Author's Comments
The Cavern is meant to be both a spiritual as well as comic novel. Instead of dealing with the women in his everyday life directly and forcefully, he responds as a child to the women in his life rather than as a man.
When he meets Helene, his life begins to change because the old strategies that he uses in dealing and relating with women no longer work. The conflict he experiences when he attempts to choose between his wife and Helene force him to move inward, he begins to understand that his life is filled with images just as the wall of the cave is covered with paintings and that these images possess meaning and by concentrating on them he begins to understand himself better.
The novel then is about sould building. As Karl confronts the problems and contradictions in his life he begins to understand the power of the images and through an understanding of the images he creates depth of soul. For instance, when he realizes that he has been chasing an internal image of the female and has failed to truly understand the women he has been living with, he can change his behavior and differentiate between Heike, Helene, and his mother. They are not the same and should not be responded to in the same way. Once he realizes that he can begin to deal with the conflicts he has with them in a more mature way.