¶ … Tolstoy and Kafka
Analyzing the Psyche of the Novella: Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka
Stories of the absurd are often overlooked for their ability to tell the truth about human nature. We find them comical and strange, but they are so much more than that. Short stories with an edge can carry a lot of meaning, but also a lot of the author's philosophies as well. Both Leo Tolstoy in his work Death of Ivan Ilyich and Franz Kafka in his Metamorphosis reveal a wealth about their own personal philosophies and psyches through the medium of the novella. Each unique story seems quite absurd, but is in many ways analogies to the real lives and experiences of the authors themselves. Examining the psychological issues in the characters does show a quite strikingly similar subtext in each; both Tolstoy and Kafka felt unsatisfied in their lives and a burden to those around them because of these feelings.
In many ways, Leo Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich does parallel some of the tragic events and experiences he saw in his own life. The novella was published originally in 1886, after Tolstoy had begun to be more and more radical, distancing himself from his family and loved ones. Tolstoy was truly quite a complicated personality filled with contradictions. For years, Tolstoy had seemed to loose his sense of faith, moving towards more of an atheist perspective during his young adulthood. However, he eventually had a moral awakening in the 1870s, which completely reawakened his faith and sense of moral piety. From this point on, Tolstoy evolved into much more of a moral thinker, who often say his life of aristocracy and privilege a burden than had lured him away from the true things in life. This was coupled with a very political side that resented the aristocracy and the serfdom that he experienced in Nineteenth Century Russia. He even went to the point of being an anarchist and his later works spoke out against corruption of the state. As he grew older, Tolstoy grew apart from his wife, Sofia. In fact, days before his death, he left her. She was critical of his more radical beliefs later in life and spoke out against him renouncing his wealth and aristocracy. The isolation he felt in these later years does parallel some of the isolation seen in his primary character Ivan. Just like Tolstoy, Ivan finds himself unsatisfied with his life as he gets older. To many, Ivan could have been the path Tolstoy feared he was going to repeat, if he did not take actions to stop it. Tolstoy did eventually leave his wife and started making those changes that he deemed necessary so that he did not suffer the same fate as his character Ivan.
Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis also parallels the authors own life and experiences. Kafka was known for creating experimental works of literature, pieces that threw out traditional literary conventions in order to generate shock and awe in his stories and novels. Thus, literary critics have often praised "Kafka's ability to elicit a sense of the absurd" (Proulx et al. 1125). Yet, this absurd writing style and nonconformist syntax is not simply a surface level strategy. Kafka embeds enormous underlying meaning in this sense of absurdity, which allows him to free himself of his own inhibitions to truly express himself in the literary context. One research study found that "the absurd story constituted a meaning threat for many participants, and these participants responded by perceiving the presence of patters in their environment and by abstracting patterns of association from their environment" (Proulx et al. 1129). By placing his messages embedded within the absurd, both Kafka and his readers can best release their inner feelings without the fear of judgment. Thus, many literary critics believe that Gregor Samsa is a representation of Kafka himself. Kafka reportedly suffered from insomnia and needed the attention and care of his family, especially his sister. Kafka felt that he had burdened those who loved him and may have suffered from depression and despair that his strangest character does. Ultimately, this demonstrates that Kafka's...
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