化”观念去看，这篇小说也是写人与人之间、人与自我之间关系的一篇杰作。在实际生活中，卡夫卡在家庭里与父亲的关系确实是不和谐的，但与母亲关系是正常的，与他第三个妹妹特别要好。但卡夫卡却在一封信中说：“我在自己的家里比陌生人还要陌生。”现在卡夫卡通过《变形记》暗示我们：即使像他的妹妹那样爱着哥哥，但一旦这位哥哥得了一种致命的绝症，久而久之，她也会像小说中的那位女郎那样厌弃他的。这里，卡夫卡写的是一种普遍的人类生存状况。人的变形，也是自我“异化”的一种写照。尤其是主人公变成甲虫以后，人的习性渐渐消失，而“虫性”
日益增加，仿佛格里高尔异化出人的世界以后，倒是在动物的世界里找到“虫”的自我了。这样的写法是绝妙的。
“格里高尔的眼睛接着又朝窗口望去，天空很阴暗——可以听到雨打点打在窗槛上的声音——他的心情也变的很忧郁了。”
“这时候天更亮了，可以清清楚楚地看到街对面一幢长得没有尽头的深灰色的建筑——这是一所医院——上面惹眼地开着一排排呆板的窗子；雨还在下，不过已成为一滴滴看得清的大颗粒了。”（以上均节选自《变形记》）。
上面的两段都是对窗外景物的描写，卡夫卡在轻易之间便把气氛渲染的如此浓重。为主旋律的叙述又增加的完整的节拍。仿佛各个方面的特征都是为了主题的烘托，而主题又毫无痕迹的呈现出各个方面的特征。这种完美统一的连贯，使得文章让人觉得如此的酣畅淋漓，故事好象就在自己的身边发生，让人欲罢不能。
1911年出现的《变形记》是晦涩的，深奥的，即使在近一百年后的今天，这个伟大的预言一样的小说文本也并不是那么容易理解。即使读懂了这个寓言般的小说，又如何感知卡夫卡之所以悲哀呢？况且还有比悲哀更为深远的东西包裹在其后。
Plot summary
Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed from a human into a monstrous insect. Rather than lament his transformation, Gregor worries about how he will get to his job as a traveling salesman; Gregor is the sole financial provider for his parents and sister, Grete, and their comfort is dependent on his ability to work. When Gregor's supervisor arrives at the house and demands Gregor come out of his room, Gregor manages to roll out of bed and unlock his door. His appearance horrifies his family and supervisor; his supervisor flees and Gregor attempts to chase after him, but his family shoos him back into his room. Grete attempts to care for her brother by providing him with milk and the stale, rotten food he now prefers. Gregor also develops the fears of an insect, being effectively shooed away by hissing voices and stamping feet. However, Gregor remains a devoted and loving son, and takes to hiding beneath a sofa whenever someone enters his room in order to shield them from his insect form. When alone, he amuses himself by looking out of his window and crawling up the walls and on the ceiling.
No longer able to rely on Gregor's income, the other family members are forced to take on jobs and Grete's caretaking deteriorates. One day, when Gregor emerges from his room, his father chases him around the dining room table and pelts him with apples. One of the apples becomes embedded in his back, causing an infection. Due to his infection and his hunger, Gregor is soon barely able to move at all. Later, his parents take in lodgers and use Gregor's room as a dumping area for unwanted objects. Gregor becomes dirty, covered in dust and old bits of rotten food. One day, Gregor hears Grete playing her violin to entertain the lodgers. Gregor is attracted to the music, and slowly walks into the dining room despite himself, entertaining a fantasy of getting his beloved sister to join him in his room and play her violin for him. The lodgers see him and give notice, refusing to pay the rent they owe, even threatening to sue the family for harboring him while they stayed there. Grete determines that the monstrous insect is no longer Gregor, since Gregor would have left them out of love and taken their burden away, and claims that they must get rid of it. Gregor retreats to his room and collapses, finally succumbing to his wound.
The point of view shifts as, upon discovery of his corpse, the family feels an enormous burden has been lifted from them, and start planning for the future again. The family discovers that they aren't doing financially bad at all, especially since, following Gregor's demise, they can take a smaller flat. The brief process of forgetting Gregor and shutting him from their lives is quickly completed. The tale concludes with the mother and father taking note of Grete's new womanhood and growth.
Characters
Gregor Samsa
Gregor is the protagonist of the story. He works hard as a travelling salesman to provide for his sister and parents. He wakes up one morning as a monstrous insect. After the transformation, Gregor was unable to work, causing his father to work at a bank to provide for the family and pay owed debts.
Grete Samsa
Grete is Gregor's younger sister, who becomes his caretaker after the metamorphosis. At the beginning Grete and Gregor have a strong relationship but this relationship fades with time. While Grete originally volunteers to feed him and clean his room, throughout the story she grows more and more impatient with the task to the point of deliberately leaving messes in his room out of spite. She plays the violin and dreams of going to the conservatorium, a dream that Gregor was going to make come true. He was going to announce this on Christmas Eve. To help provide an income for the family after Gregor's transformation she starts working as a salesgirl in a shop.
Mr Samsa
Gregor's father owes a large debt to Gregor's boss, which is why Gregor can't quit his hated job. He is lazy and elderly, while Gregor works, but when, after the metamorphosis, Gregor is unable to provide for the family, he is shown to be an able-bodied worker. He also attempts to kill Gregor when he is discovered in his monstrous state.
Mrs Samsa
Mrs Samsa is the mother of Grete and Gregor. She is initially shocked at Gregor's transformation, however eventually decides she wants to enter his room. This seems too much for her to handle, and Gregor hides away from her in an attempt to protect her. Mrs Samsa is conflicted in her maternal concern and sympathy for Gregor, and her inherent fear of his new monstrous form.
Chief Clerk
The Chief Clerk is Gregor's boss and the person to whom Mr Samsa is in debt. He pressures Gregor to prepare for his workday with a urgency pertaining to the precarious position of his job.
Tenants
Three tenants are invited to live with the Samsas to supplement their income. The family shows great deference to these tenants throughout the length of their stay. They are fussy and cannot stand dirtiness, eventually leading to the point when they discover Gregor and threaten the family with a lawsuit, apparently believing he's just an extraordinarily large insect.
Lost in translation
The opening sentence of the novella is famous in English:
"When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous insect."
"Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt."
Kafka's sentences often deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved due to the construction of sentences in German that require that the participle be positioned at the end of the sentence; in the above sentence, the equivalent of 'changed' is the final word, 'verwandelt'. Such constructions are not replicable in English, so it is up to the translator to provide the reader with the same effect found in the original text.
English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as "insect", but this is not strictly accurate. In Middle German, Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice" and is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" – a very general term, unlike the scientific sounding "insect". Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor as any specific thing, but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation. The phrasing used in the David Wyllie translation and Joachim Neugroschel is "transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin".
However, "vermin" denotes in English many animals (particularly mice, rats and foxes) and in Kafka's letter to his publisher of 25 October 1915, in which he discusses his concern about the cover illustration for the first edition, he uses the term "Insekt", saying "The insect itself is not to be drawn. It is not even to be seen from a distance." While this shows his concern not to give precise information about the type of creature Gregor becomes, the use of the general term "insect" can therefore be defended on the part of translators wishing to improve the readability of the end text.
Ungeziefer has sometimes been translated as "cockroach", "dung beetle", "beetle", and other highly specific terms. The term "dung beetle" or Mistkäfer is in fact used in the novella by the cleaning lady near the end of the story, but it is not used in the narration. Ungeziefer also denotes a sense of separation between him and his environment: he is unclean and must therefore be excluded.
Vladimir Nabokov, who was a lepidopterist as well as writer and literary critic, insisted that Gregor was not a cockroach, but a beetle with wings under his shell, and capable of flight — if only he had known it. Nabokov left a sketch annotated "just over three feet long" on the opening page of his (heavily corrected) English teaching copy. In his accompanying lecture notes, Nabokov discusses the type of vermin Gregor has been transformed into, concluding that Gregor "is not, technically, a dung beetle. He is merely a big beetle. (I must add that neither Gregor nor Kafka saw that beetle any too clearly.)"
Adaptations to other media
There are several film versions, including:
* Metamorphosis (1987) at the Internet Movie Database
* Die Verwandlung (1975) at the Internet Movie Database
* Förvandlingen (1976/I) at the Internet Movie Database
* The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa (1977) at the Internet Movie Database by Caroline Leaf
* The Metamorphosis of Franz Kafka (1993) by Carlos Atanes.
* Prevrashcheniye (2002) at the Internet Movie Database
* Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis acoustical liberation from LibriVox.
* Metamorfosis (2004) at the Internet Movie Database
* A Metamorfose (2007) at the Internet Movie Database
* Immersive Kafka: The Metamorphosis / Atvaltozas (2010) by Sandor Kardos, Barnabas Takacs.
A stage adaptation was performed by Steven Berkoff in 1969. Berkoff's text was also used for the libretto to Brian Howard's 1983 opera Metamorphosis. Another stage adaptation was performed in 2006 by the Icelandic company Vesturport, showing at the Lyric Hammersmith, London. That adaptation is set to be performed in the Icelandic theater fall of 2008. Another stage adaptation was performed in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2005 by the Centre for Asian Theatre. That performance is still continuing in Bangladesh. The Lyric Theatre Company toured the UK in 2006 with its stage adaptation of Metamorphosis, accompanied by a unique soundtrack performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. American comic artist Peter Kuper illustrated a graphic-novel version, first published by the Crown Publishing Group in 2003. Megan Rees is currently working on a new stage adaptation that should be published by 2010.
Allusions/references from other works
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (February 2008)
Stage
* Philip Glass composed incidental music for two separate theater productions of the story. These two themes, along with two themes from the Errol Morris film The Thin Blue Line, were incorporated into a five-part piece of music for solo piano entitled Metamorphosis.
Literature
Jacob M. Appel's H. E. Francis Award-winning story, "The Vermin Episode," retells The Metamorphosis from the point-of-view of the Samsas' neighbors.
Film
* The 2005 film The Producers includes a scene where the two protagonists are searching for a sure flop. The opening for the play of Metamorphosis is read and rejected for being too good.
* The 2008 film The Reader features Ralph Fiennes reading aloud from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.
* In 2002 a Russian version titled Prevrashchenie was directed by Valery Fokin with Yevgeny Mironov as Gregor.
* In 1995, the actor Peter Capaldi won an Oscar for his short-film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life. The plot of the film has the author (played by Richard E. Grant) trying to write the opening line of Metamorphosis and experimenting with various things that Gregor might turn into, such as a banana or a kangaroo. The film is also notable for a number of Kafkaesque moments.
* In 1993 Carlos Atanes directed The Metamorphosis of Franz Kafka, a controversial adaptation based on The Metamorphosis as well on biographical details from Kafka's family.
* in Noah Baumbach's Squid and the Whale, Jeff Daniels and Jesse Eisenberg make several references to The Metamorphosis
Animation
* In The Venture Bros. episode "Mid-Life Chrysalis", Dr. Venture's transformation into a caterpillar slightly mirrors that of Gregor Samsa's transformation.
* A reference appears in the 2006 Aardman Animations feature film Flushed Away when a refrigerator falls through the floor of the protagonist Rita's home and a giant cockroach appears reading a copy of The Metamorphosis.
* In the short-lived TV animated series Extreme Ghostbusters, season 1, episode 11 ("The Crawler"), the bug monster (that resembles a giant insect) calls himself Gregor Samsa when trying to seduce Janine to be his queen in his human form.
* Jack Feldstein created a tribute to Gregor Samsa and The Metamorphosis in his stream-of-consciousness neon animation "Shmetamorphosis" about a bug who hysterically bursts into therapist Bertold Krasenstein's office, begging to be saved.
* In the first season of the anime Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei there is an episode titled "One Morning, When Gregor Samsa Awoke, He was Carrying a Mikoshi", an obvious parody of the first line of The Metamorphosis.
Comics
* American cartoonist Robert Crumb drew an illustrated adaptation of the novella which appears in the book Introducing Kafka.
* In the comic book Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez, the eponymous Johnny is plagued by a roach that keeps appearing in his house no matter how many times he kills it (whether or not this roach is immortal or simply many different roaches is up to interpretation) and is affectionately named "Mr. Samsa".
* In The Simpsons book Treehouse of Horror Spook-tacular, Matt Groening did a spoof on the metamorphosis, entitling it Metamorphosimpsons. In addition, in one of the episodes, Lisa attends a place called "Cafe Kafka", which is shown to be a popular place for college students, and features several posters of cockroaches in Bohemian-like poses.
* Peter Kuper (illustrator of Kafka's Give It Up!) also adapted Kafka's Metamorphosis.
Television
* In the TV series Supernatural, the 4th episode of season 4 is named "Metamorphosis."
* The TV series Smallville, which is a retelling of Superman's early years as a teenager, alludes to Kafka's story in the season one, episode "Metamorphosis" where the 'Freak of the Week' is transformed into a being with insect-like abilities after suffering from exposure to meteor-infected insects (Kryptonite-induced).
* In the TV series Home Movies there is an entire episode based on Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis as a Rock Opera.
* In the TV series The Venture Bros., in the 8th episode of season 1, Dr. Venture undergoes a metamorphosis and alludes to the story.
* In the TV series The Ricky Gervais Show, in the 11th episode of season 1, named "Beetles," the characters discuss the potential of Karl Pilkingtons's metamorphosis.
Music
* Gregor Samsa is the name of an American post-rock band.
* The Rolling Stones' 1975 album Metamorphosis features cover art of the band members with insect heads.
* Showbread has a song named "Sampsa Meets Kafka". The misspelling of Samsa is intentional. Josh Dies the lead singer also lists Kafka as one of his biggest influences.
* The name of the German darkwave/metal/neoclassical band Samsas Traum is inspired by the story.
Video games
* Bad Mojo is a 1996 computer game, the storyline of which is loosely based on The Metamorphosis.
* Spore: Galactic Adventures made an adventure version of The Metamorphosis.
* In the 2001 Wizardry 8, the first boss is a gigantic cockroach named "Gregor".
