The Castle

K. is the central figure in The Castle, and the omniscient third-person narrator recounts the story from his point of view. However, like all the characters in the book, we know nothing of K.’s history, background, or personal life prior to the story. The reader only gains a partial impression of K.’s character through his behavior, reactions, and reflections during his few days in the village. A great deal happens to him, and his thoughts are explained in detail, but his personality and character development is not a major focus of the book. The Castle serves as a vehicle for sociological and political commentary, highlighting the general human experience at the hands of authorities and systems, and K.’s vague background and personality make him an apt representative of the average person. This allows K. to be a symbolic hero, an “everyman” rather than an individual, who represents humanity’s search for meaning in the modern world. Therefore, the analysis of his character does not reveal the individual depth found in some other works of literature.

K. is a land surveyor who is appointed by Count Westwest to assume an important role within the official realm of his Castle, or so K. believes. When K. arrives in the village, he is immediately treated with disdain and suspicion by the officials and villagers. His initial reaction is one of amusement, yet he soon feels “cause for a slight attack of despair” (14) after being thrown out of the first village house he enters. Despite this temporary sentiment, K.’s self-conviction and pride remain strong for a long while in the face of absurd events, insults, and threats to his position. He retains his conviction that logic will prevail and his appointment as surveyor will be restored once his file is found and he can meet Klamm and reach the Castle itself. His reaction to the first official letter shows his belief in logic: “Undoubtedly these were contradictions, so obvious they must be intentional” (23). This conviction drives his quest throughout the book, although absurdity and frustration erode it. As events unfold and his battle becomes more complex, K. himself becomes full of contradictions: “as if he had fought for this freedom for himself in a manner nobody else could have done […] yet,—and this conviction was at least equally strong—as if there were nothing more senseless, nothing more desperate, than this freedom, this waiting, this invulnerability” (106).

Meanwhile, K. is involved in a romantic relationship with Frieda. At times, he shows her loyalty, passion, and kindness, despite the girl’s inconsistent behavior toward him. Yet his intentions in maintaining this relationship are never quite clear. Both Frieda and K. mention the possibility that his interest in Frieda is driven by her connection to Klamm and therefore her usefulness to K. In addition, K. flirts with Pepi, and to some extent with Olga, and shows a dubious interest in Hans Brunswick’s mother. Therefore, it is difficult to assess whether K. is an honest and steadfast lover, a Casanova type or just a normal human being struggling with the same impulses and drives as everyone around him. He aligns himself with Olga and her family, hoping to find allies and support in his progressively disconcerting world. He reflects, “this was largely offset by the encounter with these people here, who were at least outwardly more or less in the same situation as he himself and with whom he could therefore ally himself, whom he could agree with on many things, and not only on some as with Frieda” (177).

K. is not always a sympathetic figure, and he shows the same contradictory attitudes and behavior as many of the other characters. He also reveals a somewhat arrogant and heartless attitude toward Frieda after she leaves him: “Frieda could be won back, she was easily influenced by strangers, even by those assistants […] K. only need go up to her, remind her of everything that spoke again in his favor, and she would once again be his, would even be full or remorse” (237). His duplicitous and manipulative behavior toward Jeremias, switching from offering friendship to making severe threats toward him, is another example of his self-serving behavior, as he adopts whatever manner will benefit him most, just as he aligns himself with whomever seems most likely to get him an audience with Klamm. As K.’s grip on reality loosens due to his inability to control events around him, his strength of character weakens too. By the end of the book, when all hope of salvation has been worn away, K. accepts the futility of his fight:

The orders simply passed over him, the favorable and the unfavorable, and even the favorable ones probably had a final, unfavorable core, but in any case they all passed over him and he was in far too inferior a position to influence them, let alone to make them fall silent and ensure that his own voice be heard (273).

K. finally understands and succumbs to the nature of the Castle, painting a bleak picture of humanity’s search for meaning and purpose in the modern world.