Franz Kafka's Conception of Humour

Author(s): H. S. Reiss
Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Oct., 1949), pp. 534-542
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association
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 FRANZ KAFKA'S CONCEPTIONOF HUMOUR
Kafka's work is born of the night of anguish. The physical world, he states in one
aphorism, is evil, and only the spiritual world possesses true reality. Evil, in his
view, looms large in life, especially in the guise of selfishness. It continuously
frustrates man's aspirations and endeavours. Kafka's universe is, on the whole,
a spiritually desolate place where man can never satisfy his thirst for spiritual
nourishment. Man's isolation in a seemingly hostile world is as marked as his desire
to escape from this state which to him seems to border on the limits of the bearable.
The gulf between reason and faith cannot be bridged, for reason is a stumbling-block
to faith and faith is foolishness to reason. Man'srational faculties argue the rightness
of their deductions, but experience gives the lie direct to his arguments. The physical
world appears full of absurdities and contradictions, reflecting its evil nature. 'Wir
sind nihilistische Gedanken, die in Gottes Kopf aufsteigen ' runs one of Kafka's ob-
servations. Likewise Der Proze/3seems nothing but one long condemnation of the in-
justice of life. Yet in Kafka's work the hero is incessantly assured of the wrongness
of his reasoning which nevertheless he continues obstinately, a striking illustration
of spiritual and intellectual arrogance which Kafka regards as mistaken. Like the
author himself, his hero yearns for salvation, for an escape from the intolerable
burden that life has placed on his shoulders, but on the whole he merely finds
himself frustrated. His experience is that of the modern Orestes, Lord Harry
Monchensey:
I thought I might escape from one life to another,
And it may be all one life with no escape.2
While this attitude of frustration and gloom prevails in most of Kafka's work it
does not present the whole picture. There are occasions, rarer in his imaginative
work than in his diary, when the darkness of night has yielded to the light of dawn.
The last chapter of the novel Amerika is the most outstanding instance, but there
are others, especially in the diaries, where he frequently gives expression to his
belief that man belongs to God and that within him there is an indestructible
element. Humility, patience and a self-conquest of his over-reliance on purely
human powers are undoubtedly the prerequisites for the attainment of this state
of hopefulness, bordering on joy. Yet another less obtrusive aspect, concealed in
the haze that envelops Kafka's work, is only too easily ignored in the relief which
accompanies his hero's release from the nether world of fear and in the satisfaction
which is derived from the abandonment of his arrogance. The overthrow of reason
has to take place before Kafka's hero can attain faith and adjust himself to life. In
his endeavour to conquer evil, as manifested by human selfishness and pride, his
rational faculties are smothered and his tormenting questions as to the justice of
life's pattern are dismissed.
Yet none of these moods is stable. Neither hope nor despair prevails, but a
continuous oscillation between the two constitutes the action in Kafka's work. The
hero's reason, on the one hand, again and again disturbs his hopeful serenity, the
foundations of which are built on sand since it contradicts the conclusions drawn
1 Max Brod,FranzKafka,eine Biographie(Prague,1937),p. 95.
2 T. S. Eliot, TheFamily Reunion,p. 53.

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 H. S. REISS 535
by his intellect. On the other hand, his despair is replaced by the surge of hope,
occasioned by his belief in the possibility of salvation through admission into the
community of his fellow-men and through realization that he belongs to God. This
movement in the direction of hope was, however, only rendered possible by a
refusal to ask questions and search for answers.
Analysis shows how the torments of Kafka's mind are reflected in his style. Just
as he wavered between the hope of satisfying his craving for faith and fellowship
and the fear of incurring perpetual frustration, his sentences reveal a continuous
shifting of emphasis and express his own uncertainty. This dialogue between hope
and fear, which constitutes the action of his work, found expression in manifold
variations, each of which subjects every statement to further analysis and doubt.
The existence of humorous moments within the gloomy scene that constitutes
Kafka's work is perhaps somewhat surprising. It might indicate occasional detach-
ment or it might merely serve to throw the horrors of Kafka's world into greater
relief. A closer analysis should depict the nature of his humour and its relationship
to the whole tenor of his work.