《变形记》-作者简介
弗兰兹·卡夫卡弗兰兹·卡夫卡
弗兰兹·卡夫卡（Franz Kafka，1883年7月3日—1924年6月3日），奥地利小说家，20世纪德语小说家。文笔明净而想像奇诡，常采用寓言体,背后的寓意人言人殊，暂无（或永无）定论。
卡夫卡他是一位用德语写作的业余作家，他与法国作家马赛尔·普鲁斯特，爱尔兰作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯并称为西方现代主义文学的先驱和大师。卡夫卡生前默默无闻，孤独地奋斗，随着时间的流逝，他的价值才逐渐为人们所认识，作品引起了世界的震动，并在世界范围内形成一股“卡夫卡”热，经久不衰。
后世的批评家，往往过分强调卡夫卡作品阴暗的一面，忽视其明朗、风趣的地方，米兰·昆德拉在《被背叛的遗嘱》（Les testaments trahis）中试图纠正这一点。其实据布劳德的回忆，卡夫卡喜欢在朋友面前朗读自己的作品，读到得意的段落时会忍俊不禁，自己大笑起来。
卡夫卡一生的作品并不多，但对后世文学的影响却是极为深远的。美国诗人奥登认为：“他与我们时代的关系最近似但丁、莎士比亚、歌德与他们时代的关系。”卡夫卡的小说揭示了一种荒诞的充满非理性色彩的景象，个人式的、忧郁的、孤独的情绪，运用的是象征式的手法。三四十年代的超现实主义余党视之为同仁，四五十年代的荒诞派以之为先驱，六十年代的美国”黑色幽默“奉之为典范。
卡夫卡1909年开始发表作品，1915年因短篇小说《司炉工》获冯塔纳德国文学奖金。卡夫卡创作勤奋，但并不以发表、成名为目的。工作之余的创作是他寄托思想感情和排谴忧郁苦闷的手段。许多作品随意写来，并无结尾，他对自己的作品也多为不满，临终前让挚友布洛德全部烧毁其作品。布洛德出于友谊与崇敬之情，违背了卡夫卡遗愿，整理出版了《卡夫卡全集》（1950—1980）共九卷。其中八卷中的作品是首次刊出，引起文坛轰动。
《变形记》-内容简介
背景
1914年至1918年的第一次世界大战，使许多资本主义国家经济萧条，社会动荡，人民生活在水深火热之中。黑暗的现实，痛苦的生活，使得人们对资本主义社会失去信心，一方面寻求出路，锐意改革，一方面又陷于孤独、颓废、绝望之中。19世纪末至20世纪初，一些思想敏锐的艺术家认为世界是混乱的、荒诞的，他们著书立说，批判资本主义的人际关系，批判摧残人性的社会制度。第一次世界大战前后和第二次世界大战前后，现代主义文学应运而生。现代主义文学作品反映了资本主义社会的黑暗，人和人之间关系的冷酷，人对社会的绝望。艺术上强调使用极度夸张以至怪诞离奇的表现手法，描绘扭曲的人性，表现人的本能和无意识的主观感受，开掘个人的直觉、本能、无意识、梦幻、变态心理以至半疯狂、疯狂的言行、心理。现代主义的优秀文学作品探索人的心灵，为揭示人的内心世界提供了新的艺术手法。
内容
小说写人变成动物,故事神秘离奇：在《变形记》中，职业为推销员的主人翁一觉醒来，发现自己变成了一只巨大的跳蚤。
一天早晨,格里高尔从梦中醒来时发现自己躺在床上变成了一只巨大的甲虫,全身长出了许多只细得可怜的小腿,坚硬得像铁甲一样的背贴着床而仰卧着,不能翻身,也下不了床. 但他必须起来。他要静悄悄不受打扰地起床,穿起衣服,最要紧的是吃饱早饭,再考虑下一步该怎么办,因为他非常明白,躲在床上瞎想一气是想不出什么明堂的. 他还记得过去也是因为睡觉姿势不好,躺在床上时往往会觉得这儿那儿隐隐作痛,及至起来,就知道纯属心理作用,所以他殷切地盼望今天早晨的幻觉会逐渐消逝。格里高尔,虽然人己'物化'为虫子,但他还存在人的思维,还要象正常人一样生活和思考.由于担心赶不上五点钟的火车.格里高尔心情既焦急又恐慌,又生怕公司来人,自己这种面目如何见人!他竭力挣扎。 格里高尔慢慢地把椅子推向门边,接着便放开椅子,抓住门来支撑自己——他那些细腿的脚底上倒是颇有粘性的。他在门上靠了一会儿,喘过一口气来.接着他始用嘴巴转动插在锁孔里的钥匙.不幸的是,他并没什么牙齿。他得用什么来咬住钥匙呢 ？钥匙需要转动时,他便用嘴巴衔住它,自己也绕着锁孔转了一圈,好把钥匙扭过去,或者不如说,使用全身的重量使它转动.终于屈服的锁发出了响亮的咔塔一声,使格里高尔大为高兴··· ···
《变形记》-情节和主题
《变形记》创作于1912年，发表于1915年。小说分成三部分，用一、二、三标明。课文节选了原小说的一半内容。
第一部分
格里高尔发现自己变成“巨大的甲虫”，惊慌而又忧郁。父亲发现后大怒，把他赶回自己的卧室。
第二部分
格里高尔变了，养成了甲虫的生活习性，却保留了人的意识。他失业了，仍旧关心怎样还清父亲欠的债务，送妹妹上音乐学院。可是，一个月后，他成了全家的累赘。父亲、母亲、妹妹对他改变了态度。
第三部分
为了生存，家人只得打工挣钱，忍受不了格里高尔这个负担。妹妹终于提出把哥哥弄走。格里高尔又饿又病，陷入绝望，“他怀着深情和爱意想他的一家人”，“然后他的头就自己垂倒在地板上，他的鼻孔呼出了最后一丝气息”，死了。父亲、母亲和妹妹开始过着自己养活自己的新生活。
情节的发展由两条线索交互展开：
格里高尔：变成甲虫——成为累赘——绝望而死
家里亲人：惊慌、同情—— 逐渐憎恨——“把他弄走”
格里高尔自始至终关心家庭、怀恋亲人，可是亲人最终抛弃了他，对他的死无动于衷，而且决定去郊游。
作者描写这种人情反差，揭示了当时社会生活对人的异化，致使亲情淡薄，人性扭曲。《变形记》的主题具有强烈的批判性。卡夫卡创作的文学作品的主题，不同的读者从不同的角度，会有不同的体验和理解。有人认为《变形记》的主题是：表现人对自己命运的无能为力，人失去自我就处于绝境。也有人认为，格里高尔变成甲虫，无利于人，自行死亡；一家人重新工作，走向新生活；存在就是合理，生活规律是无情的。
《变形记》-人物和心理描写
主人公格里高尔是个小人物。父亲破产，母亲生病，妹妹上学。沉重的家庭
《变形记》《变形记》
负担和父亲的债务，压得格里高尔喘不过气来。他拼命干活，目的是还清父债，改善家庭生活。在公司，他受老板的气，指望还清父债后辞职。可以说，对父母他是个孝子，对妹妹他是个好哥哥，对公司他是个好职员。变成甲虫，身体越来越差，他还为还清父债担忧，还眷恋家人，甚至为讨父亲欢心，自己艰难地乖乖爬回卧室。这样善良、忠厚而又富有责任感的人，最终被亲人抛弃。格里高尔的悲剧是令人心酸的，具有丰富的社会内涵。
小说用心理描写的方法刻画格里高尔这个人物。格里高尔过去的生活、变甲虫后的思想感情和个性特点，都是通过心理描写表现出来的。
小说用许多笔墨写了变形后格里高尔悲哀凄苦的内心世界，格里高尔虽然变成了甲虫，但他的心理始终保持着人的状态，他突然发现自己变成大甲虫时的惊慌、忧郁，他考虑家庭经济状况时的焦虑、自责，他遭亲人厌弃后的绝望、痛苦，无不展示了一个善良、忠厚、富有责任感的小人物渴望人的理解和接受的心理。只是这种愿望终于被彻底的绝望所代替，弥漫在人物心头的是无边的孤独、冷漠与悲凉。应该说，《变形记》的内在主线就是格里高尔变成甲虫后的心理—情感流动的过程，主人公变成甲虫后的内心感受和心理活动是小说的主体。小说用内心独白、回忆、联想、幻想等手法，去表现人物的心理活动。他不断地回忆、联想过去和今后的事情，不时由于恐惧焦虑、痛苦和绝望而产生幻想、幻觉，并且在自由联想中经常出现时空倒错、逻辑混乱、思维跳跃等，具有一定的意识流特征。
《变形记》-评价
表现主义
卡夫卡的创作旺盛期正值德国表现主义文学运动的高潮时期。他的短篇小说《变形记》可以说是表现主义的典型之作。
表现主义的创作主张是遵循“表现论”美学原则而与传统现实主义的“模仿论”原则相对立的。它反对“复制世界”，即不把客观事物的表面现象作为真实的依据，而主张凭认真“观察”和重新思考去发现或洞察被习俗观念掩盖着的，而为一般人所不注意的真实。为此就需要一种特殊的艺术手段，把描写的客观对象加以 “陌生化”的处理，以造成审美主体与被描写的客体之间的距离，从而引起你的惊异，迫使你从另一个角度去探悉同一个事物的本质。这种艺术手段通称“间离法”，在布莱希特那里叫作“陌生化效果”。《变形记》的变形即是一种间离（或“陌生化”）技巧。作者想借以揭示人与人之间——包括伦常之间——表面亲亲热热，内心里却是极为孤独和陌生的实质；之所以亲亲热热，因为互相有共同的利害关系维系着，一旦割断这种关系，则那种亲热的外观马上就消失而暴露出冷酷和冷漠的真相。正如恩格斯在《英国工人阶级状况》一文中所揭示的：“维系家庭的纽带并不是家庭的爱，而是隐藏在财产共有关系之后的私人利益。”可谓一针见血。
当格里高尔身体健康，每月能拿回工资供养全家的时候，他是这个家庭里一名堂堂正正的而且受人尊敬的长子。但当他一旦患了不治之症，失去了公司里的职务，因而无法与家庭保持这种经济联系的时候，他在家庭里的一切尊严很快被剥夺干净，甚至连维持生命的正常饮食都无人过问。他变成“非人”，他的处境无异于动物。当然也可以让主人公得一种致命的重病或遭遇一次丧失劳动力的重残，然后写他被家人厌弃的过程。但这样的构思其艺术效果不如变形那样强烈。因为作为病人，他有口会说话，有眼睛会看人，你不能当着他的面表现出对他的厌倦，或不给他送饭吃。而一只甲虫，既不会说话，也没有表情，他的孤独感就更加令人感到凄然了——以上是从社会学观点去看的。
如果从西方流行的“异化”观念去看，这篇小说也是写人与人之间、人与自我之间关系的一篇杰作。在实际生活中，卡夫卡在家庭里与父亲的关系确实是不和谐的，但与母亲关系是正常的，与他第三个妹妹特别要好。但卡夫卡却在一封信中说：“我在自己的家里比陌生人还要陌生。”现在卡夫卡通过《变形记》暗示我们：即使像他的妹妹那样爱着哥哥，但一旦这位哥哥得了一种致命的绝症，久而久之，她也会像小说中的那位女郎那样厌弃他的。这里，卡夫卡写的是一种普遍的人类生存状况。人的变形，也是自我“异化”的一种写照。尤其是主人公变成甲虫以后，人的习性渐渐消失，而“虫性” 日益增加，仿佛格里高尔异化出人的世界以后，倒是在动物的世界里找到“虫”的自我了。这样的写法是绝妙的。
在人与人之间还没有取得和谐关系的世界里，人的变形也是一种象征，一切倒霉人的象征：人一旦遭遇不幸（丧失工作能力的疾病、伤残、政治袭击等），他就不再被社会承认，从而失去作为人的价值的“自我”，成为无异于低等动物的“非人”。
在现代艺术创作中，变形是一种怪诞的表现手段，是一种创造 “距离”或“陌生化”的技巧。按照美国美学家桑塔那那的说法，怪诞也是一种创造；它违背客观事物的表面真实，却并不违背客观事物的内在逻辑，因此它已进入现代美学的范畴，成为表现主义文学艺术偏爱的一种手法。表现主义文学创作强调从主观的内心感受出发，作品往往具有一种个人的真实性，这在卡夫卡笔下呈现为自传色彩。不仅主人公的身份（公司雇员）和心理（作为长子必须尽家庭义务）与作者近似，其他人物如父亲、母亲和妹妹几乎都可以与卡夫卡的家庭成员进行比较。
内涵
《变形记》这个故事表面看来荒诞不经，实则蕴涵了丰富而深刻的内容，主要包括以下方面：
1、首先，它真实地表现了西方现代资本主义社会里人的异化.在西方现代资本主义社会人(例如金钱,机器,产品,生产方式等)所驱使，所胁迫，所统治而不能自主,成为物的奴隶，进而失去人的本性，变为非人.。《变形记》主人公里高尔的故事正是人异化为非人这一哲学生存现状.。
2、其次，作品还表现了在现代社会里人的一种生存恐惧。人变甲虫，在这里象征着莫明其妙的巨大灾难的降临，这种人不能掌握自己命运的感觉表现 了现代西方人的某种精神状态，尤其是进入20世纪以后，两次世界大战的灾难，周期性的经济危机，超级大国的军备竞赛，核战争的威胁，环境污染和自然界生态平衡的破坏，这一切使人们对未来的命运处于一种不可知的恐惧状态之中。《变形记》中格里高尔的命运正反映了这种精神状态本质的东西。
3、再次，《变形记》还表现了现代社会中人与人之间的冷漠关系。小说详细的描写了家人对他从关心到厌恶到必欲置其于死地的过程，这一过程实际上是希望他恢复赚钱的能力到彻底绝望的过程。这是一个为家庭奉献了一切，却由于失去了原有的价值而被家庭抛弃的小人物的悲剧，这类悲剧在人情冷漠的现代社会里并不罕见。
作品创造的艺术世界，涵盖思想内容和艺术形式两个方面，是内容和形式的有机统一。就思想而言，较为曲折地反映了资本主义社会的种种弊端，将荒唐、人性异化看着特定历史条件下人类社会不可避免的现象，赋予作品以浓厚的虚无主义和悲观主义情调;就艺术而言,善于运用怪诞和象征的表现手法，特别是用富有表现力的手法去表现抽象的思想感情。
受存在主义学说的影响，作品深刻反映了世纪末情绪，表现了人的孤独与恐惧，展示在人们面前的是荒诞的世界和异化的主题, 形成了独持的“卡夫卡式”艺术风格和思想内容。特别是卡夫卡对表现主义手法运用自如,达到登峰造极之境界。其作品往往寓荒诞于真实之中，融幻想和怪诞于一体，或描写人与“非人”的人有机碰撞;或执著于精神层面的不可逾越，真理的不可寻求，或寄寓象征形象的塑造来展现人物的痛苦和困惑等等，构建了“卡夫卡式”艺术风格的美学概念。
《变形记》-世人心中的卡夫卡与《变形记》
卡夫卡是现代主义文学的开山祖师，《变形记》是他的代表作品之一。如果你想了解现代主义文学，最好的办法就是从反复阅读《变形记》开始。
在本书中卡夫卡描述了小职员格里高尔·萨姆沙突然变成一只使家人都厌恶的大甲虫的荒诞情节，借以揭示人与人之间--包括伦常之间--表面上亲亲热热，内心里却极为孤独和陌生的实质，生动而深刻地再现了资本主义社会中人与人之间的冷漠。在荒诞的、不合逻辑的世界里描绘"人类生活的一切活动及其逼真的细节"，这正是著名小说家卡夫卡的天赋之所在。
阅读《变形记》，有一种思维的乐趣，有一种睿智的感觉，思想上的所得显然多于心灵的收获，能从那极度的变形与夸张里体会到生命的悸动与冲突。本书比较完整地代表了卡夫卡的思想深度与创造特点，是西方现代主义文学的经典作品之一。
卡夫卡的《变形记》把我们带往不熟悉的另一世界，而其实，那另一世界原本属于我们的人性之邦，只是卡夫卡试图用另一套叙述方式与技巧来展示我们人性内部的黑暗王国。因为我们平时不朝它看上一眼，初见之下，才会感到它是如此的陌生、怪异和难以理解。
在描写人被物化的作品中，奥地利著名的"现代艺术的探险者"卡夫卡１９１２年完成的中篇小说《变形记》，是西方现代派文学中描写人被异化的杰作。
《影响历史进程的一百本书》：
西方文坛推崇"卡夫卡是本世纪最佳作家之一"，并说"如果要举出一个作家，他与我们时代的关系最近似但丁、莎士比亚、歌德与他们时代的关系，那么，卡夫卡是首先会想到的名字"。尽管这些赞词未免有过甚其词之嫌，但以《变形记》为代表的卡夫卡的作品，的确对西方现代派文学产生了很深的影响，以至形成了一门专门研究和讨论其作品的"卡夫卡学"。
《卡夫卡传》：
如果你读书是为了找乐赶时髦，卡夫卡的《变形记》绝对不适合你，不适合你美酒加咖啡的浪漫。书中荒诞的痛苦，会将你刚刚举起的酒杯轻易击碎。如果你不是一个盲目的乐观主义者，此书可谓精彩至极，可反复阅读、细细品味。
陌生的卡夫卡
什么是好小说这是个永远可以谈论却又永远难以求解的问题。但好小说不一定是好看的小说，不一定适合大众读者的阅读口味，因为好小说都是新鲜的、独特的。它在与传统阅读习惯"对抗"过程中提供了新的艺术因素，使习惯于传统阅读的读者不得不陷入难解之谜的深渊，所以也往往给人们留下了不怎么好看的印象。阅读卡夫卡的《变形记》，对读者是一种智力、情感上的挑战，因为他的作品是文学上的一个变数，很陌生，用传统的阅读方法很难解读。
《变形记》超越时空的限制，对事件的交代极其模糊，不指明具体的时间、地点和背景。甚至泯灭了幻象和日常生活之间的界限，虚幻与现实难解难分地结合成一个整体了。看来，卡夫卡的《变形记》把我们带往不熟悉的另一世界，而其实，那另一世界原本属于我们的人性之邦，只是卡夫卡试图用另一套叙述方式与技巧来展示我们人性内部的黑暗王国。因为我们平时不朝它看上一眼，初见之下，才会感到它是如此的陌生、怪异和难以理解。
捷克作家米兰·昆德拉在《小说的艺术》中称小说家为"存在的勘探者"，而把小说的使命确定为"通过想像的人物对存在进行深思"，"揭示存在不为人知的方面"。卡夫卡的《变形记》就是探究存在之谜的，但他所关注的重点是"不可视的内心生活"--人的内心同样作为现实的一部分而存在。他的《变形记》就是以深邃的寓意体现人类的某种常常被遗忘的存在状态。
卡夫卡的小说是"梦与真实的绝妙混合。既有对现代世界最清醒的审视，又有最疯狂的想像"。所以如果我们联想一下现实生活中类似的事情，当我们自身的存在被一些谁也无法预料、无法逃避的境况所决定时，生活的荒诞与这个故事的荒诞就有了一种比拟的联系，那么摆在我们面前的问题就尖锐了：当我们突然无法动弹，在完全无能为力，丧失了人的一切自主性的情况下，我们应该怎么办卡夫卡的小说带出了我们深深的疑问。显然，在如此荒诞的突变中，卡夫卡敏锐地觉察到现实生活某些带本质性的问题，才用这种象征、夸张甚至荒诞的手法加以表现。
卡夫卡冷峻的眼光聚焦的是"真"。在他看来，"真"若要体现，就必须借助于"丑"。于是《变形记》中出现了大量的丑陋的意象，卡夫卡毫不客气地放逐了文学的审美价值，似乎他觉得丑就是丑，甚至根本没必要用美作为小说结束之前的一点安慰。所以，一直到小说的结尾，卡夫卡也没有让这些丑陋的意象从背面发出一点美的光芒。
最后引用一句王小波的话来结束本文，他说："我正等待着有一天，自己能够打开一本书不再期待它有趣，只期待自己能受到教育。"《变形记》就是一本这样的好书。
在西方文学中我学到了卡夫卡这位作家及他的作品，对于卡夫卡，我不是很熟悉，但他诸多成果中的一部《变形记》却让我难以忘怀。
《变形记》为现代主义文学的奠基之作，卡夫卡是现代主义文学的先驱，对后来现代主义文学的发展产生了深远的影响。卡夫卡的创作旺盛期正值德国表现主义文学运动的高潮时期。他的短篇小说《变形记》可以说是表现主义的典型之作。1998 年，英国BBC广播电台作了一个系列节目，回顾20世纪的艺术经典，介绍100部20世纪最有影响的艺术作品，第一集就是关于卡夫卡的《变形记》。变形似乎一直是人类的一种理想，也是文学、影视作品中的经典题材，我小时便羡慕孙悟空的七十二变，今天的孩子也看着变形金刚一类的动画片中威风凛凛的变形动作兴奋不已，而且百看不厌。变形似乎是童话的专利。但卡夫卡的《变形记》却是极为独特的，格里高尔也变形了，但他似乎变得并不轻松，让我们读起来也并不觉得兴奋，卡夫卡究竟想要告诉我们什么？
“一天早晨，格里高尔。萨姆沙从不安的睡梦中醒来，发现自己躺在床上变成了一只巨大的甲虫。”（选自北京燕山出版社中篇小说集《变形记》中第86页）这便是故事的开篇，我本以为是科幻小说，谁知道不是。卡夫卡用一种介呼于身临其境的独白，平静的表叙着这个极尽荒诞的故事。但在他的笔下，不会有荒诞，有的只是真实，让人感觉恐慌的真实。一种新的写法的诞生，让后世不少人为之惊诧，“原来文学也可以这么写！”。又一位大师就这样横空出世了。记得美国作家奥登说过：就作家与其处的时代的关系而论，当代能与但丁、莎士比亚和歌德相提并论的第一人是卡夫卡。
表现主义的创作主张是遵循“表现论”美学原则而与传统现实主义的“模仿论”原则相对立的。它反对“复制世界”，即不把客观事物的表面现象作为真实的依据，而主张凭认真“观察”和重新思考去发现或洞察被习俗观念掩盖着的，而为一般人所不注意的真实。为此就需要一种特殊的艺术手段，把描写的客观对象加以“陌生化”的处理，以造成审美主体与被描写的客体之间的距离，从而引起你的惊异，迫使你从另一个角度去探悉同一个事物的本质。这种艺术手段通称“间离法”，在布莱希特那里叫作“陌生化效果”。《变形记》的变形即是一种间离（或“陌生化”）技巧。作者想借以揭示人与人之间——包括伦常之间——表面亲亲热热，内心里却是极为孤独和陌生的实质；之所以亲亲热热，因为互相有共同的利害关系维系着，一旦割断这种关系，则那种亲热的外观马上就消失而暴露出冷酷和冷漠的真相。正如恩格斯在《英国工人阶级状况》一文中所揭示的：“维系家庭的纽带并不是家庭的爱，而是隐藏在财产共有关系之后的私人利益。”可谓一针见血。你看，当格里高尔身体健康，每月能拿回工资供养全家的时候，他是这个家庭里一名堂堂正正的而且受人尊敬的长子。
但当他一旦患了不治之症，失去了公司里的职务，因而无法与家庭保持这种经济联系的时候，他在家庭里的一切尊严很快被剥夺干净，甚至连维持生命的正常饮食都无人过问。
他变成“非人”，他的处境无异于动物。当然也可以让主人公得一种致命的重病或遭遇一次丧失劳动力的重残，然后写他被家人厌弃的过程。但这样的构思其艺术效果不如变形那样强烈。因为作为病人，他有口会说话，有眼睛会看人，你不能当着他的面表现出对他的厌倦，或不给他送饭吃。而一只甲虫，既不会说话，也没有表情，他的孤独感就更加令人感到凄然了。
如果从西方流行的“异化”观念去看，这篇小说也是写人与人之间、人与自我之间关系的一篇杰作。在实际生活中，卡夫卡在家庭里与父亲的关系确实是不和谐的，但与母亲关系是正常的，与他第三个妹妹特别要好。但卡夫卡却在一封信中说：“我在自己的家里比陌生人还要陌生。”现在卡夫卡通过《变形记》暗示我们：即使像他的妹妹那样爱着哥哥，但一旦这位哥哥得了一种致命的绝症，久而久之，她也会像小说中的那位女郎那样厌弃他的。这里，卡夫卡写的是一种普遍的人类生存状况。人的变形，也是自我“异化”的一种写照。尤其是主人公变成甲虫以后，人的习性渐渐消失，而“虫性”
日益增加，仿佛格里高尔异化出人的世界以后，倒是在动物的世界里找到“虫”的自我了。这样的写法是绝妙的。
“格里高尔的眼睛接着又朝窗口望去，天空很阴暗——可以听到雨打点打在窗槛上的声音——他的心情也变的很忧郁了。”
“这时候天更亮了，可以清清楚楚地看到街对面一幢长得没有尽头的深灰色的建筑——这是一所医院——上面惹眼地开着一排排呆板的窗子；雨还在下，不过已成为一滴滴看得清的大颗粒了。”（以上均节选自《变形记》）。
上面的两段都是对窗外景物的描写，卡夫卡在轻易之间便把气氛渲染的如此浓重。为主旋律的叙述又增加的完整的节拍。仿佛各个方面的特征都是为了主题的烘托，而主题又毫无痕迹的呈现出各个方面的特征。这种完美统一的连贯，使得文章让人觉得如此的酣畅淋漓，故事好象就在自己的身边发生，让人欲罢不能。
1911年出现的《变形记》是晦涩的，深奥的，即使在近一百年后的今天，这个伟大的预言一样的小说文本也并不是那么容易理解。即使读懂了这个寓言般的小说，又如何感知卡夫卡之所以悲哀呢？况且还有比悲哀更为深远的东西包裹在其后。
Plot summary
Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed from a human into a monstrous insect. Rather than lament his transformation, Gregor worries about how he will get to his job as a traveling salesman; Gregor is the sole financial provider for his parents and sister, Grete, and their comfort is dependent on his ability to work. When Gregor's supervisor arrives at the house and demands Gregor come out of his room, Gregor manages to roll out of bed and unlock his door. His appearance horrifies his family and supervisor; his supervisor flees and Gregor attempts to chase after him, but his family shoos him back into his room. Grete attempts to care for her brother by providing him with milk and the stale, rotten food he now prefers. Gregor also develops the fears of an insect, being effectively shooed away by hissing voices and stamping feet. However, Gregor remains a devoted and loving son, and takes to hiding beneath a sofa whenever someone enters his room in order to shield them from his insect form. When alone, he amuses himself by looking out of his window and crawling up the walls and on the ceiling.
