The Castle tells the story of K., a man appointed as a surveyor in a village whose authority resides in an esoteric castle. He struggles to fathom and access the convoluted workings of the castle's authority. 

K. will probably not come as a likeable character because of his selfishness; in many ways, he resembles Joseph K. from The Trial. The difficulty arises when you question whether his selfishness was necessary for him to progress; attempts to understand the workings of the law governing the place are trammelled by the villagers whose stalwart belief in the incomprehensibility of these workings by an outsider make the task impossible. Contradictions - and paradoxes - exercising the system make the reader wonder if Kafka's simply didn't notice these issues, but any suspicions dissolve when K. points out the antinomies. There is also the classic kafkaesque hopelessness attached to what is said by the officials, for there is usually a lengthy strip of information explaining the system, and each time we are provided with more information: any comprehension is evidently impossible. Collectively, the entire affair is surrealistic and able to bring the reader to the state of overwhelming frustration felt by K. while listening to the explanations. 

The Castle is similar to The Trial thematically, because of the translucent bureaucracy acting at its core and the helplessness of being the outsider exasperating the character. Foreknowledge is key to the novel as well; everyone knows about K. And his duty. And his affairs in the village. It makes the situation ironic for K., because, despite his high status, the omniscience of the masses downgrade him as he himself lacks any means of stopping the knowledge from spreading. 

However, I did not find the novel interesting near the end, where I felt that the story was consciously slowed down and the love affairs weren't believable, but I suspect that its unusual course could be explained with surrealism. 

Comically complicated, The Castle shows the extremes of a surrealistic bureaucratic state.