Kafka's Parable

"An Imperial Message" is one Kafka's parables and in this parable there is an emperor who lies on his bed and who is about to die. Before he dies, he wants the messenger to kneel down near his bed, so he can whisper a message to his ear. In the end of this parable, the emperor dies.

  Although it is really understand Kafka's parables and there is descriptive narration, I tried to interpret this parable in several ways.

  First, I interpreted that the parable is about the life itself. We come to this world and we stay for a short time. Everyone leaves this place and goes to the same unknown world whether they are emperors, queens, normal citizens or slaves. So, it is meaningless to give value to power and prestidge so much because in the end everyone is equal. Once you own lots of things and gain power, it does not mean that you are going to stay as the same and you are going to be respected forever. As it is stated in the parable, "nobody could fight his way through here even with a message from a dead man." When the time came, you are alone with your own destiny and noone can respond your command and fight against for you. In addition to that, it seemed to me that the messenger, who has low prestidge and power than the emperor, became superior while he was standing next to the emperor who is about to die. As if the emperor wanted him to kneel down, and wanted to have the same position with him in order to weaken his superiority.

  Another interpretation can be made about dreaming and illusion. The parable made me question the reality which is also a subject of philosophy. Throughout the parable, it seems that we live in an illusion and dream ourselves in different positions. In our dreams we are independent, we are the most powerful, most charismatic and we are self- centered. Although our dreams are real and creates illusions we can be everything in our dreams. In Kafka's parable there is a sentence like that: "But you sit at your window when evening falls and dream it to yourself." It seems to me that we are creating our own realities. In addition to that, the symbol of the sun in the parable, which is on the emperor's breast, reminded me of the solar system. Like he made himself the centre of the universe just like the sun and he didn't do it just by his commodities or wealth, but also by dreaming himself as the centre of the universe. His imagination made him to assume him more, so it can be said that being an emperor is not just about wealth, it is also a state of mind and dreaming (imagination). In the end, it can be said that life is just an illusion and the reality comes after death. The emperor thought that his power would last forever but in reality, he is weak and he is nothing anymore.

  If I need to come up with a third interpretation, the parable may be also about ambition. In the parable, although the emperor is about to die, he tries to go for his throne and doesn't want to leave his position. He wants to keep/ save his strength and tries to be brave and powerful as he was before.