No longer able to rely on Gregor's income, the other family members are forced to take on jobs and Grete's caretaking deteriorates. One day, when Gregor emerges from his room, his father chases him around the dining room table and pelts him with apples. One of the apples becomes embedded in his back, causing an infection. Due to his infection and his hunger, Gregor is soon barely able to move at all. Later, his parents take in lodgers and use Gregor's room as a dumping area for unwanted objects. Gregor becomes dirty, covered in dust and old bits of rotten food. One day, Gregor hears Grete playing her violin to entertain the lodgers. Gregor is attracted to the music, and slowly walks into the dining room despite himself, entertaining a fantasy of getting his beloved sister to join him in his room and play her violin for him. The lodgers see him and give notice, refusing to pay the rent they owe, even threatening to sue the family for harboring him while they stayed there. Grete determines that the monstrous insect is no longer Gregor, since Gregor would have left them out of love and taken their burden away, and claims that they must get rid of it. Gregor retreats to his room and collapses, finally succumbing to his wound.
The point of view shifts as, upon discovery of his corpse, the family feels an enormous burden has been lifted from them, and start planning for the future again. The family discovers that they aren't doing financially bad at all, especially since, following Gregor's demise, they can take a smaller flat. The brief process of forgetting Gregor and shutting him from their lives is quickly completed. The tale concludes with the mother and father taking note of Grete's new womanhood and growth.
Characters
Gregor Samsa
Gregor is the protagonist of the story. He works hard as a travelling salesman to provide for his sister and parents. He wakes up one morning as a monstrous insect. After the transformation, Gregor was unable to work, causing his father to work at a bank to provide for the family and pay owed debts.
Grete Samsa
Grete is Gregor's younger sister, who becomes his caretaker after the metamorphosis. At the beginning Grete and Gregor have a strong relationship but this relationship fades with time. While Grete originally volunteers to feed him and clean his room, throughout the story she grows more and more impatient with the task to the point of deliberately leaving messes in his room out of spite. She plays the violin and dreams of going to the conservatorium, a dream that Gregor was going to make come true. He was going to announce this on Christmas Eve. To help provide an income for the family after Gregor's transformation she starts working as a salesgirl in a shop.
Mr Samsa
Gregor's father owes a large debt to Gregor's boss, which is why Gregor can't quit his hated job. He is lazy and elderly, while Gregor works, but when, after the metamorphosis, Gregor is unable to provide for the family, he is shown to be an able-bodied worker. He also attempts to kill Gregor when he is discovered in his monstrous state.
Mrs Samsa
Mrs Samsa is the mother of Grete and Gregor. She is initially shocked at Gregor's transformation, however eventually decides she wants to enter his room. This seems too much for her to handle, and Gregor hides away from her in an attempt to protect her. Mrs Samsa is conflicted in her maternal concern and sympathy for Gregor, and her inherent fear of his new monstrous form.
Chief Clerk
The Chief Clerk is Gregor's boss and the person to whom Mr Samsa is in debt. He pressures Gregor to prepare for his workday with a urgency pertaining to the precarious position of his job.
Tenants
Three tenants are invited to live with the Samsas to supplement their income. The family shows great deference to these tenants throughout the length of their stay. They are fussy and cannot stand dirtiness, eventually leading to the point when they discover Gregor and threaten the family with a lawsuit, apparently believing he's just an extraordinarily large insect.
Lost in translation
The opening sentence of the novella is famous in English:
"When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous insect."
"Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt."
Kafka's sentences often deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved due to the construction of sentences in German that require that the participle be positioned at the end of the sentence; in the above sentence, the equivalent of 'changed' is the final word, 'verwandelt'. Such constructions are not replicable in English, so it is up to the translator to provide the reader with the same effect found in the original text.
English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as "insect", but this is not strictly accurate. In Middle German, Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice" and is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" – a very general term, unlike the scientific sounding "insect". Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor as any specific thing, but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation. The phrasing used in the David Wyllie translation and Joachim Neugroschel is "transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin".
However, "vermin" denotes in English many animals (particularly mice, rats and foxes) and in Kafka's letter to his publisher of 25 October 1915, in which he discusses his concern about the cover illustration for the first edition, he uses the term "Insekt", saying "The insect itself is not to be drawn. It is not even to be seen from a distance." While this shows his concern not to give precise information about the type of creature Gregor becomes, the use of the general term "insect" can therefore be defended on the part of translators wishing to improve the readability of the end text.
Ungeziefer has sometimes been translated as "cockroach", "dung beetle", "beetle", and other highly specific terms. The term "dung beetle" or Mistkäfer is in fact used in the novella by the cleaning lady near the end of the story, but it is not used in the narration. Ungeziefer also denotes a sense of separation between him and his environment: he is unclean and must therefore be excluded.
Vladimir Nabokov, who was a lepidopterist as well as writer and literary critic, insisted that Gregor was not a cockroach, but a beetle with wings under his shell, and capable of flight — if only he had known it. Nabokov left a sketch annotated "just over three feet long" on the opening page of his (heavily corrected) English teaching copy. In his accompanying lecture notes, Nabokov discusses the type of vermin Gregor has been transformed into, concluding that Gregor "is not, technically, a dung beetle. He is merely a big beetle. (I must add that neither Gregor nor Kafka saw that beetle any too clearly.)"
Adaptations to other media
There are several film versions, including:
* Metamorphosis (1987) at the Internet Movie Database
* Die Verwandlung (1975) at the Internet Movie Database
* Förvandlingen (1976/I) at the Internet Movie Database
* The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa (1977) at the Internet Movie Database by Caroline Leaf
* The Metamorphosis of Franz Kafka (1993) by Carlos Atanes.
* Prevrashcheniye (2002) at the Internet Movie Database
* Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis acoustical liberation from LibriVox.
* Metamorfosis (2004) at the Internet Movie Database
* A Metamorfose (2007) at the Internet Movie Database
* Immersive Kafka: The Metamorphosis / Atvaltozas (2010) by Sandor Kardos, Barnabas Takacs.
A stage adaptation was performed by Steven Berkoff in 1969. Berkoff's text was also used for the libretto to Brian Howard's 1983 opera Metamorphosis. Another stage adaptation was performed in 2006 by the Icelandic company Vesturport, showing at the Lyric Hammersmith, London. That adaptation is set to be performed in the Icelandic theater fall of 2008. Another stage adaptation was performed in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2005 by the Centre for Asian Theatre. That performance is still continuing in Bangladesh. The Lyric Theatre Company toured the UK in 2006 with its stage adaptation of Metamorphosis, accompanied by a unique soundtrack performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. American comic artist Peter Kuper illustrated a graphic-novel version, first published by the Crown Publishing Group in 2003. Megan Rees is currently working on a new stage adaptation that should be published by 2010.
Allusions/references from other works
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (February 2008)
Stage
* Philip Glass composed incidental music for two separate theater productions of the story. These two themes, along with two themes from the Errol Morris film The Thin Blue Line, were incorporated into a five-part piece of music for solo piano entitled Metamorphosis.
Literature
Jacob M. Appel's H. E. Francis Award-winning story, "The Vermin Episode," retells The Metamorphosis from the point-of-view of the Samsas' neighbors.
Film
* The 2005 film The Producers includes a scene where the two protagonists are searching for a sure flop. The opening for the play of Metamorphosis is read and rejected for being too good.
* The 2008 film The Reader features Ralph Fiennes reading aloud from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.
* In 2002 a Russian version titled Prevrashchenie was directed by Valery Fokin with Yevgeny Mironov as Gregor.
* In 1995, the actor Peter Capaldi won an Oscar for his short-film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life. The plot of the film has the author (played by Richard E. Grant) trying to write the opening line of Metamorphosis and experimenting with various things that Gregor might turn into, such as a banana or a kangaroo. The film is also notable for a number of Kafkaesque moments.
* In 1993 Carlos Atanes directed The Metamorphosis of Franz Kafka, a controversial adaptation based on The Metamorphosis as well on biographical details from Kafka's family.
* in Noah Baumbach's Squid and the Whale, Jeff Daniels and Jesse Eisenberg make several references to The Metamorphosis
Animation
* In The Venture Bros. episode "Mid-Life Chrysalis", Dr. Venture's transformation into a caterpillar slightly mirrors that of Gregor Samsa's transformation.
* A reference appears in the 2006 Aardman Animations feature film Flushed Away when a refrigerator falls through the floor of the protagonist Rita's home and a giant cockroach appears reading a copy of The Metamorphosis.
* In the short-lived TV animated series Extreme Ghostbusters, season 1, episode 11 ("The Crawler"), the bug monster (that resembles a giant insect) calls himself Gregor Samsa when trying to seduce Janine to be his queen in his human form.
* Jack Feldstein created a tribute to Gregor Samsa and The Metamorphosis in his stream-of-consciousness neon animation "Shmetamorphosis" about a bug who hysterically bursts into therapist Bertold Krasenstein's office, begging to be saved.
* In the first season of the anime Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei there is an episode titled "One Morning, When Gregor Samsa Awoke, He was Carrying a Mikoshi", an obvious parody of the first line of The Metamorphosis.
Comics
* American cartoonist Robert Crumb drew an illustrated adaptation of the novella which appears in the book Introducing Kafka.
* In the comic book Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez, the eponymous Johnny is plagued by a roach that keeps appearing in his house no matter how many times he kills it (whether or not this roach is immortal or simply many different roaches is up to interpretation) and is affectionately named "Mr. Samsa".
* In The Simpsons book Treehouse of Horror Spook-tacular, Matt Groening did a spoof on the metamorphosis, entitling it Metamorphosimpsons. In addition, in one of the episodes, Lisa attends a place called "Cafe Kafka", which is shown to be a popular place for college students, and features several posters of cockroaches in Bohemian-like poses.
* Peter Kuper (illustrator of Kafka's Give It Up!) also adapted Kafka's Metamorphosis.
Television
* In the TV series Supernatural, the 4th episode of season 4 is named "Metamorphosis."
* The TV series Smallville, which is a retelling of Superman's early years as a teenager, alludes to Kafka's story in the season one, episode "Metamorphosis" where the 'Freak of the Week' is transformed into a being with insect-like abilities after suffering from exposure to meteor-infected insects (Kryptonite-induced).
* In the TV series Home Movies there is an entire episode based on Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis as a Rock Opera.
* In the TV series The Venture Bros., in the 8th episode of season 1, Dr. Venture undergoes a metamorphosis and alludes to the story.
* In the TV series The Ricky Gervais Show, in the 11th episode of season 1, named "Beetles," the characters discuss the potential of Karl Pilkingtons's metamorphosis.
Music
* Gregor Samsa is the name of an American post-rock band.
* The Rolling Stones' 1975 album Metamorphosis features cover art of the band members with insect heads.
* Showbread has a song named "Sampsa Meets Kafka". The misspelling of Samsa is intentional. Josh Dies the lead singer also lists Kafka as one of his biggest influences.
* The name of the German darkwave/metal/neoclassical band Samsas Traum is inspired by the story.
Video games
* Bad Mojo is a 1996 computer game, the storyline of which is loosely based on The Metamorphosis.
* Spore: Galactic Adventures made an adventure version of The Metamorphosis.
* In the 2001 Wizardry 8, the first boss is a gigantic cockroach named "Gregor".
