The Castle

the Struggle to Remain Human in the Bureaucratic Machine

Abstract

In this aticle I argue that Kafak's The Castle (1926) is a work that defends the individual’s right to be himself in the totalitarian institution of the modern bureaucratic state. By creating the strange symbolic reality of the Castle and the village the novel tries to show how mechanisms of power operate over the individual by hiding and concealing themselves. I interpret the cryptic ending of the novel as K.’s refusal to submit to power and a demand for just recognition which makes his life the universal symbol of a life struggling for dignity.