In my opinion, the most striking Kafka story was “A Country Doctor.” I've often had dreams where I've felt anxious and bewildered like the narrator. These dreams usually involve trying to do something or complete a task, but finding myself struggling and thwarted at every turn.
The country doctor spends most of the story worrying and feeling helpless. He is not confident in his abilities and is convinced that he has erred. He feels guilty for not being able to control what’s happening around him.
The horses in the story are particularly significant. The doc’s own horse has died, “worn out by the fatigues of this icy winter.” Luckily, two horses named Brother and Sister squeeze out of a pigsty. That these enormous, magnificent creatures are compressed into a tight space and must squeeze through a small doorway is a comical image. The servant girl remarks that “you never know what you’re going to find in your own house.”
The doctor is surprised that such animals were in his own house, and he says that he had never sat behind them before. Perhaps this is an indication of his feelings of inadequacy. He also seems to feel undeserving and uneasy.
When the horses somehow slip loose from the reins, the doctor thinks that the horses are “summoning” him to go back home. As he tries to get home again, the reins are “loosely trailing” and the gig crawls through the snow “like old men.”
I think Freud would interpret the horses as a symbol of the doctor’s libido. Only in a time of crisis can the horses be allowed to be unleashed from their tight, secret confines. But the doctor remains uncertain of how to control them, even at the end of the story. He remarks that the horses are “unearthly” because he does not want to acknowledge that they are his. The horses are a part of him he does not want to accept.
On the other hand, the horses also show the potential to be controlled. They can follow their master, but only if he has confidence in himself and his abilities. He must also rid himself of his guilt and regret for not protecting Rose.