Chase Hall’s Reviews > The Castle > Status Update

The simplest metaphor - an unenterable castle that dictates community life, administered by blundering but well meaning city bureaucrats - illustrates how absurd society is.

Through too-real-feeling misunderstandings, “K” finds again and again that “Castles” might create meaning but are run by humans as normal as the inns; and the cogs of a town’s social workings can wreak absurd havoc on the individual.

‘Doesn’t the story bore you?’ asked the Superintendent. ‘No,’ said K. ‘It amuses me.’ ‘I’m not telling it to amuse you.’ ‘It only amuses me,’ said K., ‘because it gives me an insight into the ludicrous bungling which in certain circumstances may decide the life of a human being.’