Humour has its place in the work of Franz Kafka. Max Brod has stated that
Kafka, on reading the first chapter of Der Prozepto his friends, used to laugh aloud
and thus showed himself aware of the humorous elements in his work. In a most
significant episode in Das Schlop Jeremias, one of K.'s assistants, tells K. of the
mission which Galater who was deputizing for Klamm, the powerful official,
entrusted to the assistants. They were summoned by him to be told of their duties
in the village as the land-surveyor's assistants. When they replied they knew
nothing about surveying he told them:
Das ist nicht das Wichtigste. Wenn es n6tig sein wird, wird er es Euch beibringen.
Das Wichtigsteist aber, daBIhr ihn ein wenig erheitert.Wie man mir berichtet,nimmt
er alles sehr schwer. Er ist jetzt ins Dorf gekommenund gleich ist ihm das ein grol3es
Ereignis,wahrendes in Wirklichkeitgar nichts ist. Das sollt Ihr ihm beibringen.l
These assistants play a curious role in K.'s life. They are sent to him from the castle,
but K., in his arrogant reliance on his own rational powers, misunderstands them
and ignores this message which they bring to him. Instead of introducingthe warmth
of kindly humour into his life, they are merely hindrances to him in his egocentric
quest for access to the castle. He refuses to be cheered. By exaggerating his own
importance and that of his experiences he treats the assistants wrongly and even
punishes them out of fear of the irrational. Jeremias, one of the assistants, accuses
him with a great deal of justice of his lack of consideration. Only too late does K.
realize that, by being selfish and inconsiderate towards his assistants, he missed the
opportunity which they presented, but the harm cannot be undone.
These two assistants seem in their gay and naive way like incarnations of the
humorous spirit. They never separate and take everything as cheerfully as possible
while they are still in K.'s service. They part company only when K. has finally
dismissed them. Jeremias remains in the village, a sick and disgruntled man, while
the other assistant, Artur, returns to the castle whence they came to lodge his
complaints against K. And K.'s mistaken attitude towards the assistants may
1 Franz Kafka, GesammelteWerke(New York, 1946), I, 270.

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536 Franz Kafka's Conceptionof Humour
actually have been an important cause of Frieda's desertion. So at least it appears
to her:
Im Grunde ist alles deine Schuld; hattest du die Gehilfen nicht verjagt und warest du
jenen Leuten nicht nachgelaufen, wir k6nnten jetzt friedlich in der Schule sitzen. Nur
du hast unser Glick zerstort. Glaubst du, daB Jeremias, solange er im Dienst war, es
gewagt hatte, miich zu entfuhren ? Dann verkennst du die hiesige Ordnung ganz und gar.
Er wollte zu mir, er hat sich gequalt, er hat auf mich gelauert, das war aber nur ein
Spiel, so wie ein hungriger Hund spielt und es doch nicht wagt, auf den Tisch zu springen.
Und ebenso ich.1
K., of course, disagrees and produces counter-arguments, but Frieda points out the
uselessness of his reasoning:
Sag' nichts dagegen, gewiB du kannst alles widerlegen, aber zum Schlul3 ist gar nichts
widerlegt. Denk nur, Jeremias, er hat alles widerlegt....Aber angenommen, er hatte
alles widerlegt, was ware damit erreicht, was kiimmert es mich?2
Thus K., in Brod's words, suffers 'a decisive defeat'. His life is poorer without
Frieda, and he knows it. Frieda, who, as her name suggests, was to bring him peace,
leaves him for Jeremias, and K. is isolated once more.
These two assistants, however, who to K.'s rational mind appear as hindrances,
are perhaps also to be symb6ls for the humorous element in life. For their part in
the life of K. seems to indicate Kafka's suggestion of the need for an acceptance
of life which then can be a way out of an otherwise hopeless maze. Coming
from the castle, they perhaps suggest' a way of access to it by means of a genial
humour which would enable K. to accept the human condition, and thus seem to
point to an approach to salvation. If the hero, however, refuses to look at life in
a conciliatory spirit, as K. does in the castle by ignoring the assistants' message,
the humour loses its genial aspect and turns bitter. It becomes ironic and grotesque.
