“ A Country Doctor ” is an anthology that is pregnant with significance, giving it a broad reading base. The surreal narrative, full of symbolism, Tells of a state physician in an pressing dark responsibility call which puts him in a quandary because of the fortunes environing this call. His Equus caballus had died the old dark, yet when he finally finds two Equus caballuss for his journey, he has to give protecting his servant miss, Rosa, in order to go to to his patient. I think the physician portrays complacence non merely in his profession but besides in his duty to Rosa.
Challenges that confront the physician
The narrative begins by the physician stating that he is in a great trouble, which points out to the challenges that he faces. Apart from the ill male child necessitating his pressing attending, a awful snowstorm separates him from his patient. Besides, a 3rd challenge was the fact that his Equus caballus had died the old dark, yet no 1 is willing to impart him a Equus caballus for the journey. When he is eventually provided with two powerful Equus caballuss, and chooses to travel for his patient, he is faced with a 4th challenge: the groom, who, although sitting as his savior, assaults Rosa, his servant miss. This incident affects his response to the patient and contributes to his complacence in go toing to him.
Frustrations
While these challenges can be individually pointed out, they are elaborately connected. Some challenges form the defeats that the physician trades with in other challenges. The patient who needed the physician ‘s attending was 10 stat mis off, but the winter and the dead Equus caballus contribute to his defeat in go toing to the patient. When he eventually reaches his patient, ideas of Rosa being assailed maintain deflecting him from his responsibility. It is noteworthy that these events frustrate his competence.
The physician ‘s ain Equus caballus holding died the old dark in the icy winter, the blizzard frustrates his attempts in acquiring another Equus caballus. No 1 is willing to impart their Equus caballus in such conditions and for such a journey because Rosa, the physician ‘s servant miss, who had gone around the small town to borrow a Equus caballus, returns place empty handed. He reveals his defeat when he kicks his pes against the chapped door of the hog hordeolum.
The physician ‘s instead yielding personality makes it impossible for him to offer any aid to Rosa, his servant miss, who had been attacked by the groom. “ He permits himself to be manipulated by the groom, the household, and the Equus caballuss ; but he becomes, by subjecting, a tool within the state of affairss they create ” ( Leiter 340 ) . The physician applies irony to stress his defeat refering the groom who has attacked Rosa, the servant miss, when he says that the Gods send the Equus caballuss “ and even throw in a groom as a fillip. ” ( Kafka 2 ) . Then the physician wonders impotently how he could salvage Rosa.
Not merely does his personality impact his duty in salvaging Rosa, but it besides makes him helpless in the presence of the snowstorm. The physician says, “ aˆ¦it was hopelessaˆ¦and I stood there useless, progressively covered with snow, going all the clip more immobile ” ( Kafka 1 ) which shows he was frustrated.
A incubus
The dense imagination in the narrative is the outstanding arrow to a bloodcurdling narrative. It is clear that the Equus caballuss described are no ordinary Equus caballuss, the groom ; no ordinary groom, and the patient has a cryptic lesion. Dalzell points out that “ The foreign nature of the Equus caballuss and groom besides belong to a incubus ” ( Dalzell 3 ) . The images of the awful snowstorm, the spiritual Equus caballuss, the disgusting groom, the red-rose lesion, worms, bloody towel, interrupting door, groom ‘s “ biting ” of Rosa ‘s cheek, and the denudation naked of the physician represent concretely the bloodcurdling quality of the narrative. The short, crisp, broken sentence construction in the narrative besides serves to foreground this quality. “ I hear the door concatenation rattle as she sets it in topographic point. I hear the lock chink. I see howaˆ¦ ” ( Kafka 2 ) .
Subjects in the narrative
I think the state physician portrays complacence in our lives as he is forgetful of his duty to protect his servant miss, Rosa, from the groom, and is loath in handling his patient. Leiter best describes the subject of complacence in this short narrative: “ Because he does non miss witting cognition of his status, but refuses to move in the face of his prodigious freedom, the physician… deserves his destiny… Never, consciously, does he try through an open act, until excessively late, to set up his ain kernel, to lift above any manipulative value he possesses for others. “ ( Leiter 340 ) . Dalzell points out that “ he has non even the strength of strong belief to look into his patient decently. He had already decided the immature male child was all right before corroborating what [ he ] already knew ; the male child was rather sound ” ( Dalzell 1 ) .
The narrative besides sends a “ elusive messages and subjects of despair, wretchedness, and hopelessness to the reader ” ( Dalzell ) . There are besides messages of amour propre, male jingoism, and agnosticism in the short narrative.
Decision
The state Doctor, faced with the tests of a snowstorm, a ill male child, his dead Equus caballus and a groom, finds himself in a compromising state of affairs, a quandary. But because of his complacence, the physician non merely neglects his servant miss, who is of import to him, but is besides slack in his intervention of the patient, to whom presumptively, he had sacrificially attended to!