卡夫卡出生在布拉格的一个犹太商人家庭，沿袭了纯种犹太人聪明的血统。父亲是一个半行乞的屠夫的儿子，白手起家，在家中专横如暴君，任意虐待妻儿，他对卡夫卡的学习、生活不闻不问，只是偶尔指手画脚地训斥一通———他想把儿子培养成为性格坚强而又能干的年轻人，但结果是适得其反。卡夫卡内心中一直对父亲存有无法消除的畏惧心理，自小心里充满恐惧，敏感成性。加上他作为布拉格讲德语的少数人的一分子，更造就了他无边无际的孤独。
迫于父亲的压力，他学习法律，后入一家私人保险公司任低薪职员，一直湮没在人群之中。他一生三次订婚，又三次解除婚约，其中原因之一就是怕结婚会破坏他已经习惯的孤独生活。后来他患上肺结核病，更使他远离热闹的尘世生活，沉浸在自己孤独的内心世界中。
这个孤僻的小职员的最大爱好就是写作，他那敏感、怯懦的性格和孤僻、忧郁的气质确实适合做一个作家。卡夫卡业余创作的大部分作品在他生前一直锁在抽屉里，少量面世的短篇小说还不足让他一鸣惊人，而且对他的同时代人来说，他的小说太超前了，当时的人们远未有能力体验卡夫卡独特而奇怪的荒谬感。他病逝后遗留下大量手稿。
二战之后，世界在废墟上重建，战争所带来的人类心灵深重的阴影，使人们不约而同地把目光转向了30年前死去的无名作家卡夫卡，他及其作品在西方世界掀起了一股热潮，人们像投票选举政界要员一样把他列为现代派小说家的第一候选人。
推荐阅读版本：汤永宽译，武汉大学出版社出版。
《城堡》-内容精要
一个寒冷的冬天的夜晚，土地测量员K来到了一个村子，他的目的是要前往村子附近的那座城堡去执行公务。当K在村口遥望城堡时，他感到笼罩在夜色之中的城堡，如同一片空洞虚无的幻景，这样的感觉似乎预示着他的任务不是那么容易完成的。
他前往客店投宿，可是客店老板对他的到来有点不知所措。他告诉K已经客满了，只好把K勉强安顿下来。客店里的人得知K要去城堡，都用特别的眼神看他。一位年轻人告诉K，每个进入城堡的人都必须得有一张许可证，而要想得到许可证，就必须去找城堡里的伯爵。
第二天，K走向城堡，可是耗费了一整天的时间他也无法靠近城堡一步。天色暗下来，他只好先去找栖身之处。找来找去，又回到了昨天晚上的那家客店。在搭雪橇前往客店的途中，他遇到了两个自称是他的助手的人。他们非常热情地帮助 K，并且用电话联络城堡里的办事机构，询问具体何时能上城堡去，对方回答：“任何时候都不能来。”
这时，来了一位叫巴纳巴斯的人，他是城堡的信使，K对他的来到十分兴奋，认为他可以成为自己和城堡联系的中间人。巴纳巴斯给他带来了城堡的信，信里既没有对K的到来表示欢迎，也没有暗示他赶快离开。事情依旧毫无转机。K和信使一道去了他家，信使的妹妹又表示她可以帮助K，于是把 K送进了一家旅馆，她告诉K，城堡的头面人物克拉姆住在那里，可以借机找克拉姆打通关节。
在旅馆的酒吧里，K认识了克拉姆的情妇弗丽达，K顿时使出浑身解数试图靠近弗丽达，然而旅馆里的人不停地添乱，助手们也在一边添乱，使他无法和弗丽达亲密地谈一谈关于克拉姆。他甚至用与弗丽达结婚的许诺想换得跟克拉姆谈一次话的机会。但K最终发现弗丽达这条路是走不通的，因为她和信使一样，是个无关紧要的小人物，她早已失宠。
K去见村长，村长告诉他，K来到村子完全是个错误，因为这里根本用不着土地测量员。城堡里不同部门彼此封闭，造成了一些差错，所以K才会收到公文，然而这份公文是早已无效的。村长承认他在几年前收到一个招聘一位土地测量员的公文，然而他无论如何找不到那张可以证明K合法身份的薄纸片。村长表达了自己对这件事情的看法，他觉得K收到的公文其实是一封某个主管，比如克拉姆，对他表示私人关心的的信，不能代表城堡的意见，因此K应当趁早回去。
K感到受骗上当了，但他坚持要求得到他应得的权利，那就是找一个住处，安顿他和弗丽达的新家。客栈老板一心想赶走K，K临走前，又从老板娘那里听到了关于她和克拉姆旧情的回忆，这使K感到很不舒服，因为他不由自主地想到了自己的未婚妻。
这时村里学校的教师奉村长之命前来，允许K带家眷住进学校任看门人，同时他也强调，学校其实并不需要一个看门人，他完全遵从村长的命令。K感到受到了侮辱，他拒绝了这份工作。可弗丽达坚持K接受它，她说如果K不接受，连个安身之处都没有，那么这对K对她自己都是十分羞愧的事情。
K对于进入城堡仍然抱着最后的希望，这已经不单纯是执行公务，而是有关个人尊严的问题。他冒雪来到克拉姆的旅馆，女招待说这会儿克拉姆正准备离开旅馆，雪橇已在院子里等着他，K二话没话，守到雪橇边，喝着白兰地等克拉姆出来。和以前一样，克拉姆本人永远不会出现，他的秘书摩麦斯出来告诉K： “不管你跟我走或者留在这里，你都不会见到他。”K反而陷入了进退两难的地步，如果他离开，周围人的神色举止里就表明克拉姆就此脱身了；如果他坚持等下去，显然也是没有结果的。秘书拿出一份会谈记录，向K指出这是引K走向克拉姆的惟一道路，但首先K必须接受一番苛刻的审查，K觉得不可忍受，于是他们两人大笑着分别了。
《城堡》作家卡夫卡
信使巴纳巴斯又带来了克拉姆的一封信，克拉姆赞赏了K及其助手的测量工作，这使K困惑不已，他至今为止从未干什么测量工作，每天做的事情就是在等待争取城堡的许可。K开始怀疑信使的可靠，但他仍托巴纳巴斯带去一个回音，申诉自己焦灼地渴盼见到克拉姆一面的心情。
之后K回到他和弗丽达的新家，那是学校里的一间大教室，可是K和弗丽达的生活并不安宁。两个助手不停地淘气，争食物，瞅准机会睡到惟一的稻草垫子上去。第二天，学校的女教师来了，她十分吃惊，继而不断地责骂 K，K几乎像个劣等动物一样被欺辱，可他决不接受校方的解职通知。他迁怒于两位无用的助手，宣布辞退他们，助手们施出浑身气力哀求K。弗丽达反对K的决定，她说一旦辞退助手，K就永远没有机会见到克拉姆了。弗丽达鼓励K不要丧失信心。
K 来到信使家等待回音，信使的姐妹奥尔伽和阿玛丽亚总向K暗示她们的倾慕之情，并且在闲聊中，暗示K，她们的哥哥巴纳巴斯可能从未见过克拉姆，他总是给K带来那些耽误了很久，失去时效的信。就连克拉姆本人，也是可疑的，关于克拉姆的种种情况，很大程度上是村里人想象出来的。奥尔伽又告诉K，城堡里的官员如同暴君，他们可以随时瞧上村里的任何姑娘，给她们写下流无比的信。他们的谈话离正题越来越远，奥尔伽讲起了阿玛丽亚因为拒绝城堡里另一位大官员索尔蒂尼的求爱而遭受的不幸，他们全家都被迫接受了一种几乎整天无所事事的刑罚，城堡强制他们退出社会生活。奥尔伽提醒K，不要指望任何一位有同情心的官员为他说话。巴纳巴斯为K送信，其实不过是想让自己一家人不露痕迹地再受恩宠，对于K来说，没有任何意义。这场繁冗而推心置腹的谈话被K的一位助手打断了，K很快意识到弗丽达和另一位助手呆在家里，他赶紧回家了。
到家里，K发现弗丽达不见了。原来她以为K跑去勾搭巴纳巴斯的姐妹，于是和另一个助手达成协议，背叛K。这时，巴纳巴斯又跑来找K，兴冲冲地通知他，克拉姆的主要秘书之一艾朗格要和K当面谈一谈。K和一群人等候在漆黑的旅馆门口，K被最先领了进去，但艾朗格却睡着了，K只好等着。在等待的时候，他又重新见到了弗丽达，他们激烈争论了忠实与不忠实的问题。弗丽达坦然地告诉K，她已经和那位助手同居了。K则十分平静地回敬她：自从你相继失去了克拉姆的情妇以及我的未婚妻这两种身份之后，你早已经没有了魅力。听完此话后，弗丽达似乎被触动了。但是她又见到助手时，马上就改变主意。她说：她再也不想回到K身边接受他的折磨。
小说就在此处戛然而止，卡夫卡未写完它，他原来打算的结尾是K将精疲力竭而死。后世及研究者预计的结局是：K弥留之际，城堡终于来了通知，允许K留在村子里，但不许进入城堡，K永远不可能到达那里，一直到死。
《城堡》-专家点评
当一个作家不能被他同时代的人所理解时，他会怎样处理自己的作品。卡夫卡选择的是毁灭。他在遗书中委托好友布罗德将其所有作品“毫无保留地，读也不必读就统统予以焚毁”。万幸布罗德自作主张将卡夫卡的遗稿保存下来，整理出版，这一次明智的“背信弃义”使我们今天依旧能一睹卡夫卡这位文学大师一生勤奋的成果。
人们提到卡夫卡，总是会提起他的《变形记》，里面的小公务员一早起来发现自己变成了一个大甲虫。西方文学中常常用《变形记》来指代现代化文明中人的异化。然而在这里所推荐的《城堡》，因其多义性更富于阅读的快乐。中篇小说《城堡》与《审判》及《美国》合称“卡夫卡三部曲”，它们都具有卡夫卡小说一贯的荒诞不经风格：异化现象，难以排遣的孤独和危机感，无法克服的荒诞和恐惧。卡夫卡的小说揭示了一种荒诞的充满非理性色彩的景象，个人式的、忧郁的、孤独的情绪，运用的是象征式的手法。其中《城堡》更富于“卡夫卡式”的构思和语言风格。
和卡夫卡的其他小说一样，《城堡》没有惟一正确的解释，解释权授予了每个阅读者，这来源于这部作品的多义性。表面上，这作品的故事再简单不过了，一个土地测量员K来到一个村庄，想进入管辖附近地区的伯爵居住的城堡，他费了九牛二虎之力，摊上一切也没能达到目的。《城堡》所具有的荒谬、虚拟，无明确的时代地理背景的特征使它抹上很浓的寓言色彩，无论评论家还是普通读者都能够获得不同的结论，《城堡》究竟表达了怎样的主题，这终了还是一个难解之谜，有人说它表现的是“人试图进入天国而不得的痛苦”；有人则认为它集中反映了卡夫卡本人的精神世界的荒诞、孤独与恐惧；有人则结合写作年代背景，说明城堡实际上反映了奥匈帝国官僚体制与大众的鸿沟，更有论者以为，《城堡》和《审判》、《美国》的主题相同，即“人们所追求的真理，不管是自由、安定，还是法律，都是存在的，但这个荒诞的世界给人们设置了种种障碍，无论你怎么努力， 总是追求不到， 最后只能以失败告终。” 在《城堡》中，“城堡”是最大的谜团，它与主人公K的目标总是若即若离，也正因此，能够激起人们相当的阅读兴趣，其中的人物如CC伯爵，以至于克拉姆部长等都神秘莫测，足以见卡夫卡这位小说家的天才的智慧。
《城堡》小说家卡夫卡
阅读卡夫卡的小说，对每一个读者来说都是挑战。他喜欢长句子，字里行间充满了大量的暗喻，他用文字堆起了一个个迷宫。读者会在穿行文字时遇到极大的阻力。然而当你习惯他的文字风格后，你会发现，原先的阻力变成了动力，带给你阅读的快感。
1913年8月15日，卡夫卡在自己的日记里写道：“我将不顾一切地与所有人隔绝，与所有人敌对，不同任何人讲话。”6天后他又这样写道：“现在我在我的家庭里，在那些最好的、最亲爱的人们中间，比一个陌生人还要陌生。近年来我和我的母亲平均每天说不上20句话；和我的父亲除了有时彼此寒暄几句几乎就没有更多的话可说；和我的已婚的妹妹和妹夫们除了跟他们生气我压根儿就不说话。理由很简单：我和他们没有任何一丁点儿的事情要说。一切不是文学的事情都使我无聊， 叫我憎恨”三年之后，这个不仅和整个世界格格不入，而且也和自己格格不入的犹太人，虽然尚未进入完全与世隔绝的城堡，却终于从家庭里逃出，为自己找到了一条窄得像西服袖子一样的幽深的死巷。这就是如今在布拉格颇为知名的黄金巷、又译为“炼金术士巷”。黄金巷22号的连栋屋中间，有座建于16世纪的、只有一个房间和一间小阁楼的小小蓝屋，墙壁很薄，房舍低矮得伸手便可触及天花板。这是被他的好友马克斯·布罗德称之为“一个真正的作家的修道士般的密室”的处所。卡夫卡在这里继续用谜一般的文字构筑着自己灵魂的城堡。
《城堡》卡夫卡及家人
在卡夫卡的世界里，噩梦永远没有醒来的时候，在荒诞的、不合逻辑的世界里描绘“人类生活的一切活动及其逼真的细节”，这正是作为小说家的卡夫卡的天赋所在，当我们读到《变形记》、《城堡》、《审判》等作品时，简直就像面对着一尊尊充满力量的雕塑，你能从那极度的变形与夸张里体会到生命的悸动与冲突。对于卡夫卡自己来说，生存就是一场必须“恰当运用自己的力量（因为我们的力量永远是有限的）”的抗争。虽然前途黯淡，但前途毕竟终会到来。通过写作这一形式卡夫卡为自己的抗争找到了存在的形象。从卡夫卡自己的书信与日记，我们也许能领会到那无穷无尽的力量源泉，他这样写道：“不要绝望，甚至对你并不感到绝望这一点也不要绝望。恰恰在似乎一切都完了的时候，新的力量毕竟来临，给你以帮助，而这正表明你是活着的。”“一场倾盆大雨。站立着面对这场大雨吧！让它的钢铁般的光芒刺穿你。你在那想把你冲走的雨水中飘浮，但你还是要坚持，昂首屹立，等待那即将来临的无穷无尽的阳光的照耀。”令人吃惊的是，它们竟然带着这样一些姿态：忧伤、理解、痛苦、谦卑，卡夫卡由此走向了无限深渊。最终他完成了对自己的塑造：他成为无限深渊中惟一裸行的思想者。卡夫卡的道路是对抗之路，他与存在于他身边的世界和秩序一直是抗争着的，艺术或者说文学写作是他对抗外部荒诞世界的惟一武器，他别无选择。虽然在此期间，他极度渴望实现艺术与现实的统一，甚至他个人与外部世界有过短暂的统一，但这种统一也是一瞬即逝的，表面和形式上的。他也渴望有自己的家庭，但他害怕家庭损害他的写作；他也像凡夫俗子一样，渴望有自己的孩子，做一名好父亲，但直到他有一个已长到7岁才夭折的孩子。
卡夫卡生前默默无闻，孤独地奋斗，随着时间的流逝，他的价值才逐渐为人们所认识，作品引起了世界的震动，并在世界范围内形成一股“卡夫卡”热，经久不衰。他一生的作品并不多，但对后世文学的影响却是极为深远的。他与法国作家马赛尔·普鲁斯特、爱尔兰作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯并称为西方现代主义文学的先驱和大师。美国诗人奥登认为：“他与我们时代的关系最近似但丁、莎士比亚、歌德与他们时代的关系。”后世的许多现代主义文学流派如“荒诞派戏剧”、法国的“新小说”等都把卡夫卡奉为自己的鼻祖。
关于卡夫卡，我们还可以说上很多很多。据说在现代文学的研究中，关于卡夫卡的论文数量之大，仅仅打印题目就需要几十页。但是，理解卡夫卡最好的方法，就是进入他的文字世界，安静地倾听他通过语言表达的内心。这不正是我们现在这个浮躁的现代文明所缺少的吗？
《城堡》-妙语佳句
他真要以为外面是灰色的天空与灰色的土地浑然一体的荒漠世界了。
可是如果这一切的平静、舒适与满足都要想恐怖地告一段落，那该怎么办呢？
History of the novel
Kafka began writing The Castle on the evening of January 27, 1922, the day he arrived at the mountain resort of Spindlermühle (now in the Czech Republic). A picture taken of him upon his arrival shows him by a horse-drawn sleigh in the snow in a setting reminiscent of The Castle. Hence, the significance that the first few chapters of the handwritten manuscript were written in first person and at some point later changed by Kafka to a third person narrator, 'K.'
Max Brod
Kafka died prior to finishing The Castle and it is questionable whether Kafka intended on finishing it if he had survived his tuberculosis. On separate occasions he told his friend Max Brod of two different conditions: K., the book's protagonist, would continue to reside and die in the village; the castle notifying him on his death bed that his "legal claim to live in the village was not valid, yet, taking certain auxiliary circumstances into account, he was permitted to live and work there" , but then on September 11, 1922 in a letter to Max Brod, he said he was giving up on the book and would never return to it. As it is, the book ends mid-sentence.
Although Brod was instructed by Kafka to destroy all his works on his death, he did not and set about publishing Kafka's writings. The Castle was originally published in German in 1926 by the publisher Kurt Wolff Verlag of Munich. This edition sold far less than the 1500 copies that were printed. It was republished in 1935 by Schocken Verlag in Berlin, and in 1946 by Schocken Books of New York.
Brod had to heavily edit the work to ready it for publication. His goal was to gain acceptance of the work and the author, not to maintain the structure of Kafka's writing. This would play heavily in the future of the translations and continues to be the center of discussion on the text. Brod donated the manuscript to Oxford University.
Brod placed a strong religious significance to the symbolism of the castle. This is one possible interpretation of the work based on numerous Judeo-Christian references as noted by many including Arnold Heidsieck.
Malcolm Pasley
The publisher, Salmen Schocken, soon realized the translations were "bad" and in 1940 desired a "completely different approach". In 1961 Malcolm Pasley got access to all of Kafka's works, except The Trial, and deposited them in Oxford's Bodleian library. Pasley and a team of scholars (Gerhard Neumann, Malcolm Pasley, Jost Schillemeit, and Jürgen Born) started publishing the works in 1982 through S. Fischer Verlag. Das Schloß was published that year as a two volume set — the novel in the first volume, and the fragments, deletions and editor's notes in a second volume. This team restored the original German text to its full, and incomplete state, including the unique Kafka punctuation considered critical to the style.
Stroemfeld/Roter Stern
Interpretations of Kafka's intent for the manuscript are ongoing. Stroemfeld/Roter Stern Verlag is working for the rights to publish another critical edition with manuscript and transcription side-by-side. But they have met with resistance from the Kafka heirs and Pasley. This edition is not yet available.
