A Philosophical Exploration of Franz Kafka

The Trial and The Metamorphosis have both come to express two philosophical dissertations on Kafka’s interpretations of the conditions of modernity. The Trial uses concepts such as the law and truth as a means to explore how an individual is bound to them as a prisoner for the rest of his life, and The Metamorphosis is an exploration into how circumstances turn an individual into a prisoner without his consent. Pessimism and uncomfortable reality are what best characterizes Kafka’s stories. His philosophy on the purpose of human existence is faithful to the ideas of existentialism. Man is a fragile entity of insignificant possibilities.

Kafka was also thoroughly familiar with the writings of Kierkegaard, and it pays to ponder the similarities and differences between their respective views. The most obvious similarity between Kafka and Kierkegaard, their complex relationships with their respective fiancées and their failures to marry, also points up an essential difference between them. For Kafka, bachelorhood was a symbol of alienation from communal happiness, and he thought of all individualism in this manner. This makes him a poor existentialist. Franz Kafka quotes Franz Kafka's books, Franz Kafka's biography, Franz Kafka's biography short stories, kafkaesque, novels, and his life is extraordinary!

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