Ever wonder what goes on in the mind of a playwright?
Our Author Insights series features personal essays from playwrights, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the ideas and experiences that shaped their work.
Below, read “Hope in a Doll's Letters”, where writer Claudia Haas reflects on Kafka and the Doll. You can also download a free PDF that pairs the essay with short, classroom-ready activities for students.
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Hope in a Doll's Letters
Claudia Haas
Years ago, I came across a blurb about Franz Kafka encountering a young girl in a park in Berlin. She was crying because she lost her doll. Kafka immediately tried to comfort her by saying that her doll was not lost but mere was traveling and she would see her doll again. To prove his point, he miraculously found a letter to the young girl from her doll. And so began a three-week correspondence between the child and her doll.
I was immediately intrigued. Was this the same writer who put people in nightmarish situations? The man who wrote The Metamorphosis? Over time, I found some letters that he wrote to his family – particularly to his father. He had a troubled childhood and he desperately wanted to connect to his family and build better relationships. It fit. The man who wrote about being trapped by powerful people and confusing situations also want to rectify the system. He believed in kindness, in family, in hope.
The play is set a few years after World War I and the 1920s flu pandemic. It was a time where many – dare I say most – had experienced tremendous losses. A time of trying to regain hope in the future and build a kinder future.
There are many layers to this play. Kindness is certainly one of them. Here you have a writer who uses his talents to help a young girl – a girl he doesn’t know – but still offers aid.
Family is another layer. For three weeks, the “humans” in the play form a temporary family. They are involved in each other’s lives and want to help each other. While Kafka and Sofie, the young girl, are involved in some tough family dynamics of their own, these strangers form a bond similar to a family to help each other cope and heal.
There’s a coming of age layer to the play. As Lisette (the doll) experiences the world and grows, so does Sofie. In helping Sofie deal with her family problems, Kafka comes to accept the limitations of his parents and concentrates on his close relationship with his sister.
And underneath all these layers is a thick layer of just plain silliness. Lisette rides a porpoise. She encounters two cats who just want to have fun, some bumbling gargoyles, and a poodle who wishes to be a St. Bernard. And she falls in love.
Maybe the last layer is love. Love of family, friends, writing, adventures, food and a touch of romance. Kindness and love – there’s never too much of that. Did any of this happen? Dora (Kafka’s partner) wrote a letter mentioning this encounter. I like to think it’s true.