Artur's departure for the castle possibly symbolizes this change and suggests that
kindly humour derives its inspiration from the castle which in a way is a symbol
for man's longings and hopes-and perhaps even for divine grace and salvation, for
God. Without this link humour no longer reflects Kafka's hopes, but it is an expres-
sion of his fears and despair which at times it even emphasizes by way of grotesque
and ironic laughter.
Thus, in Kafka's opinion, genial humour can help man in his efforts to live in
happiness and inner peace, by suggesting to him a true idea of his place in life.
Man must look at his experiences in that spirit if he is to endure the horrors and
absurdities, if, indeed, he is to conquer his fear and his isolation. It is, however,
a fault of Kafka's heroes that they are too serious. On account of their desperate
seriousness and egocentricity, they are, on the whole, incapable of escaping from
the prison of their own self and merely perceive the absurdly grotesque spectacle of
foiled human endeavour and the contradictory manifestations of human existence.
Acceptance of life in surrender, in patience and humility is the task which is set for
them, but which is often incapable of fulfilment. Their rational mind does not
allow them to find a possible and harmonious way of life in a world which seems,
in their view, to be dominated from within and without by irrational forces which
appear unfathomable and meaningless.
Kafka usually opens a work by creating a startling situation which is so unusual
and often so absurd that it must immediately arouse the reader's attention.
Grotesque humour is introduced by the reaction of Kafka's hero who seeks to grasp
1 iv, 258. 2 iv, 294.

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 H. S. REISS 537
the new situation by his own inadequate reason. If the mood of the scene is gloomy
and the hero, in his arrogance, imagines himself to be entirely capable of under-
standing the irrational forces that confront him, his humour is bitter, ironic and not
genial. Kafka then develops the situation by adding little touches here and there
emphasizing the mistaken attitude of the hero.
The first scene of Der Prozef/ is an excellent example of this kind of grotesque
situation. The sudden arrest of Joseph K. is the startling opening. The absence of
any intelligible reason for K.'s arrest, his confusion, his inability to understand
what is happening, the indifference of the warders to his confusion, can hardly fail to
appeal to one's sense of the grotesque. The opening is most skilfully handled. K. is
placed from the very beginning in a ludicrous situation. The element of the ridiculous
is emphasized by his arrest in bed following the unexpected arrival of the two
warders instead of his landlady's cook who usually brings his breakfast. The fact
that the scene is watched by a curious old woman from a window of a house opposite
also adds to the comic effect. Other striking touches round off the picture. The
warders laugh ruthlessly at K.'s absurd assertion of his right. K. almost appears
before the inspector in a night-shirt. The warders not only prevent him from doing
so, but also discuss night-shirts at length, suggesting that K. will have to wear from
now on a much coarser variety. They tell him to leave his clothes with them rather
than at the depot from which clothes are often stolen. K. reacts to these events in
his typical rationalist manner, which is the real source of the grotesque humour of
that scene, for he seeks to be rational about the irrational. When looking for his
identification papers he at first almost hands his bicycle-licence to the warders.
When he finds his birth-certificate the warders cannot read it and are completely
uninterested. K.'s attempts to weigh these events against the background of his
rational experience show how much he is at a loss and to what extent this mis-
conception gives rise to grotesque moments.
This grotesque humour basically depends on K.'s attitude. We laugh at his
uncertainty in his relations with the,warders and later with the inspector, for K.
