The Idea of Happiness in “I Served the King of England” by Bohumil Hrabal Essay Example for Free

The Idea of Happiness in I Served the poof of England by Bohumil Hrabal Es stateI Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal is a tragicomic novel, a get-go- mortal account by Dite, a teenage busboy starting his career in a rural hotel in Czechia. The plan progresses gradu each(prenominal)y as Dite functions a waiter and than an owner of a hotel, in conclusion losing e genuinelything except wisdom.The defy is coordinate as a series of picturesque episodes demonstrating people whom Dite meets and situations he gets into during the pre-war design, Nazi occupation of the country and eventually under the communist regime. In this paper I am going to concentrate on one and single(a) psychological aspect of the novel, attainly on the head of blessedness as Dite considers it.At first sight, Dite sees happiness in cash and insists on his desire to become a millionaire, however, I will attempt to invoke that the actual incentive for Dites conduct is desire of respect an d recognition. He does not want the accurate world to admire him, rather striving to respect of the people whom he himself respects. It is not easy to say whether Dite eventually achieved his purpose, plainly at the end he at least(prenominal) comes to reconciliation with the surrounding world. In order to prove this point I will refer to the particular parts of the texts as soundly as to the general plot and spirit of the script.Dite obviously suffers from inferiority complex. He is adulterate, poor and short, so, suffering from all the disadvantages of such situation, he decides to become rich and respected. However, his conduct is often impulsive and determined by his up-to-minute desires. The book merchant ship be viewed as a confession of an aged man who analyses his living journey.The language of the book progresses from a nave story-telling by a young boy to a considered narrative depicted by older Dite. His priorities can be clearly indicated in every stage of his li fe history. Dite hardly thinks of happiness as itself, for most of his life he rather strives to tread in the steps of the people he meets and whom he deems to be successful. He is amazed at how rich people could sit virtually for the whole even out talking about how just outside the town was a footbridge and honorable beside the footbridge, thirty old age back thither was a popular tree and they theyd really get going1. He starts to realize the need of happiness as such at the very late stage of his life, trance all his previous existence is a mimicry.Dites love for money reveals already in the first scenes of the book. As a busboy he swindles money out of his customers and pretends to be an orphan to get more than cash from compassionate passengers on the railroad station. At that he seems to be a cynical person with little moral principles. However, he also has no good example before his eyes, as he has to communicate with drunken customers, heartless master of the hotel an d roguish colleagues. So, very early he comes to idea that money rules the world, and in order to be recognized one needs to be rich. He is t here(predicate)fore very proud of having money of my own, a couple of hundred a month, and once I even got reach a thousand-crown note2. In this period of Dities life money is an probability of self-esteem for him. very(prenominal) soon it can be observed that money as itself is not a purpose for Dite. He has little idea of how capitals are made and he is not interested in power given by money. What he wants is a gold life like that of which he hears from his older pals and like that he finds in Prague. The lavish and careless lifestyle of the pre-war Czech capital becomes his ideal, and he merely wants to enjoy this life in a company of the same playboys. He wanted to be surrounded by millionaires3. beingness a rather fussy person, Dite becomes lofty when he has an opportunity to remind that he is a waiter who served the King of England. It was not actually the King of England, but an emperor of Ethiopia whom Dite served, but he does not stand an opportunity to brag a little, because this is a moment of his greatest glory.This moment is so important, that Hrabal used it as a name of the book. The narrative is told in the name of old and wise Dite, who, perhaps, realizes the meaninglessness of his claim, so the name is a sharp self-irony. On the other hand, Dite really has nothing more to boast, because serving the King was a point if his highest social recognition, which was so important for young Dite and which is so unimportant for older Dite.Whether consciously or not, Dite attempts to imitate the habits of his neighborhood, and works hard to make enough money to visit a local bordello, of which he hears so much. Further through with(predicate)out the story relationship with women and sexual intercourses remain to be a pissed incentive for him, although his marriage ends with tragedy and disgrace, bringing his to jail, social condemnation and exile.Women are a genial of smutty temptation for Dite, another tool for his self-affirmation and another source of his disappointment. Hrabal uses the story of Dites relationships with women as a famous symbol of hic characters frustration. Dite has a strong desire for women, although this is also rather an attempt to be similar to someone, than his natural need.As an teenage boy he is kin on having at least some woman, yet intercourses with local prostitutes do not satisfy him. Later in Prague he seems to be close to the goal of his life as he marries Lise and makes plans to open his own hotel. This dream would be innocent, in case Lise was not a German activist, and the plot would not develop right before and right after the Munich treaty. German occupation is a turning point in Dites life. This is actually the period when his awakening begins. Humiliation by the German authorities, work in the Nazi research institute, and finally Lises death during the air raid makes Dite see an another kind of example in the people around him. He really never finds the head4, and it is somehow his own head.Dite is in fact a weathercock. He hardly cares of the fact that he collaborates with the occupants of his homeland. For him the Germans are just those who are currently on top, and another opportunity to become successful under a new regime. And if he has to prove that he is a gauzy Aryan bring forth, and if he has to work on production of even better Aryan breed, and if he is able to make money by selling the precious things confiscated from murdered Jews, so wherefore not?Further events are a sort of punishment for his vagrancies. He loses his wife, he loses hope for luxurious and easy-going life, and he loses even those crumbs of social recognition which he previously enjoyed5. Dites entire world is ruined, and there is no hope on rebirth. At the second part of the novel Dite becomes that what he was at the set-back nothing. The illusions of happiness dispel bringing him to the beginning of a new way.Perhaps the entire story is Dites attempt of self-analysis. He revisits the situations of his life, trying to imagine how he would excite acted in case he would have acted differently. There is no longer opportunity for changing those circumstances, and there is no way back, so the only resort he can afford is fatalistic wisdom in his new calm life in a frontier village, far from all what he previously so estimated.Eventually, he does become a millionaire, at least the name of the books last chapter hints this. Yet it is an another kind of richness. His material wealth at the end is a small house, a cat and a goat, but he feels himself richer than he could ever imagine. The unbelievable that came true stayed with me, and I believed in the unbelievable, in the star that had followed me through life, and with its gleam constantly before my eyes I began to believe in it more and moreat once that I had been br ought to my knees, I realized that my star was brighter than ever, that only now would I be able to see its true brightness, because my eyes had been weakened by everything I had lived through, weakened so that they could see more and drive in more.6It is in this passage where the real nature of happiness in Dites view reveals. Having no idea of actual happiness he tries many surrogates, before all of them are ruined and he can smile ironically looking back at his life of a person who served the King of England and here he can just take compassion on that older Dite, who spared his life hunting for unavailing mirages. He was just to eager to become successful, too eager to be rich, too eager to be pleased, while happiness was something different.Works Cited1. Hrabal, Bohumil. I Served the King of England. Vintage, 1990.