A Country Doctor
Encyclopedia
"A Country Doctor" is a short story
written in 1919
by Franz Kafka
. It is also the title of a collection of short stories, including this one.
events occur in the process, including the appearance of a mysterious groom
in a pig
shed.
It begins with the doctor having to urgently attend a sick patient, but his sole horse died the night before, so his maid Rosa goes off to ask for another. She returns empty-handed — "Of course, who is now going to lend her his horse for such a journey?" —, but, just as the doctor is expressing his distraction and torment by kicking at the cracked sty door, a mysterious groom appears and supplies him with a team of magnificent horses. The groom, being the oaf that he is, boorishly kisses the maid when she tries to hand him a harness, leaving her cheek with two rows of red tooth marks. The doctor scolds him furiously but quickly realises that he is in his debt and, on the groom's beckoning, jumps happily into the gig. The groom declines to travel with him, preferring to stay with the terrified Rosa, who dashes into the house and makes every effort to secure herself, although her fate is inevitable. The doctor can do nothing to stop the groom, who, with a simple "Giddy up!", sends the horses on their way. The doctor is almost instantly transported to his sick patient's courtyard. It is, he says, "as if the farm yard of my invalid opens up immediately in front of my courtyard gate", when, in reality (insofar as that term may be applied to this story), it is all of ten miles away.
After being ushered into the house by a family whose explications he does not comprehend, the doctor is quietly implored by the patient to let him die. Initially, he deems him completely healthy, but, after he notices the boy's sister holding a bloody towel, he discovers a deep wound on his right side. The kin and assembling kith are pleased to see him at work. The horses, meanwhile, having somehow freed themselves of their straps, have opened the window and are neighing frantically.
The doctor's thoughts are focused on the fate of his maid, for which he blames himself. In accordance with a simple melody from a choir outside the house, the family undresses him and forces him into bed alongside the patient. He assures his sceptical bedmate that the wound is not death-dealing and promptly takes up all his belongings and flees the scene. The horses are now wearied, however; and the doctor, disgraced, finds himself "crawl[ing] slowly through the wasteland of snow men". He feels betrayed by his patients and his community, and his story concludes with the line "A false ring of the night bell, once answered — it can never be made right."
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Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
written in 1919
1919 in literature
The year 1919 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain return to Somerville College, Oxford, to complete their education following war service.*Two paintings by E. E...
by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
. It is also the title of a collection of short stories, including this one.
Plot
The plot follows its eponym's hapless struggle to attend a sick young boy on a cold winter's night. A series of surrealSurrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
events occur in the process, including the appearance of a mysterious groom
Groom (horses)
A groom is a person who is responsible for some or all aspects of the management of horses and/or the care of the stables themselves. The term most often refers to a person who is the employee of a stable owner, but even an owner of a horse may perform the duties of a groom, particularly if the...
in a pig
Domestic pig
The domestic pig is a domesticated animal that traces its ancestry to the wild boar, and is considered a subspecies of the wild boar or a distinct species in its own right. It is likely the wild boar was domesticated as early as 13,000 BC in the Tigris River basin...
shed.
It begins with the doctor having to urgently attend a sick patient, but his sole horse died the night before, so his maid Rosa goes off to ask for another. She returns empty-handed — "Of course, who is now going to lend her his horse for such a journey?" —, but, just as the doctor is expressing his distraction and torment by kicking at the cracked sty door, a mysterious groom appears and supplies him with a team of magnificent horses. The groom, being the oaf that he is, boorishly kisses the maid when she tries to hand him a harness, leaving her cheek with two rows of red tooth marks. The doctor scolds him furiously but quickly realises that he is in his debt and, on the groom's beckoning, jumps happily into the gig. The groom declines to travel with him, preferring to stay with the terrified Rosa, who dashes into the house and makes every effort to secure herself, although her fate is inevitable. The doctor can do nothing to stop the groom, who, with a simple "Giddy up!", sends the horses on their way. The doctor is almost instantly transported to his sick patient's courtyard. It is, he says, "as if the farm yard of my invalid opens up immediately in front of my courtyard gate", when, in reality (insofar as that term may be applied to this story), it is all of ten miles away.
After being ushered into the house by a family whose explications he does not comprehend, the doctor is quietly implored by the patient to let him die. Initially, he deems him completely healthy, but, after he notices the boy's sister holding a bloody towel, he discovers a deep wound on his right side. The kin and assembling kith are pleased to see him at work. The horses, meanwhile, having somehow freed themselves of their straps, have opened the window and are neighing frantically.
The doctor's thoughts are focused on the fate of his maid, for which he blames himself. In accordance with a simple melody from a choir outside the house, the family undresses him and forces him into bed alongside the patient. He assures his sceptical bedmate that the wound is not death-dealing and promptly takes up all his belongings and flees the scene. The horses are now wearied, however; and the doctor, disgraced, finds himself "crawl[ing] slowly through the wasteland of snow men". He feels betrayed by his patients and his community, and his story concludes with the line "A false ring of the night bell, once answered — it can never be made right."
Interpretation
Louis H. Leiter saw in the tale a cogent argument for existentialismExistentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
:
"A Country Doctor" comments on man, who, buffeted by the scheme of things, is unable to transcend the part assigned him by the absurdity of that existence. Because he does not lack conscious knowledge of his condition, but refuses to act in the face of his portentous freedom, the doctor, an archetype of the anti-existential hero, deserves his fate. Lacking the human stuff necessary to create and structure situations, he permits himself to be manipulated by the groom, the family, and the horses; but he becomes, by submitting, a tool within the situations they create. Never, consciously, does he attempt through an overt act, until too late, to establish his own essence, to rise above any manipulative value he possesses for others. As doctor he is a thing, an object, a tool; as man he is nothing.
See also
- A Country DoctorA Country Doctor (film)is a 2007 anime short film by Kōji Yamamura.The film is a direct interpretation of Franz Kafka's short story "A Country Doctor," voiced by kyōgen actors of the Shigeyama house....
- An animated film by Kōji YamamuraKoji Yamamurais a Japanese independent animator who, since leaving a career as a background artist at an animation studio, currently directs, writes, edits, animates, creates the model sheets and background art for and sometimes produces his own short films and has worked on many commissions such as music...
External links
- The full text of "A Country Doctor"