The short story by Franz Kafka �A Country Doctor� from the very opening presents a problem, which becomes the main subject of the story. With the obstacle in the beginning, the character is facing a �great difficulty� (Kafka) that represents the helplessness the mankind faces in front of the face of mighty Mother Nature. The inability of the doctor to freely move in a long distance is just a simple example how the humans depend on outside conditions and forces to be able to survive. The doctor who is the representative of the science and who is the one to help save a human live is depending on animals and nature to get to the destination where his help is needed.
Throughout the entire narrative, there is a presence of opposition, dualism and controversy. In the beginning the doctor is called for an emergency visit, a matter of life and death. The doctor wants to go, but his horses are dead and the weather conditions are so harsh that he is not able to find other horses to transport him to the home of the patient. When everything is hopeless, he miraculously finds two horses � brother and sister in his own pig sty. The groom who appeared to provide the doctor with so needed horses is soon recognized as trouble-maker who will take the innocence of the doctor�s young female assistant Rosa as a reward for finding the horses. Even the girl�s name Rosa has its symbolic meaning � named after the flower of love, Rosa becomes victim of forbidden love. In the period of time, the beginning of the 20th century, when Kafka wrote A Country Doctor, the sexual relationship outside of the holy matrimony was considered a sin in Puritan Europe.
The Essay on Reaction Paper on The Country doctor by Franz Kafka
... wants his maid Rosa in exchange for the horses. The doctor is in a dilemma between protecting Rosa from this demon ... . Johnston, Ian. "Franz Kafka - A Country Doctor." e-text. 18 November 2008 . Literature, Arts and ... evening of his life. Bibliography Bernardo, Karen. "Franz Kafka's "The Country Doctor" - Commentary by Karen Bernardo." Storybites.com. 18 November 2008 ...
Shortly after the doctor�s problem with finding horses to transport him to the ill patient is solved, the story begins to resemble a dream. A little surreal at first, the dream turns into a nightmare. The miracle horses transport the doctor to the house of the ill in no time. But what a disappointment the doctor faces when he finds out that the alarm bell is false and the patient is not ill at all. The other aspect that makes the story look like a dream is the constant overlap between grammar tenses. The dominant grammatical usage of the present (or “past present”) tense in “A Country Doctor”�and not historical themes�the blurring between past and present is certainly also thematic aspect (Lorenz, 177).
Probably defeated by his mixed emotions, and thoughts about how he betrayed his young assistant, the doctor is confused and disappointed that he left her alone for no reason He was called for nothing and for nothing he sacrificed Rosa�s innocence and honor. Then he realizes what Rosa means for him. Right before he is getting ready to leave, disappointing the mother the father and the sister of the presumably sick boy, the doctor notices the bloody towel in his sister�s hand. That�s when he realizes that the boy may be really sick. The doctor returns to the bed of the boy and finds out that the boy has a deadly wound, in the shape of a rose. Again, Rosa appears indirectly to remind the doctor of her victimization. This is again an example of the controversy found in the entire story. At first the patient does not appear sick, and then his wound is deadly. The doctor is expected to help, but he is unable. The disappointed parents and visiting villagers humiliate the doctor by singing senseless song and throwing him naked in the same bad with the dying boy. After an imaginary battle between life and death (doctor and sick boy), the nature takes its course and the doctor�s presence is no longer necessary.
The doctor�s trip home becomes a real drag. The same horses that brought him to the house of the sick boy appear so slow, that the doctor believes he will never return to his home and his practice is lost and gone forever.
The Essay on A Country Doctor Boy Story Injured
A Country Devastation People would never accept the way the doctor in Franz Kafka's "A Country Doctor" performs. The Doctor acts completely unlike a genuine doctor. The whole story is based on a situation that is completely unlike that of an authentic house call made by a real life country doctor. A doctor would never leave one of his employees after being injured, a doctor would not go to tend to ...
The entire story resembles a bad dream, the opposition of the actions and events are typical for dream-like experiences. The fact that when is least expected to find as solution, the doctor is able to manage to do what he is supposed to do is very surreal. His own thoughts and experiences appear unreal too. Leaving Rosa alone with the groom, knowing what will happen are not a typical behavior for a man who wants to protect his assistant. There is a strong sexual aspect present in the story. The girl is innocent flower Rosa, and groom is the strong opposing force. The same is in effect with the patient � doctor relationship. The deadly wound in the shape of rose represents the victimization of Rosa. In this moment Kafka�s story raises the question of borders in various ways such as the border between medicine and sexuality and border between doctor and patient, doctor and assistant. According to John Smyth “A Country Doctor,� is � the only Kafka short story devoted to sexuality or erotic desire as such, may be at least as coherent and provocative on this topic as anything available on the psychological, anthropological, or cultural studies markets��(Smyth).
There are four main challenges that confront the doctor during the story. In the beginning is his challenge to find a reliable transportation to get to the sick patient who needs his help. The second challenge is when the transportation is found, but the price that the doctor has to pay is the cost of Rosa�s virginity. The third challenge is to find out what is wrong with the boy and the fourth and last challenge is to get back home. Each of these four challenges goes hand in hand with a dilemma and frustration. In the very beginning the doctor faces the dilemma to find horses or to stay and let the patient die. The second frustration is when he has the transportation, and has to leave his young helper in the dirty hands of the groom. The third frustration is when he finds out the boy is not sick, and the last most dramatic frustration is when he realizes that he will be unable to return home and his practice of a country doctor is forever gone, because �Once one responds to a false alarm on the night bell, there�s no making it good again�not ever.� (Kafka).
The Term Paper on Kafkas Metamorphosis
Kafka's Metamorphosis Franz Kafkas short story The Metamorphosis deals with a man who turns into some sort of insect, resulting in a conflict between the household and the transformed individual. Whether the man, Gregor Samsa, literally or figuratively turns into a bug is not known. The story is full of themes and symbols that Kafka uses to make his story as ambiguous, yet as comprehensible, as ...
Works Cited:
Kafka, F., A Country Doctor, Ian Johnston translation
http://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/kafka/countrydoctor.htm; November 19, 2008
Lorenz, Dagmar C. G. “Kafka and Gender.” The Cambridge Companion to Kafka.
Ed. Julian Preece. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.
Smyth, John Vignaux. Western Humanities Review, Fall2006,
Vol. 60 Issue 2, p89-100, 12p; (AN 22828462)