does not know how much weight he is to attribute to the arrest. Uncertain whether
it is a serious matter or a practical joke, he becomes engaged in a futile quest to
preserve his dignity and assert his importance in either case. His arrogance is partly
caused by his lack of assurance. It explains the strange reply which he gives to the
inspector, when he is asked whether the events of the morning have surprised him:
Sie sind durch die Vorgange des heutigen Morgens wohl sehr uberrascht? fragte der
Aufseher, und verschob dabei mit beiden Handen die wenigen Gegenstande, die aufdem
Nachttischchen lagen, die Kerze mit dem Zundholzchen, ein Buch und ein Nadelkissen,
als seien es Gegenstande, die er zur Verhandlung ben6tige. GewiB, sagte K., und das
Wohlgefuihl, endlich einem vernunftigen Menschen gegeniiberzustehen und iiber seine
Angelegenheit mit ihm sprechen zu konnen, ergriff ihn. GewiB, ich bin iiberrascht, aber
ich bin keineswegs sehr uberrascht. Nicht sehr uberrascht ? fragte der Aufseher und stellte
nun die Kerze in die Mitte des Tischchens, wahrend er die anderen Sachen um sie
gruppierte. Sie milverstehen mich vielleicht, beeilte sich K. zu bemerken. Ich meine
hier, unterbrach sich K. und sah sich nach einem Sessel um. Ich kann mich doch setzen,
fragte er. Es ist nicht iiblich, antwortete der Aufseher. Ich meine, sagte nun K. ohne
weitere Pause, ich bin allerdings sehr uberrascht, aber man ist, wenn man dreiflig Jahre
auf der Welt ist und sich allein hat durchschlagen miissen, wie es mir beschieden war,
gegen Uberraschungen abgehartet und nimmt sie nicht zu schwer. Besonders die
heutige nicht.1
m, 21.

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538 Franz Kafka's Conceptionof Humour
Since K. does not feel sure of his ground, he gives this circumstantial answer and
proceeds to question the validity of the authority on which he has been arrested.
His arguments and his questions, expressed as they are in sentences where every
possible point seems carefully weighed and counterweighed, reflect his own per-
plexity which he seeks to palliate in his role as a man of the world. The falseness of
the attitude which he has adopted in front of the inspector is demonstrated by the
reply of the latter who clearly tells K. how mistaken he is. K. is annoyed by this
rebuke and seeks to regain his dignity by demanding to telephone to a lawyer-friend
of his. He is, however, merely informed that he certainly may do so, but that it
will have no effect whatsoever on his case. This episode indicates the incongruity of
his position. K., pathetically, feels himself lost like a man in'a forgotten office.
This note of forlornness and despair has hardly been sounded when surprisingly an
ironic twist is given to the scene. K. is told by the inspector that now, since he has
been informed of his arrest, he can go to the bank as usual.
Little grotesque incidents enhance the picture. We read how:
...irmmer wieder stie13der Bauch des zweiten Wachters- es konnten ja nur Wachter
sein - formlichfreundschaftlichan ihn, sah er aber auf, dann erblickteer ein zu diesem
Korpergar nicht passendes,trockenes,knochigesGesichtmit starker,seitlich gedrehter
Nase, das sich iiber ihn hinweg rnit dem anderenWachterverstandigte.1
On another occasion when K. most seriously argues with one of the warders, the
latter dips a roll into a honey-jug while he is replying to K. The inspector plays
with a match-box and counts the matches, while K. argues with tremendous force
but apparently without any relevance. Trivial occurrencesof that nature contribute
to the atmosphere of the scene because they emphasize the irrelevance of K.'s
arguments and the insignificance of his person which he overrates to such an extent.
In Der Proze3, the most pessimistic of his novels, a vein of sombre humour
appears. The various humorous episodes which occur, such as the scene with the
advocate or that in the painter's studio, are viewed with bitter irony. While the
humour on the one hand brings the tragic features of K.'s situation into greater
relief, it also mitigates its horror somewhat. Thus the absurdity in the solemn
moments which lead up to K.'s execution reveals his misconception of life, but
also suggests that his own despair may well be ultimately irrelevant since it is
merely a reflexion of the insignificance of his own efforts within a pattern which
may appear inscrutable and even meaningless to his reason, but still may not be
without a purpose.
In Das Schlof3,just as in Der Prozep,the humour is a result of the conflict between
the irrational and the rational within the hero's mind. Instead of accepting the
irrational with a sense of kindly humour, his own rational arguments only appear
ludicrous and the representatives of the irrational grotesque. Just as in Der Proze/,
the humorous aspects of the novel can only be appreciated by relating them to the
irrelevant anxiety of the hero.
