22
PARTISAN REVIEW
case of Freud's theories of the subconscious. And yet this interpreta–
tion seems too facile. For one thing Franz Kafka himself was thor–
oughly familiar with these theories and never regarded them as any–
thing more than a very approximate, rough picture of things. He
found that they did not do justice to details or, what is more, to the
essence of the conflict. In the following pages I shall attempt a differ–
ent interpretation of the facts, by adducing the example of Kleist.
:For the present, however, it must be admitted that Kafka himself,
in stating that he had not explicitly, or "in ordinary thinking," formu–
lated his attitude toward his father's superiority, but had "experienced
it from childhood on," seems to confirm the psycho-analytical point
of view. So do his remarks on his father's "methods of training"–
amplified in numerous diary entries dealing with his "miscarried edu–
cation"; and
his
letters on pedagogy, based on Swift's thesis that
"children should be brought up outside of the family, not by their
parents."
The greater part of the letter, in fact, is devoted to his father's
type of "training." "I was a timid child," says Kafka. "However,
I was assuredly headstrong, as children are; it is true that my mother
spoiled me, but I cannot believe that I was more intractable than the
average. I can't help thinking that a friendly word, a guiding hand,
a gentle glance would have obtained any results desired. At bottom
you are a kindly, soft-hearted person (the following does not con–
tradict this; I am speaking only of the outward form in which you
affected the child) ; but it is not every child who has the endurance
and the courage to keep on searching until he finds kindness. In your
dealings with a child, you could not help but be your own violent,
noisy, hot-tempered self; as a matter of fact you thought your methods
calculated to produce a strong, courageous boy."
His father's unfavorable judgments regarding Franz's recreations,
his friends, his whole manner of being and acting, were an intolerable
burden to him; they caused him to despise himself. Yet the father
did not always adhere to his own judgments and rules, and this very
lack of logic seemed to the son in retrospect a sign of his untram–
meled vitality, his integrity of will. "By your own unaided strength
you had worked yourself up so high that you had unlimited confidence
in your opinions ... in your easy chair you ruled the world. Your
opinion was correct, and every other was crazy, hysterical,
meshugge,
abnormal. Your self-confidence was so great that you could be incon–
sistent without ceasing to be right. Sometimes you had no opinion
at all in a certain matter, and then all opinions that were possible
on the subject had without exception to be wrong. For instance you
might curse at the Czechs, then at the Germans, then at the Jews,
