Reading Kafka was confusing, and very fragmented. There were so many absurd bits that made me think that I was just reading one long dream. In "The Country Doctor," what stood out to me was Rose, and the doctor's relationship with her. It's written that he hardly took any notice of her, even though she had been with him for years, but still saw that she was pretty.
Going by Jung's theory that everything/everyone in the dream is one's self, and that it is the doctor's dream, than the groom is the darker side of the doctor himself, and it is a part of himself that wants to rape Rose. But in the same light, if he is also Rose, then is he afraid of being dominated? Or is just much more simpler than that, as a girl running away from being raped?
In the idea of compensation, though it is not quite the doctor's unconscious ensuring a balance for his conscious reality, the doctor's worry over Rose still strikes me as an attempt to make a balance. He hardly paid any attention to her, until she was suddenly going to be attacked by that groom, and he had no means to help her. He worries about her while he is supposed to be worrying over his patient. Is he just feeling guilt that he left her? Or that he had ignored her for years?
Kafka was a complicated read, but at the same time, I could really feel/see the emotions: his anxiety, worry, that bit of despair... Hartmann's idea that emotion is the most vivid, striking part of a dream rings true here. Yet, I have a hard time following in the story about the little children...
Comments (1)
This is so interesting. Do you really think that Rose was being raped? I didn't interpret it is that. I thought that the Groom was some type of cannibal because it says "on her cheek stood out in red the marks of two rows of teeth". It seems as if the Groom was biting Rose. But maybe your are right; maybe he was trying to rape her. That scene did seem a bit perverse. I agree with you though. I think that the Groom could be the doctor's alter-ego. I also agree with you on Jung's and Hartmann's ideas. Very interesting interpretations. =)
Posted by Lady Hira | September 30, 2006 9:13 PM
Posted on September 30, 2006 21:13