A Hunger Artist

by

Franz Kafka

The Audience / Public Character Analysis

Comprised of different people at different times, the audience defines what the hunger artist’s work means outside of his own perceptions and beliefs. In the hey-day of hunger artistry, the audience is huge. Children “watch open-mouthed, holding each other by the hand for safety,” in awe and fear of the hunger artist. Adults, on the other hand, feel either that the act is a frivolous bit of fun, or distrust whether the hunger artist’s fasts are really as long as is claimed. Despite their suspicions, the audience verifies how many days the hunger artist fasts by keeping vigil, but they don’t take the role too seriously. The audience’s tastes change with the times, and by the end of the story they don’t care much for the hunger artist’s act anymore. They’re much more interested in the extravaganza of the circus, and the last image of the story is the audience clustered around the hunger artist’s old cage, now holding the more impressive figure of the panther.

The Audience / Public Quotes in A Hunger Artist

The A Hunger Artist quotes below are all either spoken by The Audience / Public or refer to The Audience / Public. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Artist and Society Theme Icon
).
A Hunger Artist Quotes

…scorning the use of a chair he sat on the scattered straw, pale, in a black vest, with startlingly protruding ribs, now nodding politely, answering questions with a strained smile, or poking his arm through the bars so that its thinness might be felt, but repeatedly collapsing into himself, not caring about anything or anyone.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Related Symbols: The Cage
Explanation and Analysis:

He much preferred those invigilators who sat right in front of his bars, who were not content with the dim night-light in the hall, but aimed at him the beams of electric torches that the manager had left at their disposal…What made him happiest of all was when the morning came and a lavish breakfast was brought up to them at his expense, on which they flung themselves with the healthy appetite of men who had spent an entire night without rest.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Related Symbols: The Cage
Explanation and Analysis:

No one was capable of spending every day and every night with the hunger-artist as an invigilator without a break, and therefore no one could know from the direct evidence of his own senses whether the hunger artist had starved himself without a break, without a lapse; only the hunger-artist himself was in a position to know that, only he therefore could be the spectator completely satisfied by his own hunger.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Explanation and Analysis:

He had never yet—that people had to concede—left his cage of his own free will. The maximum period of starvation had been set by the manager at forty days, he permitted no longer stints than that, not even in major cities, and for a very good reason. He had learned from experience that by gradually intensified publicity the interest of a city could be kept alive for forty days, but at that point the public failed, there was a perceptible drop in the level of interest.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public, The Manager / Impresario
Related Symbols: The Cage
Explanation and Analysis:

So then on the fortieth day the door of the flower-garlanded cage was thrown open, an excited audience filled the amphitheatre, a brass band played, two doctors entered the cage to perform the necessary tests on the hunger artist, the results were relayed to the hall by means of a megaphone, and finally two young ladies, thrilled to have been chosen for the task, came to lead the hunger artist down a couple of steps to where a small table had been laid with a carefully assembled invalid meal.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public, The Manager / Impresario
Related Symbols: The Cage
Explanation and Analysis:

Because by then the shift in taste referred to above had taken place; it was almost sudden; perhaps there were profounder reasons for it, but who cared to find them out; be it as it may, one day the pampered hunger artist saw himself abandoned by the pleasure-seeking public which now flocked to different displays.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Explanation and Analysis:

...the hunger artist starved himself as he had once dreamed of doing, and he succeeded quite effortlessly as he had once predicted, but no one counted the days, no one knew how great his achievement was, not even the hunger artist himself, and his heart grew heavy. And if once in a while a passer-by stopped, and mocked the old calendar and said it was a swindle, that was the most insulting lie that indifference and native malice could have come up with.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Explanation and Analysis:

“I always wanted you to admire my starving,” said the hunger artist. “We do admire it,” said the overseer placatingly. “But you’re not to admire it,” said the hunger artist. “All right, then we don’t admire it,” said the overseer, “why should we not admire it?”

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Explanation and Analysis:
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A Hunger Artist PDF

The Audience / Public Quotes in A Hunger Artist

The A Hunger Artist quotes below are all either spoken by The Audience / Public or refer to The Audience / Public. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Artist and Society Theme Icon
).
A Hunger Artist Quotes

…scorning the use of a chair he sat on the scattered straw, pale, in a black vest, with startlingly protruding ribs, now nodding politely, answering questions with a strained smile, or poking his arm through the bars so that its thinness might be felt, but repeatedly collapsing into himself, not caring about anything or anyone.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Related Symbols: The Cage
Explanation and Analysis:

He much preferred those invigilators who sat right in front of his bars, who were not content with the dim night-light in the hall, but aimed at him the beams of electric torches that the manager had left at their disposal…What made him happiest of all was when the morning came and a lavish breakfast was brought up to them at his expense, on which they flung themselves with the healthy appetite of men who had spent an entire night without rest.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Related Symbols: The Cage
Explanation and Analysis:

No one was capable of spending every day and every night with the hunger-artist as an invigilator without a break, and therefore no one could know from the direct evidence of his own senses whether the hunger artist had starved himself without a break, without a lapse; only the hunger-artist himself was in a position to know that, only he therefore could be the spectator completely satisfied by his own hunger.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Explanation and Analysis:

He had never yet—that people had to concede—left his cage of his own free will. The maximum period of starvation had been set by the manager at forty days, he permitted no longer stints than that, not even in major cities, and for a very good reason. He had learned from experience that by gradually intensified publicity the interest of a city could be kept alive for forty days, but at that point the public failed, there was a perceptible drop in the level of interest.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public, The Manager / Impresario
Related Symbols: The Cage
Explanation and Analysis:

So then on the fortieth day the door of the flower-garlanded cage was thrown open, an excited audience filled the amphitheatre, a brass band played, two doctors entered the cage to perform the necessary tests on the hunger artist, the results were relayed to the hall by means of a megaphone, and finally two young ladies, thrilled to have been chosen for the task, came to lead the hunger artist down a couple of steps to where a small table had been laid with a carefully assembled invalid meal.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public, The Manager / Impresario
Related Symbols: The Cage
Explanation and Analysis:

Because by then the shift in taste referred to above had taken place; it was almost sudden; perhaps there were profounder reasons for it, but who cared to find them out; be it as it may, one day the pampered hunger artist saw himself abandoned by the pleasure-seeking public which now flocked to different displays.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Explanation and Analysis:

...the hunger artist starved himself as he had once dreamed of doing, and he succeeded quite effortlessly as he had once predicted, but no one counted the days, no one knew how great his achievement was, not even the hunger artist himself, and his heart grew heavy. And if once in a while a passer-by stopped, and mocked the old calendar and said it was a swindle, that was the most insulting lie that indifference and native malice could have come up with.

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Explanation and Analysis:

“I always wanted you to admire my starving,” said the hunger artist. “We do admire it,” said the overseer placatingly. “But you’re not to admire it,” said the hunger artist. “All right, then we don’t admire it,” said the overseer, “why should we not admire it?”

Related Characters: The Hunger Artist, The Audience / Public
Explanation and Analysis: