A Country Doctor Essay Questions

Who is the hero and who is the villain in the story?

The story is unique in that it does not make clear a particular protagonist or antagonist. Certainly, the groom is an antagonistic force, as he exhibits a debased nature by assaulting Rosa. However, one could also argue that the doctor himself is an antagonist because of his ambivalent feelings toward his patients. The patient's family and townspeople may also be antagonists in the way they threaten to kill the doctor if he does not heal the dying man. That there is no clear hero or villain in the story emphasizes its connection to existential themes, whereby individuals are rendered powerless by the circumstances that surround them.

What makes the story unsettling?

Readers may find "A Country Doctor" strange, surreal, disturbing, or discomfiting. The mood of the story is generated by the series of strange events that occur – events that are both familiar (as in, not entirely fantastical) but manipulated in a way that renders them absurd. Readers will likely have a difficult time connecting actions to motivations in the story, as events seem to occur without reason or logic behind them. This element of the story makes it difficult to interpret, but also connects to its broader meditation on the unconscious and other psychoanalytic phenomena.

How does "A Country Doctor" compare to Kafka's other works?

Despite its strangeness compared to traditional short stories, "A Country Doctor" actually epitomizes Kafka's signature style, themes, and inquiries. It is quite similar to his most famous work, the novella The Metamorphosis, in which a man wakes up one morning to discover he has become a giant insect. While the central premise of The Metamorphosis is more surreal than that of "A Country Doctor," both works are interested in absurdism as a form of inquiry about human existence.