In the dealings with the castle the rational course is not the right one. When K.
desires to discuss with the castle the arrival of the two assistants he uses the
telephone as the most natural means of communication, only to discover it to be
a frustrating instrument for that purpose. The village superintendent later tells
him that the telephone is never used as an ordinary channel of communication
1 m, 14.

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 H. S. REISS 539
between the village and the castle, and he points out to him that there is no tele-
phone in his office.
Another misconception of that kind is that K. acts on the belief that Barnabas
occupies a very powerful position in the castle hierarchy. In fact, the latter, a dull
and stupid cobbler, is completely at sea inthe castle-service where he merely stands
around in the offices among a host of officialswho either work hard or seem to sleep
soundly at their desks. Life, as Kafka sees it, is full of erroneous conceptions and
grotesque situations. Its great moments are spoilt by trivialities. When K. waits
for Klamm he spills cognac over the interior of the sledge. When Frieda and K.
have spent their first night of love they awake in the morning on the beer-stained
inn-floor and find K.'s assistants sitting stupidly on the window-sill laughing at the
two lovers. When by mistake K. enters Biirgel's bedroom he finds this powerful
official who allegedly can help him to realize his longings crouched up in bed. One
of the most striking passages, conceived in that vein, is Barnabas's description of
the castle-bureaux, where K. depicts the impression these bureaux make on a naive
mind:
Der Lange nach ist dieses Zimmer durch ein einziges, von Seitenwand zu Seitenwand
reichendes Stehpult in zwei Teile geteilt, einen schmalen, wo einander zwei Personen
nur knapp ausweichenkbnnen, das ist der Raum der Beamten, und einen breiten, das
ist der Raum der Parteien, der Zuschauer,der Diener, der Boten. Auf dem Pult liegen
aufgeschlagengrol3eBucher, eines neben dem anderen, und bei den meisten stehen
Beamte und lesen darin. Doch bleiben sie nicht immer beim gleichen Buch, tauschen
aber nicht die Bucher, sondern die Platze, am erstaunlichstenist es Barnabas,wie sie
sich bei solchem Platzewechselaneinandervorbeidruckenmiissen,eben wegen der Enge
des Raumes. Vorn,eng am Stehpult sind niedrigeTischchen,an denen Schreibersitzen,
welche,wenndieBeamteneswiinschen,nach ihremDiktatschreiben.Immerwundertsich
Barnabas,wie das geschieht. Es erfolgt kein ausdrucklicherBefehl der Beamten, auch
wird nicht laut diktiert, man merkt kaum, da13diktiert wird, vielmehr scheint der
Beamte zu lesen wie friiher,nur da13er dabei noch flustertund der Schreiberhorts. Oft
diktiert der Beamte so leise, daB der Schreiberes sitzend gar nicht h6ren kann, dann
mu13er immer aufspringen,das Diktierte auffangen, schnell sich setzen und es auf-
schreiben, dann wieder aufspringenund so fort. Wie merkwiirdigdas ist! Es ist fast
unverstandlich. Barnabasfreilich hat genug Zeit, das alles zu beobachten, denn dort
im Zuschauerraumsteht er stunden-undmanchmaltagelang, ehe Klamms Blick auf
ihn fallt. Und auch wenn ihn Klamm schon gesehen hat und Barnabassich in Habt-
achtstellung aufrichtet,ist noch nichts entschieden,denn Klamm kann sich wieder von
ihm dem Buch zu wenden und ihn vergessen,so geschieht es oft.l
Such descriptions reveal how ludicrous it is for the human mind to seek to under-
stand the workings of the castle, which to K.'s imagination is so powerful and to
K.'s reason is so ridiculous, while Barnabas's naive mind accepts it as reasonable
and never examines its justification. In these episodes Kafka skilfully ridicules
events of ordinary everyday life, such as telephone conversations or bureaucratic
machinery, by depicting the grotesque moments which arise from the breakdown of
mechanical instruments or from the absurd exaggeration of routine events, but he
attains his real effect by endowing them with symbolic significance and making
them reflect the spiritual situation of his hero.
In Amerika, the least readable of his novels, where the contrast between the
irrational and the rational worlds is least pronounced and is at times even bridged,
only a few humorous moments enliven the book and constitute its most exciting
moments. The farcical and almost tragi-comic scene in which the stoker puts forth
1 iv, 209.

