BAUTISTA - Book-Report-The Trial PDF

FRANZ KAFKA I THE TRIAL
The portrayal of law in literature is valuable for both the lawyer and the layperson. For the
former, it throws light on broader legal issues and deals with them in an innocuous but influential
forum; for the latter, it may be the most accessible form of education about the law. Literature can
present an image of the law that is beyond what it can create itself; “a justice that exists like equity
beyond the letter of legal rule.” (Hardwood, 2007, p.7)
In the novel called The Trial, Franz Kafka presents a metaphorical outlook on law and
legality and reflects on the influence of modernity and bureaucracy on criminal justice system. The
novel offers a distorted version of the court system, where the readers focus on the trial process,
although the opening part of the story already focuses on the ambiguity of the situation. (Kafka,
2005)
To understand Kafka’s literary works, one must peer a little into his personal life, for one’s
perceptions are shaped by “the narrow keyhole of one’s own personal experience”. (Hardwood,
2007, p. 12)
Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 and lived there for the most of his life. Kafka was
Jewish and spoke Czech and German, though he could only write in German, which was the
official language of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was spoken by the upper and middle classes.
Hardwood (2007) added that the family’s distance from Judaism combined with their use of the
German written language was probably an attempt by Kafka’s father to assimilate his family with
the German middle class. Such assimilation into German culture was common in the Empire,
particularly if the family was wealthy, as it aided access to opportunities in German commercial
life.
Kafka was dominated by his "strong and enormously imposing father," whom he saw as a
critical, self-assured, domineering, and eloquent man. The fact that Kafka felt he never had his
father’s approval meant a life of “fear, weakness and self-contempt.” Kafka had a deeply negative
view of himself. (Hardwood, 2007, p. 12)
Kafka was an avid keeper of diaries which revealed his innermost thoughts and emotions,
and the many volumes have now been published. Many entries contain beginnings or extra material
to stories that were not included in their final form, observations of his friends and strangers he
had seen, and musings on his life. Most entries are fragmentary, combining the profound with the
mundane.
Taken as a whole, Kafka's prose exudes forebodingness and sadness. “In all literature, the
narratives of Kafka are among the blackest, among those most riveted to an absolute disaster.”
Much of Kafka’s literature uses the law as a backdrop or plot device. “Kafka used the law as a
template for his fiction. The law is what he knew.” Kafka referred to “the narrow keyhole of one’s
own personal experience” as providing a view of the world, and it was the law-shaped keyhole
which defined his writing
Given Kafka's everyday interaction with the law, the use of the law as a story element is
hardly unusual. Kafka was exposed to many facets of the law by being a law student, an employee
at a commercial firm, the courts, and at the Worker’s Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom
of Bohemia. (Hardwood, 2007, p.16) Each of these encounters molded Kafka's legal knowledge
and familiarity, and their impact may be observed in his work. During Kafka’s lifetime Prague was
part of the decadent Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had been created in 1867. This was a civil
jurisdiction, based heavily upon Germanic codification in a series of Austrian codes. (Hardwood,
2007, p. 17) The military, press, Catholic hierarchy and cultural life were also almost exclusively
German, resulting in a power struggle between Germans and other ethnic groups in the Empire,
especially the Czechs. (Hardwood, 2007, p. 18)
While it is not contested that Kafka used themes of law, punishment and a trial to explore
abstract ideas, commentators have differed in their views as to the significance of their roles.
(Hardwood, 2007, p. 22)
In both The Trial and “In the Penal Colony” the idea of unquestioned guilt is explored. In
the novel, it is assumed that because K. is on trial, he must be guilty: “[o]ur officials… never go
looking for guilt in the population… but are, as the law states, attracted by guilt.” This can be
linked to the trend of the pretrial proceedings to only alert the subject of the inquiry as to the trial’s
existence after guilt has been in effect established, but the literature goes further and challenges
the requirements for a legitimate judgement of guilt. ((Hardwood, 2007, p. 22)
Kafka used metaphors in his novel. The court is portrayed as representing both the law and
almighty authority. Its labyrinth of backrooms and attics is portrayed as claustrophobic throughout
The Trial. The unusual usage of metaphor represents the institution's perplexing and overpowering
influence on individuals under its control.
Kafka's approach is definitely comedic, moving via understatement rather than exaggerated
or excessive words. The depiction of unusual occurrences in matter-of-fact language, as if they
were fairly ordinary, paradoxically increases the absurdity of the scenario. The Trial by Franz
Kafka has frequently been viewed as a religious allegory, despite the fact that the work appears to
avoid particular religious themes. This is likely most noticeable in Chapter 9, which, given it takes
place in a church, should be the gold mine of religious references. Instead, the jail priest
commandeers the room and delivers a lecture on the (secular) judicial system. These omissions
allow Kafka to brilliantly stage his critique of divine power, or more specifically, the way divine
authority is perverted by human institutions such as the judicial system. The senior officials of the
court, like God, are unreachable to ordinary people; while no one can affirm their existence, they
have immense influence over individual destiny. In Kafka's work, we have an omniscient narrator
who appears to spend the most of his time inside Josef K.'s mind. The story is so committed to K.'s
point of view that it doesn't skip over all of his misunderstandings and diversions. Instead of
combing through K.'s hazy sensations to expose the truth, the narrator allows these impressions to
overwhelm the reader, producing an experience that is as confused and tiring for the reader as it is
for K.
The absence of tangible information and the arbitrary use of authority are reminiscent of
the activities of the Austrian secret police in the mid-nineteenth century, prior to the alliance with
Hungary. Informants were frequently paid to inform to police on residents' actions, which resulted
in seemingly random arrests. Hardwood (2007) thought that this resembled in the first scene of the
trial: This is evident in the first line of the novel: “someone must have been slandering Joseph K.,
for one morning, without warning, he was arrested.”

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FRANZ KAFKA I THE TRIAL

beyond the letter of legal rule.” (Hardwood, 2007, p.7)

view of himself. (Hardwood, 2007, p. 12)

which defined his writing

especially the Czechs. (Hardwood, 2007, p. 18)

(Hardwood, 2007, p. 22)

the requirements for a legitimate judgement of guilt. ((Hardwood, 2007, p. 22)

influence on individuals under its control.

or excessive words. The depiction of unusual occurrences in matter-of-fact language, as if they

for one morning, without warning, he was arrested.”

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