He died of tuberculosis at the age of forty-one. There is also the matter of his health issues. He got engaged twice and is known to have had several relationships, but none of them bore fruit. We also have the fact that the intensity of Kafka’s sexual desire was coupled with an inability to commit to a single stable relationship with a woman. However, there is also his father, Hermann Kafka, a terrifying, domineering man who mistreated others and was constantly castigating his weak son in one way or another. They probably all, to one extent or another, played a role in molding him and defining the Kafkaesque: a bureaucratic world that does not think or care, complex processes that are impossible to comprehend, a strong sense of alienation engendered by the modern era, a struggle against un-sensible irrational authorities that could well be hopeless, and a constant battle with the absurd as we try to resolve the unresolvable, all of which added to the alienation induced by the retreat of religion in a society in which new values and ties have not yet emerged. Those who have studied Kafka attributed his character to various reasons. There is a degree of Kafkaism in all of us: in this or that period in our lives, in a behavior we had engaged in, or in a situation we did not manage to avoid. He is deeply ashamed of himself and could be the object of merciless ridicule or neglect. He is oppressed and has little hope of overcoming his oppression he is scared and estranged from his surroundings. The Kafkaesque world is a dark and nightmarish place where we are powerless in the face of power while the harm that the strong inflicts on the weak is incomprehensible.

Kafkaesque, relating to the Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924), is a term that has gone beyond the scope of literature and has become prevalent in discussions of philosophy, life, our states and moods, and the reactions of the weak to the challenges they face.

Kafkaesque by Franz Kafka