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540 Franz Kafka's Conceptionof Humour
his claims for justice, Karl's awkwardness in the house of his uncle and in that of
Mr Pollunder, his experience with his companions Delamarche and Robinson as
well as those in the Hotel Occidental contain many humorous incidents which
serve as a criticism and correctionof Karl's naive acceptance of the world. The scene
in the Head Porter's office, where Karl escapes from the Head Porter who wants to
revenge himself on him, is an instance of successful comic writing. In the microcosm
of the hotel world an army of under-porters and messenger-boys is perpetually at
work, some gabbling forth information across counters and others whispering
answers to questions into telephones, while messenger-boys hurry to and fro. In
the midst of this turmoil the Head Porter, a greedy and spiteful individual, rules
absolutely. Karl escapes into the street where he finds a row of cars passing the
hotel:
Diese Automobilewaren,um nur so bald als moglichzu ihrerHerrschaftzu kommen,
geradezu ineinandergefahren,jedes wurde vom nachfolgenden vorwartsgeschoben.
FuBga'nger,die es besonderseilig hatten, auf die Stral3ezu gelangen, stiegen zwar hie
und da durchdie einzelnenAutomobilehindurch,als sei dort ein offentlicherDurchgang,
es war ganz gleichgiiltig,ob im Automobilnur der Chauffeurund die Dienerschaftsa13
oder auch die vornehmstenLeute.1
The only time where there is a fusion of the irrational and the rational world in
Amerika is in the last chapter, the nature theatre of Oklahoma, the mood of which
is one of joy and fulfilment. A kindly note is struck, not an ironic one. We read
that the angels blow into trumpets from large pedestals and look somewhat absurd
with their large wings and their small human-sized heads while Karl is amazed at the
various tunes which one can blow on these trumpets. The whole scene is steeped in
a kindly humour.
In tales such as Poseidon or Gibsauf there is a humorous element, too. While the
note of despair is sounded in the description of the hopeless, endless task of Poseidon
or the pointless quest of the man in search of the right way in the latter story, the
hope for freedom in the last hour, which may, after all, not be an illusion, sustains
Poseidon in bearing the condition of his life. Likewise this hope is indicated by the
genial smile of the Policeman in Gibsauf, where one finds a recognition of the sense-
lessness of rational endeavour in Kafka's world and of the need of patience, humility
and kindly humour.
Theistory Forschungeneines Hundes indicates that Kafka at times at least was
capable of attaining freedom by smiling with detachment at the comedy of human
errorsand of rising beyond the dark night of his fears and obsessions to the dawn of
hope. The dog smiles at the aberrationsof his youth, at his mistaken, if indispensable
quest for truth. The hero in Beim Bau der ChinesischenMauer can sit in his room
and smile at his folly in expecting the imperial message to reach him when he does
not even know whether the Emperor is still alive to give it or whether the messenger
will ever be able to leave the palace. While a situation is merely grotesque in the
eyes of the underdog who, in his misplaced arrogance, feels that he should have
a better deal from life, Kafka's hero in these tales can laugh genially and humbly at
his own follies, and thus by patience and faith and also by a refusal to use his reason
and to ask questions attain some measure of happiness in accepting the universe
with all its contradictions as perceived by the human mind.
1 n, 201.

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 H. S. REISS 541
In Kafka's work then the humorous scenes just as much as his naturalist descrip-
tion correspondto the mood of the episode. The genial smile and the ironic, despair-
ing laughter have their counterparts in the moods of the hero through whose eyes
we look at the world. On the one hand, out of despair he ridicules the hopeless
endeavour and the mistaken claims of the underdog as he aims at a better deal in
life. Kafka expresses this aspect by means of many grotesque scenes. Humour is
a corollary of anguish. On the other hand, laughter can also help to save man.
Through it man's intolerable burden can be eased and the human situation can be
accepted. This is not done in an ironic frame of mind, by laughing aloud in despair
at the grotesque aspects of human life, but by gently and indulgently smiling at the
inevitable human aberrations. A sense of kindly humour, however occasional its
occurrence is, can help man to realize that even the most desperate situations are
not as hopeless as they may often seem. It allows Kafka to show some sympathy
with the frailty of man and to add a human touch which his inexorable 'either/or'
could never otherwise permit.
