In 1922 “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka was composed and included in a collection called A Hunger Artist. Even when after the author’s death in 1924, his compiled book was published to accomplish it intent (“A Hunger Artist .” Short Stories for Students, n.d). “A Hunger Artist” is among the few works that Franz Kafka did not order his family and friends to destroy after his death. The story revolves around a “hunger artist” who sits in a cage with straw and fast for 40 days at a time- this action is displayed in public as a form of entertainment. According to the story “The Paradise of Bachelors and Tartarus of Maids” by Herman Melville, the Bachelor’s Paradise portrays the Devil’s Dungeon paper mill as a profit-driven enterprise flourishing with virgin women doing all the jobs(“ENGL405: Herman Melville’s “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” | Saylor Academy,” 2019). The Tartarus of the Maids describes the form of slave labor and exploitation of “girls,” who work within the factory(“ENGL405: Herman Melville’s “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” | Saylor Academy,” 2019). This illustrates the sort of slavery that has been observed in factories across the world in this timeframe. This paper, therefore, compares the acts of slavery within the two short stories.
Firstly, according to Melville, Tartarus’s real term is applicable in Greek mythology to describe the underworld of suffering and torture. Factory work was similar to forced labor and reflected torture concepts, such as pain and work. The narrator makes many references to the manner with which Cupid sees the ladies and the appearance of emptiness and suffering in these anonymous girls’ eyes. The portrayal of these girls and the scene makes this story really disturbing and almost gives you a sense of a secret agenda that’s really going on. Melville uses only the narrators’ reflections and explanations to describe the trip from the beginning of the novel to the paper mill and to navigate around the mill itself. This slave-like setting generates a lot of feelings about what’s going on in the reader’s head. When you think Melville is sending you down the road to a terrible case, the story ends suddenly and leaves you with a hollow state of mind because nothing has changed in this story aside from a risky trip. This narrative has something to do with the context. The plot’s core concept or motif is the existence of two alternate worlds existing within this paper factory. So the title Tartarus is the paradox of heaven – an upper class that only seeks profit, and purgatory – poverty hit slave-like workers. These plant managers and owners look at these people as anonymous faces who have no personalities and they too become the creations of the machines of which they are slaves. The never-ending job at the factory really exploited the women (“drains them until they are as bare as the “sheets of paper” created by their labor”). The narrator comes across a maid whose face is “fresh and pretty” and discovers that she hasn’t been there long enough for the factory to give her a toll, much like her neighbor, whose brow is ” wrinkled and ruled.” Not only does the factory age women, but it also tyrannizes them the same way they manipulate the paper they work on.
On the other hand, according to Franz Kafka, the main character slaves himself, while trying to impress his audience. Even after giving his best in fasting,“The hunger artist” is unhappy with his work and disappointed both by his management and his public, who never completely understand the transparency of his “art” or real creativity. “The hunger artist” suffers emotionally (slavery) he was frustrated because he was isolated from people, the world, and that outside his cage. As years go by, famine performers’ career is out of trend, viewers are turning to novel developments in mainstream theatre.
The sense of isolation of the character( “the hunger artist”) is partially a result of his ongoing struggle with the impression that no one but himself completely acknowledges and comprehends his work- his art is compared to that of a slave; he put himself into the slavery act, yet no one understands. As clarified in one critic, “the hunger artist” is “an allegory or metaphor of the struggling artist in society.” He alone understands the truth about his achievements: “It was hard to struggle against this loss of comprehension, against a whole universe of non-understanding.” “Try to convey to everyone the art of fasting! Anybody who doesn’t believe it can’t be allowed to accept it. “In truth, he accuses the” whole world “of not giving him the” satisfaction, “he thinks he deserves:” the whole universe therefore cheated but not the artist.
While the hunger artist’s fiery confidence in his art helps him strengthen his fasting, it eventually prevents him from completing his goals because it damages his popular support and relation with everyone else. He stares at his malnourished frame and protruding ribcage with vanity, declaring their badges of honor. Still, his pitiless, hideous body disgusts the women who initially try to carry him out of his cage at the end of his slavery action. In this situation, his deprived body — which is a reflection of his pride — is the thing that means that he can never be loved and appreciated by the people. Pride transforms the hunger artist off from others and into himself and increases his loneliness by imprisoning himself( slavery) in a cage and meditating vigorously. In the end, pride assures the hunger artist, not glory and enlightenment, but darkness.
In this very pastoral scene, there are two definite, mutually incompatible elements. There is the unrestrained, overwhelming power of water chasing its gradient in the direction of extinction. This unconscious drive, described here by a flowing current, was alluded to above as “death flirtation,” and can be defined as an essential component of worsening syndrome. Moreover, there are protective instructions that almost concurrently counteract the brute, insensitive aspect until it is suppressed and called back to its natural limits. This very aware response, which brings the whole collection of constructive reservoirs into motion against the challenge from the sinister depths of the unconscious, has been identified with the life-affirming capacity of the “contract.” Splitting the large body of water into tiny inland seas signifies, apart from its conceptual expression, the disintegration, and dissociation of the complex ego.
In conclusion, in the two short stories, slavery is expressed in various ways- according to Herman Melville, the women are being slaved in factories where they are forced to work under unfavorable terms. In Franz Kafka’s short story the “hunger artist” undergo slavery in order to impress his audience. In both short stories, slavery negatively affects the health of the characters(“a hunger artist” and the women at the factory).
Reference
“A Hunger Artist .” Short Stories for Students. . Retrieved October 16, 2020, from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/hunger-artist.
ENGL405: Herman Melville’s “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” | Saylor Academy. Saylor Academy. (, 2019). Retrieved November 6, 2020, from https://learn.saylor.org/mod/page/view.php?id=18621.