Major editions
* 1930 Translators: Willa and Edwin Muir. Based on the First German edition, by Max Brod. Published By Secker & Warburg in England and Alfred A. Knopf in the United States.
* 1941 Translators: Willa and Edwin Muir. Edition include an Homage by Thomas Mann.
* 1954 Translators: Willa and Edwin Muir additional sections translated by Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser. "Definitive edition". Based on the Schocken 1951 Definitive edition .
* 1994 Translators: Muir, et al. Preface by Irving Howe.
* 1997 Translator: J. A. Underwood, Introduction: Idris Parry. Based on Pasley Critical German Text.
* 1998 Translator: Mark Harman Based on Pasley Critical German Text.
The title
The title, Das Schloß, may be translated as "the castle" or "the lock". It is also similar to Der Schluß (close or end). The castle is locked and closed to K and the townspeople; neither can gain access.
Plot
The narrator, K. arrives in the village, governed by the castle. When seeking shelter at the town inn, he gives himself out to be a land surveyor summoned by the castle authorities. He is quickly notified that his castle contact is an official named Klamm, who, in the introductory note, informs K. he will report to the Council Chairman.
The Council Chairman informs K. that, through a mix up in communication between the castle and the village, he was erroneously requested but, trying to accommodate K., the Council Chairman offers him a position in the service of the school teacher as a janitor. Meanwhile, K., unfamiliar with the customs, bureaucracy and processes of the village, continues to attempt to reach the official Klamm, who is not accessible.
The villagers hold the officials and the castle in the highest regard, justifying, quite elaborately at times, the actions of the officials, even though they do not appear to know what officials do or why they do it; they simply defend it. The number of assumptions and justifications about the functions of the officials and their dealings are enumerated through lengthy monologues of the villagers. Everyone appears to have an explanation for the official's actions that appear to be founded on assumptions and gossip. One of the more obvious contradictions between the "official word" and the village conception is the dissertation by the secretary Erlanger on Frieda's required return to service as a barmaid. K. is the only villager that knows that the request is being forced by the castle (even though Frieda may be the genesis), with no regard for anyone in the village, only Klamm. Pepi and Jeremiah quickly come to their conclusions and do not hesitate to state them.
The castle is the ultimate bureaucracy with copious paperwork that the bureaucracy maintains is "flawless". This flawlessness is of course a lie; it is a flaw in the paperwork that has brought K. to the village. There are other failures of the system which are occasionally referred to. K. witnesses a flagrant misprocessing after his nighttime interrogation by Erlanger as a servant destroys paperwork when he cannot determine who the recipient should be.
The castle's occupants appear to be all adult men and there is little reference to the castle other than to its bureaucratic functions. The two notable instances are the reference to a fire brigade and that Otto Brunswick's wife is self declared as from the castle. The latter builds the importance of Hans (Otto's son) in K's eyes, as a way to gain access to the castle officials.
The functions of the officials are never mentioned. The officials that are discussed have one or more secretaries that do their work in their village. Although the officials come to the village they do not interact with the villagers unless they need female companionship, implied to be sexual.
Characters
Note: The Muir translations refer to the Herrenhof Inn where the Harman translations translate this to the Gentleman's Inn. Below all references to the inn where the officials stay in the village is the Herrenhof Inn since this was the first, and potentially more widely read, translation.
Character Description
K., the Land-Surveyor The protagonist of the story, recognized as a land surveyor, employed as the school janitor, and a stranger to the townspeople. He spends most of the novel trying to overcome the bureaucracy of the village and to contact the castle official Klamm.
Frieda A former barmaid at the Herrenhof, who is K.'s fiancée for most of the novel. She often finds herself torn between her duty to K. and her fears regarding his over-zealousness. She eventually leaves K. and ends up in the arms of his former assistant, Jeremiah (who has since become a waitperson at the Herrenhof).
Hans, landlord
(Bridge Inn) Nephew of the original owner of the inn. According to his wife, Gardena, he is lazy and overly nice to K.
Gardena, landlady
(Bridge Inn) The self proclaimed firebrand of the Bridge Inn she is a former short-term mistress to Klamm and very distrustful of K.'s motives. She remains infatuated with Klamm.
Barnabas, a messenger A messenger of the castle assigned to K. He is new to the service. K. is instructed to use him to communicate with the official Klamm. He is very immature and sensitive.
Arthur and Jeremiah, K's assistants
(Artur and Jeremias in Harman edition) Shortly after his arrival in the village, K. is given two assistants to help him with his various needs. They are a continual source of frustration for him, however, and he eventually drives them from his service through his brutal treatment. They have been assigned to K., to make him happy, by the official Galater who was deputizing for Klamm at the time.
Mayor/Superintendent
(Village Council Chairman in Harman edition) Assigned by Klamm to give K. his assignment and hence is his superior. He explains to K why he is not needed as a land surveyor. He offers K. the job of school janitor to the dismay of the Teacher.
Mizzi, the mayor's wife The wife and assistant of the Mayor, Gardena refers to her as the one who does the work.
Klamm An elusive castle official who is K.'s Castle Authority. Like the other Castle officials in the book, his actual area of expertise is never mentioned. K. spends a large portion of the novel trying to secure a meeting with Klamm. K., it seems, fixes many of his hopes for a successful resolution to his problems upon this meeting with Klamm. He has at least two secretaries—Erlanger (First Secretary) and Momus.
In Czech (and Kafka was able to speak and read/write Czech) "klam" means "illusion."
Momus, Klamm's secretary Handles all written work for and receives all petitions to Klamm. He is also secretary for Vallabne, who is not mentioned again in the novel.
Erlanger, Klamm's secretary The First Secretary of Klamm who is sent to "interrogate" K, but only gives him a short message.
Olga, Barnabas' sister The older sister of Amalia and Barnabas. She helps K. on his quest, partly by telling him the story of why her family is considered outcasts and by teaching him some of the village customs.
Amalia, Barnabas' sister Younger sister of Barnabas and Olga. She was disgraced in the village after rudely turning down a summons from the castle official Sortini for sexual favors.
Barnabas' Father The father of Olga, Amalia and Barnabas. Past village cobbler and notable fireman. After Amalia's disgraceful interactions with Sortini's messenger, his business is ruined and he is stripped of his fire credentials
Barnabas' Mother The mother of Olga, Amalia and Barnabas.
Otto Brunswick, son-in-law of Lasemann
(brother-in-law of Lasemann in Harman edition) Hans Brunswick's father. Opportunistically takes over Barnabas' father's customers as the Barnabas family falls into disrepute from Amalia's rude treatment of Sortini's Messenger. According to the Mayor, Brunswick was the only person in the village that desired that a land surveyor be hired. No reason for this is given.
Frau Brunswick Hans Brunswick's Mother. She refers to herself as "from the castle" and is the only reference to a female at the castle.
Hans, a sympathetic Student A student at the school where K is a janitor. Offers to help K and K uses him to attempt to find ways to get to the castle through his mother.
Herrenhof Landlord Landlord of the Herrenhof Inn.
Herrenhof Landlady Well dressed landlady at the Herrenhof Inn. Seems to be the matriarch of the Inn (as is Gardena at the Bridge Inn). Is distrustful of K.
Galater He is the castle official that assigned the assistants to K. He was also "rescued" by Barnabas' father in a minor fire at the Herrenhof Inn.
Brügel
(Bürgel in Harman edition) A Secretary of a castle official, Friedrich. Friedrich is not mentioned again in the book, but in deleted text is referred to as an official who is falling out of favor. Brügel is a long winded secretary who muses about Castle interrogations with K, when the latter errantly enters his room at the Herrenhof Inn.
Sordini Castle secretary who exhaustively manages any transactions at the castle for his department and is suspicious of any potential error.
Sortini Castle official associated with the village fire brigade who solicits Amalia with a sexually explicit and rude request to come to his room at the Herrenhof.
Teacher When K. becomes the janitor at the school, the teacher becomes K.'s de facto superior. He does not approve of K. working at the school, but does not appear to have the authority to terminate K's appointment.
Miss Gisa, the school mistress The assistant school teacher who is courted by Schwarzer and also dislikes K.
Schwarzer An under-castellan's son who appears to have given up living in the castle to court Miss Gisa and become her student teacher.
Pepi A former chamber maid who is promoted to Frieda's barmaid position when the latter leaves her position at the Herrenhoff to live with K. She was a chambermaid with Emilie and Hennriette
Lasemann, a tanner, father-in-law of Otto Brunswick
(brother-in-law of Otto Brunswick in Harman edition) The village tanner that offers a few hours shelter to K. during on his first full day in the village.
Gerstacker, a Coachman Initially suspicious of K. but gives him a free sleigh back to the Bridge Inn after refusing to provide a ride to the castle. At the end of the book attempts to befriend K. since he believes K. has clout with Erlanger.
Seemann, the Fire Company chief The fire chief that strips Barnabas' father of his fireman diploma after Barnabas' family falls into shame from Amalia's rude treatment of Sortini's Messenger.
Major themes
Theological
It is well documented that Brod's original construction was based on religious themes and this was furthered by the Muirs in their translations. But it has not ended with the Critical Editions. Numerous interpretations have been made with a variety of theological angles.
One interpretation of K.'s struggle to contact the castle is that it represents a man's search for salvation. According to Mark Harman, translator of a recent edition of The Castle, this was the interpretation favored by the original translators Willa and Edwin Muir, who produced the first English volume in 1925. Harman feels he has removed the bias in the translations toward this view, but many still feel this is the point of the book.
Fueling the biblical interpretations of the novel are the various names and situations. For example, the official Galater (the German word for Galatians), one of the initial regions to develop a strong Christian following from the work of Apostle Paul and his assistant Barnabas. The name of the messenger, Barnabas, for the same reason. Even the Critical Editions naming of the beginning chapter, "Arrival", among other things liken K. to an Old Testament messiah.
Abuse of power
While in talking to Olga in (Chapter XVII, "Amalia's Secret") K. himself ridicules the officials, in general, based on Sortini's "abuse of power" in requesting Amalia to come to the Gentleman's Inn. K. caught, once again, in not understanding the customs of the village is shocked at the behavior of Sortini. Olga expresses the "heroic" actions of Amalia, but appears too understanding of the community's acceptance of the status quo when it comes to the solicitations by the officials.
Bureaucracy
The obvious thread throughout The Castle is bureaucracy. The extreme degree is nearly comical and the village residents' justifications of it are amazing. Hence it is no surprise that many feel that the work is a direct result of the political situation of the era in which it was written, which was shot through with anti-Semitism, remnants of the Habsburg bureaucracy, etc.
But even in these analyses, the veiled references to more sensitive issues are pointed out. For instance, the treatment of the Barnabas family, with their requirement to first prove guilt before they could request a pardon from it and the way their fellow villagers desert them have been pointed out as a direct reference to the anti-Semitic climate at the time.
Allusions to other works
Critics often talk of The Castle and The Trial in concert, highlighting the struggle of the protagonist against a bureaucratic system and standing before the law's door unable to enter as in the parable of the priest in The Trial.
In spite of motifs common with other works of Kafka, The Castle is quite different from The Trial. While K., the main hero of The Castle, faces similar uncertainty and difficulty in grasping the reality that suddenly surrounds him; Josef K., the protagonist of The Trial, seems to be more experienced and emotionally stronger. On the other hand, while Josef K.'s surroundings stay familiar even when strange events befall him, K. finds himself in a new world whose laws and rules are unfamiliar to him.
Publication history
Harman translation
In 1926 Max Brod persuaded Kurt Wolff Verlag to publish the first German edition of The Castle. Due to its unfinished nature and his desire to get Kafka's work published, Max Brod took some editorial freedom.
In 1961 Malcolm Pasley was able to gain control of the manuscript, along with most of the other Kafka writings (save The Trial) and had it placed in the Oxford's Bodleian library. There, Pasley headed a team of scholars and recompiled Kafka's works into the Critical Edition. The Castle Critical Edition, in German, consists of two volumes—the novel in one volume and the fragments, deletions and editor's notes in a second volume. They were published by S. Fischer Verlag in 1982, hence occasionally referred to as the "Fischer Editions".
Mark Harman used the first volume of this set to create the 1998 edition of The Castle, often refer to as based on the "Restored Text" or the "English Critical Edition".
The lack of the fragments and missing text would have little meaning to most readers if the Muir translation did not let one know that there was more to read. The casual reader may not find the additional text of value, which Harman mentions that he has not included the text. According to the Publisher's Note:
"We decided to omit the variants and passages deleted by Kafka that are included in Pasley's second volume, even though variants can indeed shed light on the genesis of literary texts. The chief objective of this new edition, which is intended for the general public, is to present the text in a form that is as close as possible to the state in which the author left the manuscript."
Harman has received general acceptance of his translation as being technically accurate and true to the original German. He has, though, received criticism for, at times not creating the prosaic form of Kafka. Some of this is due, as with Muir's translations, on accusations that Pasley compilations are also inaccurate, although better than Brod's.
As noted in the Table of Contents above, Harman includes an eleven page discussion on his philosophy behind the translation. This section provides significant information about the method he used and his thought process. There are numerous examples of passages from Pasley, Muir's translation and his translation to provide the reader with a better feel for the work. As referenced above, some feel that his (and the publisher's) praise for his work and his "patronizing" of the Muirs goes a little too far.
Muir translation
In 1930 Willa and Edwin Muir translated the First German edition of The Castle as it was compiled by Max Brod. It was published by Secker & Warburg in England and Alfred A. Knopf in the United States. 1941 edition was the edition that fed the Kafka post-war craze. The 1941 edition included a homage by Thomas Mann.
In 1954 the "Definitive" edition was published and included additional sections Brod had added to the Schocken Definitive German edition. The new sections were translated by Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser. Some edits were made in the Muir text namely the changes were "Town Council" to "Village Council", "Superintendent" to "Mayor", "Clients" to "Applicants" .
The 1994 edition, the current publication, contains a preface by Irving Howe.
The Muir translations make use of wording that is often considered "spiritual" in nature. In one notable example, the Muirs translate the description of the castle as "soaring unfalteringly" where Harman uses "tapered decisively". Furthermore, the word "illusory" is used from the opening paragraph forward. Some critics note this as further evidence of the bias in the translation leaning toward a mystical interpretation.
Underwood translation
A translation by J. A. Underwood was published in 1997 and 2000 (ISBN 0-14-018504-6) by Penguin in the UK.
Adaptations
The book was adapted by German director Rudolf Noelte into a film released in 1968. It was also filmed by Austrian director Michael Haneke in 1997 under the original German title Das Schloß, starring Ulrich Mühe as K. There is a 1994 Russian movie adaptation, The Castle, directed by Aleksei Balabanov. Another less-well-known adaptation was also made in Russia in 1994, called The Land Surveyor (Землемер). It was a 46-minute-long animation created at Diogen Studio and directed by Dmitriy Naumov and Valentin Telegin. . A 120-minute-long French radio adaptation, written by Stephane Michaka and directed by Cedric Aussir, was aired by France Culture in 2010.
Allusions to The Castle in other works
A story similar to that of The Castle is told in the British television series The Prisoner. In the late 1970s, an unlicensed computer game spin-off of The Prisoner took things one step further by incorporating elements of The Castle into the game play.
The novel Oficina Número 1 (Office Number 1) by Venezuelan writer Miguel Otero Silva has one character reading The Castle, and although never referred to by name, describes several parts of it.
The Castle is also referred to in Lawrence Thornton's Imagining Argentina. A professor is arrested under suspicion of subversive activities. He tells the authorities he has been meeting Dostoevsky, Koestler and Camus at a place called "the Castle". The main character's cat is also named Kafka.
Although not expressly stated as such, the Steven Soderbergh film Kafka from 1991, starring Jeremy Irons, incorporates the basic thematic elements of The Castle as well as allusions to Kafka's own life as a writer and his collected works. The title character, "Kafka", an insurance company clerk by day and a writer by night, lives and works in the shadow of the mysterious Castle, which rules over the life and death of the local citizenry through a seemingly incomprehensibly complex conspiracy of bureaucracy and cover-ups.
Iain Banks's novel Walking on Glass has characters who find themselves in a situation similar to K.'s: trapped in a castle, subject to arbitrary and bizarre rules which they must obey in order to find a way of leaving, and surrounded by "servants" who comply entirely with the rules by which the castle is run. The allusion is made specific in one of the final chapters, where reading The Castle (along with The Trial and Titus Groan) is hinted at as a key to the characters' escape from their own castle.
K., the protagonist of J.M. Coetzee's The Life and Times of Michael K, attempts to live simply outside the governing system of war torn South Africa.[citation needed]
African-American author Richard Wright references The Castle in his autobiography Black Boy.
Japanese game designer Suda51, creator of No More Heroes, is planning to make a game based on The Castle, titled Kuriyami
A world in the children's Nintendo DS game Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, the Galactic Jungle, presents the player with a stubborn bureaucracy not unlike the one portrayed in the novel.
Gene Wolfe's novel There Are Doors contains numerous references to The Castle throughout, including a high-placed official known as Klamm, several characters referred to as "Herr K.," and an actual copy of Das Schloss found nailed to a table within a dream.
Argentinian writer Ernesto Sabato is said to be influenced by Kafka's existentialism. The main character in his novelle, "The Tunnel", is named Castel, presumably after Kafka's story title.