In their conception of these two aspects of humour a link can be established
between Kafka and Kierkegaard, whose work reassuredhim like that of a friend.
Kierkegaard gave religious significance to 'humour', which he called the 'incognito
of religion'. 'Humour' is a way out from man's finite condition. Kierkegaard con-
ceived it as a means of attaining a religious conception of life. If, however, 'humour'
is deprived of its religious nature, it turns into irony, often a cruel counterpart, on
a lower level, of genial humour. For Kierkegaard,like Kafka, the humorousmoments
arise from the clash between man's finiteness and eternity at which, however, the
true humorist can laugh genially. His illustrations of humorous instances resemble
those of Kafka, for they are an expression of the disproportionbetween human effort
and eternity. Pointless human effort out of proportion produces comedy. A man
who gazes at the stars and then falls into a hole appears comic because of the
disproportion between his high ambition and his all-too-human accident; Kafka's
conception of humour, like that of Kierkegaard, is an expression of his inner life.
For Kafka it illustrates the problem created by the absurd position of man: a finite
being longing for the infinite, but caught in the whirlpool created by the irrecon-
cilable clash between reason and unreason. His treatment of humour, with emphasis
on the grotesque, reveals the distortion in his attitude towards life, reflecting his
lack of assurance and the morbidity of his mind. Kafka's laughter at the absurd
struggle of his characters then expresses his preoccupation with the problem of
a rational understanding of the universe which is always eluding his grasp. There
two attitudes basically prevail: the laughter of despair or the smile of serenity.
They reflect the moods of despair and hope between which he alternated con-
tinuously. This alternation was obsessive in its nature, and never developed into
an upward movement, so that it prevented him from truly crystallizing his experi-
ence. Kafka can laugh with bitterness or with geniality at the human situation,
but his inability to conquer the perpetual to and fro of his mind causes him always
to shift his ground, and results in his failure to create anything but fragmentary
pieces.
The limitations of his vision are revealed, then, in the incomplete pattern of his
art. His sense of humour is fed by one source: the incompatibility between the
pattern conceived by his reason and that experienced in practical reality. It is
marked by a certain repetition, as is, in fact, the whole of Kafka's work. It reveals

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542 Franz Kafka's Conceptionof Humour
the limits of his scope, caused by lack of breadth. His humorous moments, however,
do not lack a certain incisiveness which indicates the intensity of his experience
and helps to explain the effect of his work on the reader, upon whom it often
exercises a fascination, verging at times on morbidity.
For the lop-sidedness of his universe, as his humorous scenes depict it, reflects
not only the morbid and even pathological quality of Kafka's appeal, but also the
distorting nature of his work. A world is here portrayed that is out of joint. The
author views it from an ever-shifting standpoint, which reveals his awareness of the
crisis confronting our age where values seem relative and uncertain, where our
conception of reality is changing and where man seems far away from God.
The humour in Kafka is then closely linked both to his thought and to his art.
Another variation on his dialogue between reason and faith, it is based on the
apparently evil and hopeless nature of the physical world and on his craving to
find salvation and to grasp the meaning of life. It illustrates the ever-recurring
frustration and anguish of his hero and his difficulty of realizing fulfilment and
harmony. It also indicates the method of his writing which consists of imposing
upon the world of actual experience an irrational superstructure, caricaturing the
pattern of actual life. It depicts the absurd position of man who was seeking to
unravel the mystery of the irrational by rational means. It does, however, not
only demonstrate the fusion between the realist and symbolist aspects of his work,
but also the startling nature of his technique which is prompted by the need to
resolve his inner conflict. Thus by means of scenes which are as disturbing as they
are unexpected, he ushers his hero into the climate of the absurd and confronts him
with the necessity of changing his manner of living and of realizing the mistaken
nature of the position which he has adopted in face of life. The humorous element
in Kafka's work reflects both in content and in form the crisis in which his mind
dwelt.
H. S. REISS
LONDON

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