In the final section of The Trial,
we see K. start to lose control of everything in his life. He questions whether
or not he would like to keep his lawyer, but lacks the actual conviction to go
through with dismissing him. He becomes increasingly distracted in the
workplace, as his trial follows him everywhere he goes. And finally, his trial
invades his work life to the point where he is instructed to meet a client at a
cathedral, which in actuality is a set up by the court for K. to speak with the
prison chaplain, who shares with K. a parable that directly relates to his
life. What ensues this interaction is unclear, but by the end of the story, K.
is kidnapped from his home, accepts his imminent death, and is murdered.
One section
of this passage that I found interesting is when K.’s lawyer told him that defendants
were the most attractive people in the court, due to their position as the
accused. I thought this was interesting commentary on the nature of trials.
However, the section I would like to focus on is the chaplain’s parable about a
man who is denied admittance into the law by the doorkeeper, who first tells
the man he isn’t ready to enter, and then upon the man’s death, tells him that
the door was made for him. This relates to K.’s being denied the truth behind
his trial, and perhaps implies that nobody was even sure of what he was being
tried for. And if K. is the only one who can find out the truth, and only
learns this as he approaches death, it will forever remain a mystery.
There are a lot of confusing details that Kafka introduces into the story. The fact that the defendants are always attractive, is, indeed, one of the more peculiar parts of the story. After reading the passage by Judith Butler, we may be able to infer that the reason why the defendants are attractive is because of their guilt (the people desire what they cannot have, which are the defendants who embody the ideas of crime or the forbidden). Whether they're truly guilty of a specific crime or not, the defendants are, nonetheless, attractive, perhaps implying that everyone is guilty of at least something. Referencing again to Butler's passage, the defendant, by acknowledging and taking part in the trial, automatically subjects him or herself to the court and, perhaps, the identity of a guilty person. Though this may be a far stretch from what Kafka actually means, it is one way of interpreting that part of the story and relating to the ideas of subjectivity and desire.
ReplyDeleteGood discussion Ted. I definitely agree that by the end of the story K is no longer in control of his life. The trial has become his life. There is nothing that he does in his daily schedule that is not now affected by his trial. From his work to his relationships, they are all influenced, mostly in a negative way. This negative affect is made even more unfortunate by the fact that we still do not know what he is being tried for. The people of the courts do not give him even that luxury before they eventually end his life. He died with the mystery still prominent.
ReplyDeleteHis sudden death is very unfortunate and adds to the peculiar writing style that Kafka becomes known for. We are reading an entire story about a man and his trial yet we do not even know the most important part. And we will never know. The only person who could have ever found out was K and that seemed to be impossible no matter how hard he tried and the impossibility was obviously made final when they killed him. This is such an odd concept when compared to modern court systems. There would never be any instance of this happening in today's day and age. A person is always fully aware of what they are being accused of and for the most part are allowed to have as much knowledge concerning their case as they would like. It is a simple right but obviously one that we take advantage of as it is not made available to K. It makes one wonder whether or not the trial would have gone differently had he known what the charge was. In my opinion, I don’t believe it would have due to the obviously flawed courts system that K was dealing with. They seemed to already know what the end result was before they ever set foot in K's apartment in chapter one.