迫于父亲的压力，他学习法律，后入一家私人保险公司任低薪职员，一直湮没在人群之中。他一生三次订婚，又三次解除婚约，其中原因之一就是怕结婚会破坏他已经习惯的孤独生活。后来他患上肺结核病，更使他远离热闹的尘世生活，沉浸在自己孤独的内心世界中。
这个孤僻的小职员的最大爱好就是写作，他那敏感、怯懦的性格和孤僻、忧郁的气质确实适合做一个作家。卡夫卡业余创作的大部分作品在他生前一直锁在抽屉里，少量面世的短篇小说还不足让他一鸣惊人，而且对他的同时代人来说，他的小说太超前了，当时的人们远未有能力体验卡夫卡独特而奇怪的荒谬感。他病逝后遗留下大量手稿。
二战之后，世界在废墟上重建，战争所带来的人类心灵深重的阴影，使人们不约而同地把目光转向了30年前死去的无名作家卡夫卡，他及其作品在西方世界掀起了一股热潮，人们像投票选举政界要员一样把他列为现代派小说家的第一候选人。
推荐阅读版本：汤永宽译，武汉大学出版社出版。
《城堡》-内容精要
一个寒冷的冬天的夜晚，土地测量员K来到了一个村子，他的目的是要前往村子附近的那座城堡去执行公务。当K在村口遥望城堡时，他感到笼罩在夜色之中的城堡，如同一片空洞虚无的幻景，这样的感觉似乎预示着他的任务不是那么容易完成的。
他前往客店投宿，可是客店老板对他的到来有点不知所措。他告诉K已经客满了，只好把K勉强安顿下来。客店里的人得知K要去城堡，都用特别的眼神看他。一位年轻人告诉K，每个进入城堡的人都必须得有一张许可证，而要想得到许可证，就必须去找城堡里的伯爵。
第二天，K走向城堡，可是耗费了一整天的时间他也无法靠近城堡一步。天色暗下来，他只好先去找栖身之处。找来找去，又回到了昨天晚上的那家客店。在搭雪橇前往客店的途中，他遇到了两个自称是他的助手的人。他们非常热情地帮助 K，并且用电话联络城堡里的办事机构，询问具体何时能上城堡去，对方回答：“任何时候都不能来。”
这时，来了一位叫巴纳巴斯的人，他是城堡的信使，K对他的来到十分兴奋，认为他可以成为自己和城堡联系的中间人。巴纳巴斯给他带来了城堡的信，信里既没有对K的到来表示欢迎，也没有暗示他赶快离开。事情依旧毫无转机。K和信使一道去了他家，信使的妹妹又表示她可以帮助K，于是把 K送进了一家旅馆，她告诉K，城堡的头面人物克拉姆住在那里，可以借机找克拉姆打通关节。
在旅馆的酒吧里，K认识了克拉姆的情妇弗丽达，K顿时使出浑身解数试图靠近弗丽达，然而旅馆里的人不停地添乱，助手们也在一边添乱，使他无法和弗丽达亲密地谈一谈关于克拉姆。他甚至用与弗丽达结婚的许诺想换得跟克拉姆谈一次话的机会。但K最终发现弗丽达这条路是走不通的，因为她和信使一样，是个无关紧要的小人物，她早已失宠。
K去见村长，村长告诉他，K来到村子完全是个错误，因为这里根本用不着土地测量员。城堡里不同部门彼此封闭，造成了一些差错，所以K才会收到公文，然而这份公文是早已无效的。村长承认他在几年前收到一个招聘一位土地测量员的公文，然而他无论如何找不到那张可以证明K合法身份的薄纸片。村长表达了自己对这件事情的看法，他觉得K收到的公文其实是一封某个主管，比如克拉姆，对他表示私人关心的的信，不能代表城堡的意见，因此K应当趁早回去。
K感到受骗上当了，但他坚持要求得到他应得的权利，那就是找一个住处，安顿他和弗丽达的新家。客栈老板一心想赶走K，K临走前，又从老板娘那里听到了关于她和克拉姆旧情的回忆，这使K感到很不舒服，因为他不由自主地想到了自己的未婚妻。
这时村里学校的教师奉村长之命前来，允许K带家眷住进学校任看门人，同时他也强调，学校其实并不需要一个看门人，他完全遵从村长的命令。K感到受到了侮辱，他拒绝了这份工作。可弗丽达坚持K接受它，她说如果K不接受，连个安身之处都没有，那么这对K对她自己都是十分羞愧的事情。
K对于进入城堡仍然抱着最后的希望，这已经不单纯是执行公务，而是有关个人尊严的问题。他冒雪来到克拉姆的旅馆，女招待说这会儿克拉姆正准备离开旅馆，雪橇已在院子里等着他，K二话没话，守到雪橇边，喝着白兰地等克拉姆出来。和以前一样，克拉姆本人永远不会出现，他的秘书摩麦斯出来告诉K： “不管你跟我走或者留在这里，你都不会见到他。”K反而陷入了进退两难的地步，如果他离开，周围人的神色举止里就表明克拉姆就此脱身了；如果他坚持等下去，显然也是没有结果的。秘书拿出一份会谈记录，向K指出这是引K走向克拉姆的惟一道路，但首先K必须接受一番苛刻的审查，K觉得不可忍受，于是他们两人大笑着分别了。
《城堡》作家卡夫卡
信使巴纳巴斯又带来了克拉姆的一封信，克拉姆赞赏了K及其助手的测量工作，这使K困惑不已，他至今为止从未干什么测量工作，每天做的事情就是在等待争取城堡的许可。K开始怀疑信使的可靠，但他仍托巴纳巴斯带去一个回音，申诉自己焦灼地渴盼见到克拉姆一面的心情。
之后K回到他和弗丽达的新家，那是学校里的一间大教室，可是K和弗丽达的生活并不安宁。两个助手不停地淘气，争食物，瞅准机会睡到惟一的稻草垫子上去。第二天，学校的女教师来了，她十分吃惊，继而不断地责骂 K，K几乎像个劣等动物一样被欺辱，可他决不接受校方的解职通知。他迁怒于两位无用的助手，宣布辞退他们，助手们施出浑身气力哀求K。弗丽达反对K的决定，她说一旦辞退助手，K就永远没有机会见到克拉姆了。弗丽达鼓励K不要丧失信心。
K 来到信使家等待回音，信使的姐妹奥尔伽和阿玛丽亚总向K暗示她们的倾慕之情，并且在闲聊中，暗示K，她们的哥哥巴纳巴斯可能从未见过克拉姆，他总是给K带来那些耽误了很久，失去时效的信。就连克拉姆本人，也是可疑的，关于克拉姆的种种情况，很大程度上是村里人想象出来的。奥尔伽又告诉K，城堡里的官员如同暴君，他们可以随时瞧上村里的任何姑娘，给她们写下流无比的信。他们的谈话离正题越来越远，奥尔伽讲起了阿玛丽亚因为拒绝城堡里另一位大官员索尔蒂尼的求爱而遭受的不幸，他们全家都被迫接受了一种几乎整天无所事事的刑罚，城堡强制他们退出社会生活。奥尔伽提醒K，不要指望任何一位有同情心的官员为他说话。巴纳巴斯为K送信，其实不过是想让自己一家人不露痕迹地再受恩宠，对于K来说，没有任何意义。这场繁冗而推心置腹的谈话被K的一位助手打断了，K很快意识到弗丽达和另一位助手呆在家里，他赶紧回家了。
到家里，K发现弗丽达不见了。原来她以为K跑去勾搭巴纳巴斯的姐妹，于是和另一个助手达成协议，背叛K。这时，巴纳巴斯又跑来找K，兴冲冲地通知他，克拉姆的主要秘书之一艾朗格要和K当面谈一谈。K和一群人等候在漆黑的旅馆门口，K被最先领了进去，但艾朗格却睡着了，K只好等着。在等待的时候，他又重新见到了弗丽达，他们激烈争论了忠实与不忠实的问题。弗丽达坦然地告诉K，她已经和那位助手同居了。K则十分平静地回敬她：自从你相继失去了克拉姆的情妇以及我的未婚妻这两种身份之后，你早已经没有了魅力。听完此话后，弗丽达似乎被触动了。但是她又见到助手时，马上就改变主意。她说：她再也不想回到K身边接受他的折磨。
小说就在此处戛然而止，卡夫卡未写完它，他原来打算的结尾是K将精疲力竭而死。后世及研究者预计的结局是：K弥留之际，城堡终于来了通知，允许K留在村子里，但不许进入城堡，K永远不可能到达那里，一直到死。
《城堡》-专家点评
当一个作家不能被他同时代的人所理解时，他会怎样处理自己的作品。卡夫卡选择的是毁灭。他在遗书中委托好友布罗德将其所有作品“毫无保留地，读也不必读就统统予以焚毁”。万幸布罗德自作主张将卡夫卡的遗稿保存下来，整理出版，这一次明智的“背信弃义”使我们今天依旧能一睹卡夫卡这位文学大师一生勤奋的成果。
人们提到卡夫卡，总是会提起他的《变形记》，里面的小公务员一早起来发现自己变成了一个大甲虫。西方文学中常常用《变形记》来指代现代化文明中人的异化。然而在这里所推荐的《城堡》，因其多义性更富于阅读的快乐。中篇小说《城堡》与《审判》及《美国》合称“卡夫卡三部曲”，它们都具有卡夫卡小说一贯的荒诞不经风格：异化现象，难以排遣的孤独和危机感，无法克服的荒诞和恐惧。卡夫卡的小说揭示了一种荒诞的充满非理性色彩的景象，个人式的、忧郁的、孤独的情绪，运用的是象征式的手法。其中《城堡》更富于“卡夫卡式”的构思和语言风格。
和卡夫卡的其他小说一样，《城堡》没有惟一正确的解释，解释权授予了每个阅读者，这来源于这部作品的多义性。表面上，这作品的故事再简单不过了，一个土地测量员K来到一个村庄，想进入管辖附近地区的伯爵居住的城堡，他费了九牛二虎之力，摊上一切也没能达到目的。《城堡》所具有的荒谬、虚拟，无明确的时代地理背景的特征使它抹上很浓的寓言色彩，无论评论家还是普通读者都能够获得不同的结论，《城堡》究竟表达了怎样的主题，这终了还是一个难解之谜，有人说它表现的是“人试图进入天国而不得的痛苦”；有人则认为它集中反映了卡夫卡本人的精神世界的荒诞、孤独与恐惧；有人则结合写作年代背景，说明城堡实际上反映了奥匈帝国官僚体制与大众的鸿沟，更有论者以为，《城堡》和《审判》、《美国》的主题相同，即“人们所追求的真理，不管是自由、安定，还是法律，都是存在的，但这个荒诞的世界给人们设置了种种障碍，无论你怎么努力， 总是追求不到， 最后只能以失败告终。” 在《城堡》中，“城堡”是最大的谜团，它与主人公K的目标总是若即若离，也正因此，能够激起人们相当的阅读兴趣，其中的人物如CC伯爵，以至于克拉姆部长等都神秘莫测，足以见卡夫卡这位小说家的天才的智慧。
《城堡》小说家卡夫卡
阅读卡夫卡的小说，对每一个读者来说都是挑战。他喜欢长句子，字里行间充满了大量的暗喻，他用文字堆起了一个个迷宫。读者会在穿行文字时遇到极大的阻力。然而当你习惯他的文字风格后，你会发现，原先的阻力变成了动力，带给你阅读的快感。
1913年8月15日，卡夫卡在自己的日记里写道：“我将不顾一切地与所有人隔绝，与所有人敌对，不同任何人讲话。”6天后他又这样写道：“现在我在我的家庭里，在那些最好的、最亲爱的人们中间，比一个陌生人还要陌生。近年来我和我的母亲平均每天说不上20句话；和我的父亲除了有时彼此寒暄几句几乎就没有更多的话可说；和我的已婚的妹妹和妹夫们除了跟他们生气我压根儿就不说话。理由很简单：我和他们没有任何一丁点儿的事情要说。一切不是文学的事情都使我无聊， 叫我憎恨”三年之后，这个不仅和整个世界格格不入，而且也和自己格格不入的犹太人，虽然尚未进入完全与世隔绝的城堡，却终于从家庭里逃出，为自己找到了一条窄得像西服袖子一样的幽深的死巷。这就是如今在布拉格颇为知名的黄金巷、又译为“炼金术士巷”。黄金巷22号的连栋屋中间，有座建于16世纪的、只有一个房间和一间小阁楼的小小蓝屋，墙壁很薄，房舍低矮得伸手便可触及天花板。这是被他的好友马克斯·布罗德称之为“一个真正的作家的修道士般的密室”的处所。卡夫卡在这里继续用谜一般的文字构筑着自己灵魂的城堡。
《城堡》卡夫卡及家人
在卡夫卡的世界里，噩梦永远没有醒来的时候，在荒诞的、不合逻辑的世界里描绘“人类生活的一切活动及其逼真的细节”，这正是作为小说家的卡夫卡的天赋所在，当我们读到《变形记》、《城堡》、《审判》等作品时，简直就像面对着一尊尊充满力量的雕塑，你能从那极度的变形与夸张里体会到生命的悸动与冲突。对于卡夫卡自己来说，生存就是一场必须“恰当运用自己的力量（因为我们的力量永远是有限的）”的抗争。虽然前途黯淡，但前途毕竟终会到来。通过写作这一形式卡夫卡为自己的抗争找到了存在的形象。从卡夫卡自己的书信与日记，我们也许能领会到那无穷无尽的力量源泉，他这样写道：“不要绝望，甚至对你并不感到绝望这一点也不要绝望。恰恰在似乎一切都完了的时候，新的力量毕竟来临，给你以帮助，而这正表明你是活着的。”“一场倾盆大雨。站立着面对这场大雨吧！让它的钢铁般的光芒刺穿你。你在那想把你冲走的雨水中飘浮，但你还是要坚持，昂首屹立，等待那即将来临的无穷无尽的阳光的照耀。”令人吃惊的是，它们竟然带着这样一些姿态：忧伤、理解、痛苦、谦卑，卡夫卡由此走向了无限深渊。最终他完成了对自己的塑造：他成为无限深渊中惟一裸行的思想者。卡夫卡的道路是对抗之路，他与存在于他身边的世界和秩序一直是抗争着的，艺术或者说文学写作是他对抗外部荒诞世界的惟一武器，他别无选择。虽然在此期间，他极度渴望实现艺术与现实的统一，甚至他个人与外部世界有过短暂的统一，但这种统一也是一瞬即逝的，表面和形式上的。他也渴望有自己的家庭，但他害怕家庭损害他的写作；他也像凡夫俗子一样，渴望有自己的孩子，做一名好父亲，但直到他有一个已长到7岁才夭折的孩子。
卡夫卡生前默默无闻，孤独地奋斗，随着时间的流逝，他的价值才逐渐为人们所认识，作品引起了世界的震动，并在世界范围内形成一股“卡夫卡”热，经久不衰。他一生的作品并不多，但对后世文学的影响却是极为深远的。他与法国作家马赛尔·普鲁斯特、爱尔兰作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯并称为西方现代主义文学的先驱和大师。美国诗人奥登认为：“他与我们时代的关系最近似但丁、莎士比亚、歌德与他们时代的关系。”后世的许多现代主义文学流派如“荒诞派戏剧”、法国的“新小说”等都把卡夫卡奉为自己的鼻祖。
关于卡夫卡，我们还可以说上很多很多。据说在现代文学的研究中，关于卡夫卡的论文数量之大，仅仅打印题目就需要几十页。但是，理解卡夫卡最好的方法，就是进入他的文字世界，安静地倾听他通过语言表达的内心。这不正是我们现在这个浮躁的现代文明所缺少的吗？
《城堡》-妙语佳句
他真要以为外面是灰色的天空与灰色的土地浑然一体的荒漠世界了。
可是如果这一切的平静、舒适与满足都要想恐怖地告一段落，那该怎么办呢？
History of the novel
Kafka began writing The Castle on the evening of January 27, 1922, the day he arrived at the mountain resort of Spindlermühle (now in the Czech Republic). A picture taken of him upon his arrival shows him by a horse-drawn sleigh in the snow in a setting reminiscent of The Castle. Hence, the significance that the first few chapters of the handwritten manuscript were written in first person and at some point later changed by Kafka to a third person narrator, 'K.'
Max Brod
Kafka died prior to finishing The Castle and it is questionable whether Kafka intended on finishing it if he had survived his tuberculosis. On separate occasions he told his friend Max Brod of two different conditions: K., the book's protagonist, would continue to reside and die in the village; the castle notifying him on his death bed that his "legal claim to live in the village was not valid, yet, taking certain auxiliary circumstances into account, he was permitted to live and work there" , but then on September 11, 1922 in a letter to Max Brod, he said he was giving up on the book and would never return to it. As it is, the book ends mid-sentence.
Although Brod was instructed by Kafka to destroy all his works on his death, he did not and set about publishing Kafka's writings. The Castle was originally published in German in 1926 by the publisher Kurt Wolff Verlag of Munich. This edition sold far less than the 1500 copies that were printed. It was republished in 1935 by Schocken Verlag in Berlin, and in 1946 by Schocken Books of New York.
Brod had to heavily edit the work to ready it for publication. His goal was to gain acceptance of the work and the author, not to maintain the structure of Kafka's writing. This would play heavily in the future of the translations and continues to be the center of discussion on the text. Brod donated the manuscript to Oxford University.
Brod placed a strong religious significance to the symbolism of the castle. This is one possible interpretation of the work based on numerous Judeo-Christian references as noted by many including Arnold Heidsieck.
Malcolm Pasley
The publisher, Salmen Schocken, soon realized the translations were "bad" and in 1940 desired a "completely different approach". In 1961 Malcolm Pasley got access to all of Kafka's works, except The Trial, and deposited them in Oxford's Bodleian library. Pasley and a team of scholars (Gerhard Neumann, Malcolm Pasley, Jost Schillemeit, and Jürgen Born) started publishing the works in 1982 through S. Fischer Verlag. Das Schloß was published that year as a two volume set — the novel in the first volume, and the fragments, deletions and editor's notes in a second volume. This team restored the original German text to its full, and incomplete state, including the unique Kafka punctuation considered critical to the style.
Stroemfeld/Roter Stern
Interpretations of Kafka's intent for the manuscript are ongoing. Stroemfeld/Roter Stern Verlag is working for the rights to publish another critical edition with manuscript and transcription side-by-side. But they have met with resistance from the Kafka heirs and Pasley. This edition is not yet available.
