Romance in Kafka

Kafka is known for being a dark and brooding writer, focusing on the endless red tape one encounters in a bureaucracy. His heroes try with all their might to accomplish some simple task, such as getting an appointment with someone, and fail. In The Trial the hero is arrested for no apparent reason and goes through endless machinations to try to get the case resolved. In the Castle the hero tries to get to the Castle and never even sets foot in it. In "The Metamorphosis" the hero is turned into an insect and never knows why. But despite the overarching darkness, Kafka also included bright patches, little discussed, but which add an element of reality and romance to his otherwise expressionistic nightmares.

In The Trial, for instance, the hero has a relationship with various women. In The Castle he has an affair with a girl on the floor of a bar. These romantic scenes are the result of Kafka's underlying romanticism.