Kafka The Trial

Most often critically interpreted as a search for Divine justice, Kafka’s The Trial, a fragmented and unfinished novel, appears to leave us with the same impression as the words above of Clarence Darrow. In other words, there is no justice. This assessment of Divine justice by Kafka works on two levels. On one level, he is illustrating the helpless nature of the individual when in conflict against an established bureaucracy. On another level, he is illustrating the existential dilemma of man in the face of a godless, indifferent, and often hostile universe. A search for justice by Josef K. finds no justice in either realm.

Josef K. awakes one morning to find himself accused by a mysterious legal authority “Someone must have been spreading lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.” His crime is unnamed, one of which he knows nothing. The novel follows his many attempts to obtain justice from authorities with which he cannot communicate well. Josef K.’s attempt to find justice end in his utter frustration, his complete loss of human dignity, and his cruel death by stabbing.

The Trial is also meant to symbolize original sin and guilt. On the level of the individual versus the bureaucracy, Josef K. is consumed by guilt and condemned for a crime he does not understand by a court with which he c

. . .
e, however, encounters a judicial bureaucracy that will answer no question, reveal no information, and withholds the truth. The criminal procedure system, the right to counsel, the absence of pretrial detention in all but the most serious cases, the flaws of jury by trial, and the pervasive corruption and bribery are an indictment by Kafka of the Austro-Hungarian courts. Josef K. wants to find out information about this mysterious organization regardless of the consequences. Not only does he seek knowledge about his charges and crime but also about the system itself. In one U.S. court case, the judge actually cited a passage from Kafka’s The Trial which illustrate’s Josef K.’s desire to be informed, because a defendant had insufficient information about the consequences of his actions and the nature of the proceedings with which he was faced: Conscious of his own rights, he asked through the telephone what would happen if he failed to put in an appearance. ‘We shall know where to find you,’ was the answer. ‘And shall I be punished for not having come of my own accord?’ asked K., and smiled in anticipation of the reply. ‘No,’ was the answer. ‘Splendid,’ said K., ‘then what motive could I have for complying with summons?’
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Approximate Word count = 3677
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)