Major editions
* 1930 Translators: Willa and Edwin Muir. Based on the First German edition, by Max Brod. Published By Secker & Warburg in England and Alfred A. Knopf in the United States.
* 1941 Translators: Willa and Edwin Muir. Edition include an Homage by Thomas Mann.
* 1954 Translators: Willa and Edwin Muir additional sections translated by Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser. "Definitive edition". Based on the Schocken 1951 Definitive edition .
* 1994 Translators: Muir, et al. Preface by Irving Howe.
* 1997 Translator: J. A. Underwood, Introduction: Idris Parry. Based on Pasley Critical German Text.
* 1998 Translator: Mark Harman Based on Pasley Critical German Text.
The title
The title, Das Schloß, may be translated as "the castle" or "the lock". It is also similar to Der Schluß (close or end). The castle is locked and closed to K and the townspeople; neither can gain access.
Plot
The narrator, K. arrives in the village, governed by the castle. When seeking shelter at the town inn, he gives himself out to be a land surveyor summoned by the castle authorities. He is quickly notified that his castle contact is an official named Klamm, who, in the introductory note, informs K. he will report to the Council Chairman.
The Council Chairman informs K. that, through a mix up in communication between the castle and the village, he was erroneously requested but, trying to accommodate K., the Council Chairman offers him a position in the service of the school teacher as a janitor. Meanwhile, K., unfamiliar with the customs, bureaucracy and processes of the village, continues to attempt to reach the official Klamm, who is not accessible.
The villagers hold the officials and the castle in the highest regard, justifying, quite elaborately at times, the actions of the officials, even though they do not appear to know what officials do or why they do it; they simply defend it. The number of assumptions and justifications about the functions of the officials and their dealings are enumerated through lengthy monologues of the villagers. Everyone appears to have an explanation for the official's actions that appear to be founded on assumptions and gossip. One of the more obvious contradictions between the "official word" and the village conception is the dissertation by the secretary Erlanger on Frieda's required return to service as a barmaid. K. is the only villager that knows that the request is being forced by the castle (even though Frieda may be the genesis), with no regard for anyone in the village, only Klamm. Pepi and Jeremiah quickly come to their conclusions and do not hesitate to state them.
The castle is the ultimate bureaucracy with copious paperwork that the bureaucracy maintains is "flawless". This flawlessness is of course a lie; it is a flaw in the paperwork that has brought K. to the village. There are other failures of the system which are occasionally referred to. K. witnesses a flagrant misprocessing after his nighttime interrogation by Erlanger as a servant destroys paperwork when he cannot determine who the recipient should be.
The castle's occupants appear to be all adult men and there is little reference to the castle other than to its bureaucratic functions. The two notable instances are the reference to a fire brigade and that Otto Brunswick's wife is self declared as from the castle. The latter builds the importance of Hans (Otto's son) in K's eyes, as a way to gain access to the castle officials.
The functions of the officials are never mentioned. The officials that are discussed have one or more secretaries that do their work in their village. Although the officials come to the village they do not interact with the villagers unless they need female companionship, implied to be sexual.
Characters
Note: The Muir translations refer to the Herrenhof Inn where the Harman translations translate this to the Gentleman's Inn. Below all references to the inn where the officials stay in the village is the Herrenhof Inn since this was the first, and potentially more widely read, translation.
Character Description
K., the Land-Surveyor The protagonist of the story, recognized as a land surveyor, employed as the school janitor, and a stranger to the townspeople. He spends most of the novel trying to overcome the bureaucracy of the village and to contact the castle official Klamm.
Frieda A former barmaid at the Herrenhof, who is K.'s fiancée for most of the novel. She often finds herself torn between her duty to K. and her fears regarding his over-zealousness. She eventually leaves K. and ends up in the arms of his former assistant, Jeremiah (who has since become a waitperson at the Herrenhof).
Hans, landlord
(Bridge Inn) Nephew of the original owner of the inn. According to his wife, Gardena, he is lazy and overly nice to K.
Gardena, landlady
(Bridge Inn) The self proclaimed firebrand of the Bridge Inn she is a former short-term mistress to Klamm and very distrustful of K.'s motives. She remains infatuated with Klamm.
Barnabas, a messenger A messenger of the castle assigned to K. He is new to the service. K. is instructed to use him to communicate with the official Klamm. He is very immature and sensitive.
Arthur and Jeremiah, K's assistants
(Artur and Jeremias in Harman edition) Shortly after his arrival in the village, K. is given two assistants to help him with his various needs. They are a continual source of frustration for him, however, and he eventually drives them from his service through his brutal treatment. They have been assigned to K., to make him happy, by the official Galater who was deputizing for Klamm at the time.
Mayor/Superintendent
(Village Council Chairman in Harman edition) Assigned by Klamm to give K. his assignment and hence is his superior. He explains to K why he is not needed as a land surveyor. He offers K. the job of school janitor to the dismay of the Teacher.
Mizzi, the mayor's wife The wife and assistant of the Mayor, Gardena refers to her as the one who does the work.
Klamm An elusive castle official who is K.'s Castle Authority. Like the other Castle officials in the book, his actual area of expertise is never mentioned. K. spends a large portion of the novel trying to secure a meeting with Klamm. K., it seems, fixes many of his hopes for a successful resolution to his problems upon this meeting with Klamm. He has at least two secretaries—Erlanger (First Secretary) and Momus.
In Czech (and Kafka was able to speak and read/write Czech) "klam" means "illusion."
Momus, Klamm's secretary Handles all written work for and receives all petitions to Klamm. He is also secretary for Vallabne, who is not mentioned again in the novel.
Erlanger, Klamm's secretary The First Secretary of Klamm who is sent to "interrogate" K, but only gives him a short message.
Olga, Barnabas' sister The older sister of Amalia and Barnabas. She helps K. on his quest, partly by telling him the story of why her family is considered outcasts and by teaching him some of the village customs.
Amalia, Barnabas' sister Younger sister of Barnabas and Olga. She was disgraced in the village after rudely turning down a summons from the castle official Sortini for sexual favors.
Barnabas' Father The father of Olga, Amalia and Barnabas. Past village cobbler and notable fireman. After Amalia's disgraceful interactions with Sortini's messenger, his business is ruined and he is stripped of his fire credentials
Barnabas' Mother The mother of Olga, Amalia and Barnabas.
Otto Brunswick, son-in-law of Lasemann
(brother-in-law of Lasemann in Harman edition) Hans Brunswick's father. Opportunistically takes over Barnabas' father's customers as the Barnabas family falls into disrepute from Amalia's rude treatment of Sortini's Messenger. According to the Mayor, Brunswick was the only person in the village that desired that a land surveyor be hired. No reason for this is given.
Frau Brunswick Hans Brunswick's Mother. She refers to herself as "from the castle" and is the only reference to a female at the castle.
Hans, a sympathetic Student A student at the school where K is a janitor. Offers to help K and K uses him to attempt to find ways to get to the castle through his mother.
Herrenhof Landlord Landlord of the Herrenhof Inn.
Herrenhof Landlady Well dressed landlady at the Herrenhof Inn. Seems to be the matriarch of the Inn (as is Gardena at the Bridge Inn). Is distrustful of K.
Galater He is the castle official that assigned the assistants to K. He was also "rescued" by Barnabas' father in a minor fire at the Herrenhof Inn.
Brügel
(Bürgel in Harman edition) A Secretary of a castle official, Friedrich. Friedrich is not mentioned again in the book, but in deleted text is referred to as an official who is falling out of favor. Brügel is a long winded secretary who muses about Castle interrogations with K, when the latter errantly enters his room at the Herrenhof Inn.
Sordini Castle secretary who exhaustively manages any transactions at the castle for his department and is suspicious of any potential error.
Sortini Castle official associated with the village fire brigade who solicits Amalia with a sexually explicit and rude request to come to his room at the Herrenhof.
Teacher When K. becomes the janitor at the school, the teacher becomes K.'s de facto superior. He does not approve of K. working at the school, but does not appear to have the authority to terminate K's appointment.
Miss Gisa, the school mistress The assistant school teacher who is courted by Schwarzer and also dislikes K.
Schwarzer An under-castellan's son who appears to have given up living in the castle to court Miss Gisa and become her student teacher.
Pepi A former chamber maid who is promoted to Frieda's barmaid position when the latter leaves her position at the Herrenhoff to live with K. She was a chambermaid with Emilie and Hennriette
Lasemann, a tanner, father-in-law of Otto Brunswick
(brother-in-law of Otto Brunswick in Harman edition) The village tanner that offers a few hours shelter to K. during on his first full day in the village.
Gerstacker, a Coachman Initially suspicious of K. but gives him a free sleigh back to the Bridge Inn after refusing to provide a ride to the castle. At the end of the book attempts to befriend K. since he believes K. has clout with Erlanger.
Seemann, the Fire Company chief The fire chief that strips Barnabas' father of his fireman diploma after Barnabas' family falls into shame from Amalia's rude treatment of Sortini's Messenger.
Major themes
Theological
It is well documented that Brod's original construction was based on religious themes and this was furthered by the Muirs in their translations. But it has not ended with the Critical Editions. Numerous interpretations have been made with a variety of theological angles.
One interpretation of K.'s struggle to contact the castle is that it represents a man's search for salvation. According to Mark Harman, translator of a recent edition of The Castle, this was the interpretation favored by the original translators Willa and Edwin Muir, who produced the first English volume in 1925. Harman feels he has removed the bias in the translations toward this view, but many still feel this is the point of the book.
Fueling the biblical interpretations of the novel are the various names and situations. For example, the official Galater (the German word for Galatians), one of the initial regions to develop a strong Christian following from the work of Apostle Paul and his assistant Barnabas. The name of the messenger, Barnabas, for the same reason. Even the Critical Editions naming of the beginning chapter, "Arrival", among other things liken K. to an Old Testament messiah.
Abuse of power
While in talking to Olga in (Chapter XVII, "Amalia's Secret") K. himself ridicules the officials, in general, based on Sortini's "abuse of power" in requesting Amalia to come to the Gentleman's Inn. K. caught, once again, in not understanding the customs of the village is shocked at the behavior of Sortini. Olga expresses the "heroic" actions of Amalia, but appears too understanding of the community's acceptance of the status quo when it comes to the solicitations by the officials.
Bureaucracy
The obvious thread throughout The Castle is bureaucracy. The extreme degree is nearly comical and the village residents' justifications of it are amazing. Hence it is no surprise that many feel that the work is a direct result of the political situation of the era in which it was written, which was shot through with anti-Semitism, remnants of the Habsburg bureaucracy, etc.
But even in these analyses, the veiled references to more sensitive issues are pointed out. For instance, the treatment of the Barnabas family, with their requirement to first prove guilt before they could request a pardon from it and the way their fellow villagers desert them have been pointed out as a direct reference to the anti-Semitic climate at the time.
Allusions to other works
Critics often talk of The Castle and The Trial in concert, highlighting the struggle of the protagonist against a bureaucratic system and standing before the law's door unable to enter as in the parable of the priest in The Trial.
In spite of motifs common with other works of Kafka, The Castle is quite different from The Trial. While K., the main hero of The Castle, faces similar uncertainty and difficulty in grasping the reality that suddenly surrounds him; Josef K., the protagonist of The Trial, seems to be more experienced and emotionally stronger. On the other hand, while Josef K.'s surroundings stay familiar even when strange events befall him, K. finds himself in a new world whose laws and rules are unfamiliar to him.
Publication history
Harman translation
In 1926 Max Brod persuaded Kurt Wolff Verlag to publish the first German edition of The Castle. Due to its unfinished nature and his desire to get Kafka's work published, Max Brod took some editorial freedom.
In 1961 Malcolm Pasley was able to gain control of the manuscript, along with most of the other Kafka writings (save The Trial) and had it placed in the Oxford's Bodleian library. There, Pasley headed a team of scholars and recompiled Kafka's works into the Critical Edition. The Castle Critical Edition, in German, consists of two volumes—the novel in one volume and the fragments, deletions and editor's notes in a second volume. They were published by S. Fischer Verlag in 1982, hence occasionally referred to as the "Fischer Editions".
Mark Harman used the first volume of this set to create the 1998 edition of The Castle, often refer to as based on the "Restored Text" or the "English Critical Edition".
The lack of the fragments and missing text would have little meaning to most readers if the Muir translation did not let one know that there was more to read. The casual reader may not find the additional text of value, which Harman mentions that he has not included the text. According to the Publisher's Note:
"We decided to omit the variants and passages deleted by Kafka that are included in Pasley's second volume, even though variants can indeed shed light on the genesis of literary texts. The chief objective of this new edition, which is intended for the general public, is to present the text in a form that is as close as possible to the state in which the author left the manuscript."
Harman has received general acceptance of his translation as being technically accurate and true to the original German. He has, though, received criticism for, at times not creating the prosaic form of Kafka. Some of this is due, as with Muir's translations, on accusations that Pasley compilations are also inaccurate, although better than Brod's.
As noted in the Table of Contents above, Harman includes an eleven page discussion on his philosophy behind the translation. This section provides significant information about the method he used and his thought process. There are numerous examples of passages from Pasley, Muir's translation and his translation to provide the reader with a better feel for the work. As referenced above, some feel that his (and the publisher's) praise for his work and his "patronizing" of the Muirs goes a little too far.
Muir translation
In 1930 Willa and Edwin Muir translated the First German edition of The Castle as it was compiled by Max Brod. It was published by Secker & Warburg in England and Alfred A. Knopf in the United States. 1941 edition was the edition that fed the Kafka post-war craze. The 1941 edition included a homage by Thomas Mann.
In 1954 the "Definitive" edition was published and included additional sections Brod had added to the Schocken Definitive German edition. The new sections were translated by Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser. Some edits were made in the Muir text namely the changes were "Town Council" to "Village Council", "Superintendent" to "Mayor", "Clients" to "Applicants" .
The 1994 edition, the current publication, contains a preface by Irving Howe.
The Muir translations make use of wording that is often considered "spiritual" in nature. In one notable example, the Muirs translate the description of the castle as "soaring unfalteringly" where Harman uses "tapered decisively". Furthermore, the word "illusory" is used from the opening paragraph forward. Some critics note this as further evidence of the bias in the translation leaning toward a mystical interpretation.
Underwood translation
A translation by J. A. Underwood was published in 1997 and 2000 (ISBN 0-14-018504-6) by Penguin in the UK.
Adaptations
The book was adapted by German director Rudolf Noelte into a film released in 1968. It was also filmed by Austrian director Michael Haneke in 1997 under the original German title Das Schloß, starring Ulrich Mühe as K. There is a 1994 Russian movie adaptation, The Castle, directed by Aleksei Balabanov. Another less-well-known adaptation was also made in Russia in 1994, called The Land Surveyor (Землемер). It was a 46-minute-long animation created at Diogen Studio and directed by Dmitriy Naumov and Valentin Telegin. . A 120-minute-long French radio adaptation, written by Stephane Michaka and directed by Cedric Aussir, was aired by France Culture in 2010.
Allusions to The Castle in other works
A story similar to that of The Castle is told in the British television series The Prisoner. In the late 1970s, an unlicensed computer game spin-off of The Prisoner took things one step further by incorporating elements of The Castle into the game play.
The novel Oficina Número 1 (Office Number 1) by Venezuelan writer Miguel Otero Silva has one character reading The Castle, and although never referred to by name, describes several parts of it.
The Castle is also referred to in Lawrence Thornton's Imagining Argentina. A professor is arrested under suspicion of subversive activities. He tells the authorities he has been meeting Dostoevsky, Koestler and Camus at a place called "the Castle". The main character's cat is also named Kafka.
Although not expressly stated as such, the Steven Soderbergh film Kafka from 1991, starring Jeremy Irons, incorporates the basic thematic elements of The Castle as well as allusions to Kafka's own life as a writer and his collected works. The title character, "Kafka", an insurance company clerk by day and a writer by night, lives and works in the shadow of the mysterious Castle, which rules over the life and death of the local citizenry through a seemingly incomprehensibly complex conspiracy of bureaucracy and cover-ups.
Iain Banks's novel Walking on Glass has characters who find themselves in a situation similar to K.'s: trapped in a castle, subject to arbitrary and bizarre rules which they must obey in order to find a way of leaving, and surrounded by "servants" who comply entirely with the rules by which the castle is run. The allusion is made specific in one of the final chapters, where reading The Castle (along with The Trial and Titus Groan) is hinted at as a key to the characters' escape from their own castle.
K., the protagonist of J.M. Coetzee's The Life and Times of Michael K, attempts to live simply outside the governing system of war torn South Africa.[citation needed]
African-American author Richard Wright references The Castle in his autobiography Black Boy.
Japanese game designer Suda51, creator of No More Heroes, is planning to make a game based on The Castle, titled Kuriyami
A world in the children's Nintendo DS game Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, the Galactic Jungle, presents the player with a stubborn bureaucracy not unlike the one portrayed in the novel.
Gene Wolfe's novel There Are Doors contains numerous references to The Castle throughout, including a high-placed official known as Klamm, several characters referred to as "Herr K.," and an actual copy of Das Schloss found nailed to a table within a dream.
Argentinian writer Ernesto Sabato is said to be influenced by Kafka's existentialism. The main character in his novelle, "The Tunnel", is named Castel, presumably after Kafka's story title.
