Something good about this short story by Franz Kafka is that it leaves a huge room for interpretation by the reader. The reader can thus be left to selectively choose the aspects that they fancy and award them the interpretations they wish to. That does not, however, mean the analyses should be erroneous or inexistent. Subliminally, albeit subtly, the issue of the unresolved Oedipus complex in this story cannot be overlooked, and this paper sets out to illustrate just how it leaked onto the literary piece, ‘The Judgment.’
Greek mythology is ancient as they go, and can only compete with the Shakespearean literature when it comes to popularity. As a consequence, the legend of Oedipus is easy to follow. A child is born to the king of Thebes and …show more content…
Neurotic symptoms include anxiety and obsessive behaviors, the obsession to please his father. Even though George is successful in business and growing in strength, he has not extricated himself from the powerful claws of his father, who seems threatened by the advancement of his son and calls him “a devilish human being” (Kafka 12). He even interprets little acts of kindness like being covered in bed (Kafka 9) as attempts against his life and refuses to remain covered. The father resents his George’s assumption the paternal role of caring for him and running the family business, in essence, replacing him. When George’s father has finally issued the verdict and sentences him to death by drowning, George executes the sentence himself without hesitation. Just like Oedipus, he self-destructs, though George restates his love for his parents in death. Perhaps it is the neurotic tendencies that drive him to his death by the …show more content…
Tags like ‘convoluted’ and ‘inverted’ may be used but still, Oedipus remains in the description. In this story there are traces of the unresolved Oedipus complex scattered throughout the piece Borovečki-Jakovljev and Matačić 359). There is also a lot of resemblance between this story and the life of its author. This story reflects Kafka’s own history of growing under domineering father and having a foreign friend (Brod 14) and the only way he lived to tell it is that he did not commit suicide like the character
Greek mythology is ancient as they go, and can only compete with the Shakespearean literature when it comes to popularity. As a consequence, the legend of Oedipus is easy to follow. A child is born to the king of Thebes and …show more content…
Neurotic symptoms include anxiety and obsessive behaviors, the obsession to please his father. Even though George is successful in business and growing in strength, he has not extricated himself from the powerful claws of his father, who seems threatened by the advancement of his son and calls him “a devilish human being” (Kafka 12). He even interprets little acts of kindness like being covered in bed (Kafka 9) as attempts against his life and refuses to remain covered. The father resents his George’s assumption the paternal role of caring for him and running the family business, in essence, replacing him. When George’s father has finally issued the verdict and sentences him to death by drowning, George executes the sentence himself without hesitation. Just like Oedipus, he self-destructs, though George restates his love for his parents in death. Perhaps it is the neurotic tendencies that drive him to his death by the …show more content…
Tags like ‘convoluted’ and ‘inverted’ may be used but still, Oedipus remains in the description. In this story there are traces of the unresolved Oedipus complex scattered throughout the piece Borovečki-Jakovljev and Matačić 359). There is also a lot of resemblance between this story and the life of its author. This story reflects Kafka’s own history of growing under domineering father and having a foreign friend (Brod 14) and the only way he lived to tell it is that he did not commit suicide like the character