A Fratricide A Fratricide "A Fratricide" (German: Ein Brudermord) is a short story by Franz Kafka written between December 1916 and January 1917. It is one of Kafka's most realistically descriptive and graphically violent stories, and tells the story of a murderer, Schmar, and his victim, Wese. Although no clear motive for the murder is given anywhere in the story, it can be ascertained that the crime is a matter of jealous passion. Apart from the title, there is no obvious indication that the two characters are brothers, and the title may be an allusion to the biblical story of Cain and
Fratricide Punished undertaken by English actors performing in German-speaking lands. While scholars generally agree that "Fratricide Punished" is a memorial reconstruction descended from some form of "Hamlet", it remains uncertain from which "Hamlet" it comes. The differences and similarities between "Fratricide Punished" and the three major forms of "Hamlet" were examined line-by-line by George Duthie in his 1941 criticism of the so-called "bad quarto" of Q1, and the "Variorum" of Furness published the texts side-by-side as well. Their analyses found a play that contained elements both of Q1 "Hamlet", published in 1603 but unknown until 1823, and the more familiar versions of