《判决》（1912）是卡夫卡最喜爱的作品，表现了父子两代人的冲突。主人公格奥尔格·本德曼是个商人，自从几年前母亲去世后就和父亲一起生活，现在生意兴隆。他在房间里给一位多年前迁居俄国的朋友写信，告诉他自己订婚的消息。写完信来到父亲的房间，意外的是父亲对他态度非常不好，怀疑他根本就没有迁居到俄国的朋友，指责他背着自己做生意，还盼着自己早死。突然，父亲又转了话题，嘲笑格奥尔格在欺骗他朋友，而父亲自己倒是一直跟那位朋友通信，并早已把格奥尔格订婚的消息告诉他了。格奥尔格忍不住顶撞了父亲一句，父亲便判独生子去投河自尽。于是独生子真的投河死了。作品所描写的在父子两人的口角过程中，清白善良的儿子竟被父亲视为有罪和执拗残暴，在父亲的淫威之下，独生子害怕、恐惧到了丧失理智，以致自尽。父亲高大强壮而毫无理性，具有一切暴君的特征。这个貌似荒诞的故事是卡夫卡负罪心态的生动描述，父亲的判决也是卡夫卡对自己的判决。主人公临死前的低声辩白——“亲爱的父母亲，我可是一直爱你们的”，则是卡夫卡最隐秘心曲的吐露。这种故事的框架是典型的卡夫卡式的，是他内心深处的负罪感具象化之后的产物。然而作品的内涵显然不在于仅仅表现父子冲突，更在于在普遍意义上揭示出人类生存在怎样一种权威和凌辱之下。另一方面又展现人物为战胜父亲进行的一系列抗争。儿子把看来衰老的父亲如同孩子般放到床上后，真的把他“盖了起来”。从表面上看，他这样做是出于孝心；在深层含义上他是想埋葬父亲，以确立自己作为新的一家之主的地位。小说在体现了卡夫卡独特的“审父”意识的同时，也表现了对家长式的奥匈帝国统治者的不满。与此同时卡夫卡还通过这个独特的故事揭示了西方社会中现实生活的荒谬性和非理性。
Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never completed, although it does include a chapter which brings the story to an end. After his death in 1924, Kafka's friend and literary executor Max Brod edited the text for publication.
The Trial was filmed and released in 1962 by director Orson Welles, starring Anthony Perkins (as Josef K.) and Romy Schneider. A more recent remake was released in 1993 and featured Kyle MacLachlan in the star role. In 1999, it was adapted for comics by Italian artist Guido Crepax.
Plot summary
(As the novel was never completed, certain inconsistencies exist within the novel, such as disparities in timing in addition to other flaws in narration.)
On his thirtieth birthday, a senior bank clerk, Josef K., who lives in lodgings, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents for an unspecified crime. The agents do not name the authority for which they are acting. He is not taken away, however, but left at home to await instructions from the Committee of Affairs.
K. goes to visit the magistrate, but instead is forced to have a meeting with an attendant's wife. Looking at the Magistrate's books, he discovers a cache of pornography.
K. returns home to find Fräulein Montag, a lodger from another room, moving in with Fräulein Bürstner. He suspects that this is to prevent him from pursuing his affair with the latter woman. Yet another lodger, Captain Lanz, appears to be in league with Montag.
Later, in a store room at his own bank, K. discovers the two agents who arrested him being whipped by a flogger for asking K. for bribes, as a result of complaints K. previously made about them to the Magistrate. K. tries to argue with the flogger, saying that the men need not be whipped, but the flogger cannot be swayed. The next day he returns to the store room and is shocked to find everything as he had found it the day before, including the Whipper and the two agents.
K. is visited by his uncle, who is a friend of a lawyer. The lawyer was with the Clerk of the Court. The uncle seems distressed by K.'s predicament. At first sympathetic, he becomes concerned K. is underestimating the seriousness of the case. The uncle introduces K. to an advocate, who is attended by Leni, a nurse, who K.'s uncle suspects is the advocate's mistress. K. has a sexual encounter with Leni, whilst his uncle is talking with the Advocate and the Chief Clerk of the Court, much to his uncle's anger, and to the detriment of his case.
K. visits the advocate and finds him to be a capricious and unhelpful character. K. returns to his bank but finds that his colleagues are trying to undermine him.
K. is advised by one of his bank clients to visit Titorelli, a court painter, for advice. Titorelli has no official connections, yet seems to have a deep understanding of the process. K. learns that, to Titorelli's knowledge, not a single defendant has ever been acquitted. He sets out what K.'s options are, but the consequences of all of them are unpleasant: they consist of different delay tactics to stretch out his case as long as possible before the inevitable "Guilty" verdict. Titorelli instructs K. that there's not much he can do since he doesn't know of what crime he has been accused.
K. decides to take control of his own life and visits his advocate with the intention of dismissing him. At the advocate's office he meets a downtrodden individual, Block, a client who offers K. some insight from a client's perspective. Block's case has continued for five years and he appears to have been virtually enslaved by his dependence on the advocate's meaningless and circular advice. The advocate mocks Block in front of K. for his dog-like subservience. This experience further poisons K.'s opinion of his advocate, and K is bemused as to why his advocate would think that seeing such a client, in such a state, could change his mind. (This chapter was left unfinished by the author.)
K. is asked to tour an Italian client around local places of cultural interest, but the Italian client short of time asks K. to tour him around only the cathedral, setting a time to meet there. When the client doesn't show up, K. explores the cathedral which is empty except for an old woman and a church official. K. decides to leave as a priest K. notices seems to be preparing to give a sermon from a small second pulpit, lest it begin and K. be compelled to stay for its entirety. Instead of giving a sermon, the priest calls out K.'s name, although K. has never known the priest. The priest works for the court, and tells K. a fable, (which has been published separately as Before the Law) that is meant to explain his situation, but instead causes confusion, and implies that K.'s fate is hopeless. Before the Law begins as a parable, then continues with several pages of interpretation between the Priest and K. The gravity of the priest's words prepares the reader for an unpleasant ending.
On the last day of K.'s thirtieth year, two men arrive to execute him. He offers little resistance, suggesting that he has realised this as being inevitable for some time. They lead him to a quarry where he is expected to kill himself, but he cannot. The two men then execute him. His last words describe his own death: "Like a dog!"
Characters
Others
Fräulein Bürstner - A boarder in the same house as Josef K. She lets him kiss her one night, but then rebuffs his advances. She makes a brief reappearance in the novel's final pages.
Fräulein Montag - Friend of Fräulein Bürstner, she talks to K. about ending his relationship with Fräulein Bürstner after his arrest. She claims she can bring him insight, because she is an objective third party.
Frau Grubach - The proprietress of the lodging house in which K. lives. She holds K. in high esteem, despite his arrest.
Uncle Karl - K.'s impetuous uncle from the country, formerly his guardian. Upon learning about the trial, Karl insists that K. hire Herr Huld, the lawyer.
Herr Huld, the Lawyer - K.'s pompous and pretentious advocate who provides precious little in the way of action and far too much in the way of anecdote.
Leni - Herr Huld's nurse, she has feelings for Josef K. and soon becomes his lover. She shows him her webbed hand, yet another reference to the motif of the hand throughout the book. Apparently, she finds accused men extremely attractive—the fact of their indictment makes them irresistible to her.
Vice-President - K.'s unctuous rival at the Bank, only too willing to catch K. in a compromising situation. He repeatedly takes advantage of K.'s preoccupation with the trial to advance his own ambitions.
President - Manager of the Bank. A sickly figure, whose position the Vice-President is trying to assume. Gets on well with K., inviting him to various engagements.
Rudi Block, the Merchant - Block is another accused man and client of Huld. His case is five years old, and he is but a shadow of the prosperous grain dealer he once was. All his time, energy, and resources are now devoted to his case, to the point of detriment to his own life. Although he has hired five additional lawyers on the side, he is completely and pathetically subservient to Huld.
Titorelli, the Painter - Titorelli inherited the position of Court Painter from his father. He knows a great deal about the comings and goings of the Court's lowest level. He offers to help K., and manages to unload a few identical landscape paintings on the accused man.
Style
Parable
(Taken directly from Novels for Students: The Trial.)
Kafka intentionally set out to write parables, not just novels, about the human condition. The Trial is a parable that includes the smaller parable Before the Law. There is clearly a relationship between the two but the exact meaning of either parable is left up to the individual reader. K. and the Priest discuss the many possible readings. Both the short parable and their discussion seem to indicate that the reader is much like the man at the gate; there is a meaning in the story for everyone just as there is one gate to the Law for each person.
The parable within Kafka's masterpiece highlights perfectly the essence of his philosophy. Assigned unique roles in life, individuals must search deep within the apparent absurdity of existence to achieve spiritual self-realisation. The old man, therefore, is the symbol of this universal search inherent to mankind. 'The Trial' is not simply a novel about the potential disaster of over-bureaucratisation in society; it is an exploration of the personal and, particularly, spiritual, needs of human beings.
Legality
In a recent study based on Kafka’s office writings, Reza Banakar points out that many of Kafka’s descriptions of law and legality are often treated as metaphors for things other than law, but also are worthy of examination as a particular concept of law and legality which operates paradoxically as an integral part of the human condition under modernity. Joseph K. and his inexplicable experience of the law in The Trial were, for example, born out of an actual legal case in which Kafka was involved.
Film portrayals
* In the 1962 Orson Welles movie adaptation of The Trial, Josef K. is played by Anthony Perkins. Kyle MacLachlan portrays him in the 1993 version.
* Martin Scorsese's 1985 film After Hours is a re-imagining of the Trial.
Theatre adaptions
* The writer and director Steven Berkoff adapted several of Kafka's novels into plays and directed them for stage. His version of The Trial was first performed in 1970 in London and published in 1981.
Selected publication history
* Oxford World's Classics, 4 October 2009, Translation: Mike Mitchell, ISBN 9780199238293
* Dover Thrift Editions, 22 July 2009, Translation: David Wyllie, ISBN 9780486470610
* Penguin Modern Classics, 29 June 2000, Translation: Idris Parry, ISBN 9780141182902
* Schocken Books, 25 May 1999, Translation: Breon Mitchell, ISBN 9780805209990
* Everyman's Library, 30 June 1992, Translation: Willa and Edwin Muir, ISBN 9780679409946
Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never completed, although it does include a chapter which brings the story to an end. After his death in 1924, Kafka's friend and literary executor Max Brod edited the text for publication.
The Trial was filmed and released in 1962 by director Orson Welles, starring Anthony Perkins (as Josef K.) and Romy Schneider. A more recent remake was released in 1993 and featured Kyle MacLachlan in the star role. In 1999, it was adapted for comics by Italian artist Guido Crepax.
Plot summary
(As the novel was never completed, certain inconsistencies exist within the novel, such as disparities in timing in addition to other flaws in narration.)
On his thirtieth birthday, a senior bank clerk, Josef K., who lives in lodgings, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents for an unspecified crime. The agents do not name the authority for which they are acting. He is not taken away, however, but left at home to await instructions from the Committee of Affairs.
K. goes to visit the magistrate, but instead is forced to have a meeting with an attendant's wife. Looking at the Magistrate's books, he discovers a cache of pornography.
K. returns home to find Fräulein Montag, a lodger from another room, moving in with Fräulein Bürstner. He suspects that this is to prevent him from pursuing his affair with the latter woman. Yet another lodger, Captain Lanz, appears to be in league with Montag.
Later, in a store room at his own bank, K. discovers the two agents who arrested him being whipped by a flogger for asking K. for bribes, as a result of complaints K. previously made about them to the Magistrate. K. tries to argue with the flogger, saying that the men need not be whipped, but the flogger cannot be swayed. The next day he returns to the store room and is shocked to find everything as he had found it the day before, including the Whipper and the two agents.
K. is visited by his uncle, who is a friend of a lawyer. The lawyer was with the Clerk of the Court. The uncle seems distressed by K.'s predicament. At first sympathetic, he becomes concerned K. is underestimating the seriousness of the case. The uncle introduces K. to an advocate, who is attended by Leni, a nurse, who K.'s uncle suspects is the advocate's mistress. K. has a sexual encounter with Leni, whilst his uncle is talking with the Advocate and the Chief Clerk of the Court, much to his uncle's anger, and to the detriment of his case.
K. visits the advocate and finds him to be a capricious and unhelpful character. K. returns to his bank but finds that his colleagues are trying to undermine him.
K. is advised by one of his bank clients to visit Titorelli, a court painter, for advice. Titorelli has no official connections, yet seems to have a deep understanding of the process. K. learns that, to Titorelli's knowledge, not a single defendant has ever been acquitted. He sets out what K.'s options are, but the consequences of all of them are unpleasant: they consist of different delay tactics to stretch out his case as long as possible before the inevitable "Guilty" verdict. Titorelli instructs K. that there's not much he can do since he doesn't know of what crime he has been accused.
K. decides to take control of his own life and visits his advocate with the intention of dismissing him. At the advocate's office he meets a downtrodden individual, Block, a client who offers K. some insight from a client's perspective. Block's case has continued for five years and he appears to have been virtually enslaved by his dependence on the advocate's meaningless and circular advice. The advocate mocks Block in front of K. for his dog-like subservience. This experience further poisons K.'s opinion of his advocate, and K is bemused as to why his advocate would think that seeing such a client, in such a state, could change his mind. (This chapter was left unfinished by the author.)
K. is asked to tour an Italian client around local places of cultural interest, but the Italian client short of time asks K. to tour him around only the cathedral, setting a time to meet there. When the client doesn't show up, K. explores the cathedral which is empty except for an old woman and a church official. K. decides to leave as a priest K. notices seems to be preparing to give a sermon from a small second pulpit, lest it begin and K. be compelled to stay for its entirety. Instead of giving a sermon, the priest calls out K.'s name, although K. has never known the priest. The priest works for the court, and tells K. a fable, (which has been published separately as Before the Law) that is meant to explain his situation, but instead causes confusion, and implies that K.'s fate is hopeless. Before the Law begins as a parable, then continues with several pages of interpretation between the Priest and K. The gravity of the priest's words prepares the reader for an unpleasant ending.
On the last day of K.'s thirtieth year, two men arrive to execute him. He offers little resistance, suggesting that he has realised this as being inevitable for some time. They lead him to a quarry where he is expected to kill himself, but he cannot. The two men then execute him. His last words describe his own death: "Like a dog!"
Characters
Others
Fräulein Bürstner - A boarder in the same house as Josef K. She lets him kiss her one night, but then rebuffs his advances. She makes a brief reappearance in the novel's final pages.
Fräulein Montag - Friend of Fräulein Bürstner, she talks to K. about ending his relationship with Fräulein Bürstner after his arrest. She claims she can bring him insight, because she is an objective third party.
Frau Grubach - The proprietress of the lodging house in which K. lives. She holds K. in high esteem, despite his arrest.
Uncle Karl - K.'s impetuous uncle from the country, formerly his guardian. Upon learning about the trial, Karl insists that K. hire Herr Huld, the lawyer.
Herr Huld, the Lawyer - K.'s pompous and pretentious advocate who provides precious little in the way of action and far too much in the way of anecdote.
Leni - Herr Huld's nurse, she has feelings for Josef K. and soon becomes his lover. She shows him her webbed hand, yet another reference to the motif of the hand throughout the book. Apparently, she finds accused men extremely attractive—the fact of their indictment makes them irresistible to her.
Vice-President - K.'s unctuous rival at the Bank, only too willing to catch K. in a compromising situation. He repeatedly takes advantage of K.'s preoccupation with the trial to advance his own ambitions.
President - Manager of the Bank. A sickly figure, whose position the Vice-President is trying to assume. Gets on well with K., inviting him to various engagements.
Rudi Block, the Merchant - Block is another accused man and client of Huld. His case is five years old, and he is but a shadow of the prosperous grain dealer he once was. All his time, energy, and resources are now devoted to his case, to the point of detriment to his own life. Although he has hired five additional lawyers on the side, he is completely and pathetically subservient to Huld.
Titorelli, the Painter - Titorelli inherited the position of Court Painter from his father. He knows a great deal about the comings and goings of the Court's lowest level. He offers to help K., and manages to unload a few identical landscape paintings on the accused man.
Style
Parable
(Taken directly from Novels for Students: The Trial.)
Kafka intentionally set out to write parables, not just novels, about the human condition. The Trial is a parable that includes the smaller parable Before the Law. There is clearly a relationship between the two but the exact meaning of either parable is left up to the individual reader. K. and the Priest discuss the many possible readings. Both the short parable and their discussion seem to indicate that the reader is much like the man at the gate; there is a meaning in the story for everyone just as there is one gate to the Law for each person.
The parable within Kafka's masterpiece highlights perfectly the essence of his philosophy. Assigned unique roles in life, individuals must search deep within the apparent absurdity of existence to achieve spiritual self-realisation. The old man, therefore, is the symbol of this universal search inherent to mankind. 'The Trial' is not simply a novel about the potential disaster of over-bureaucratisation in society; it is an exploration of the personal and, particularly, spiritual, needs of human beings.
Legality
In a recent study based on Kafka’s office writings, Reza Banakar points out that many of Kafka’s descriptions of law and legality are often treated as metaphors for things other than law, but also are worthy of examination as a particular concept of law and legality which operates paradoxically as an integral part of the human condition under modernity. Joseph K. and his inexplicable experience of the law in The Trial were, for example, born out of an actual legal case in which Kafka was involved.
Film portrayals
* In the 1962 Orson Welles movie adaptation of The Trial, Josef K. is played by Anthony Perkins. Kyle MacLachlan portrays him in the 1993 version.
* Martin Scorsese's 1985 film After Hours is a re-imagining of the Trial.
Theatre adaptions
* The writer and director Steven Berkoff adapted several of Kafka's novels into plays and directed them for stage. His version of The Trial was first performed in 1970 in London and published in 1981.
Selected publication history
* Oxford World's Classics, 4 October 2009, Translation: Mike Mitchell, ISBN 9780199238293
* Dover Thrift Editions, 22 July 2009, Translation: David Wyllie, ISBN 9780486470610
* Penguin Modern Classics, 29 June 2000, Translation: Idris Parry, ISBN 9780141182902
* Schocken Books, 25 May 1999, Translation: Breon Mitchell, ISBN 9780805209990
* Everyman's Library, 30 June 1992, Translation: Willa and Edwin Muir, ISBN 9780679409946