Franz Kafka - The Trial Response

     Kafka's The Trial starts off with a very strange scenario of the protagonist, Joseph K. being suddenly arrested in his house - without a given reason. Following his arrest, K. receives a phone call requesting his attendance at court; he is given the address of the place, but is not given a time of when he is supposed to appear. Upon his arrival at the given address, he discovers that the building is that of an apartment complex. Without an apartment number, he is forced to blindly find his way to the court. Once he finally finds the courtroom, he tells the judge of the court his story with supposed approval from the audience, only to find out that he was set up - that all the audience members as well as the judge were the "corrupt officials" that had forced him into his situation.
     Throughout the story, K. finds himself completely in the dark in all sorts of instances. He is not given any details about his arrest, is toyed with when given information regarding his court appearance, and is set up when he does arrive. He is also forced to defend himself against the unknown accusation that led to his arrest, which is understandably rather difficult. Though none of this can be considered torture directly, the story can be related to the other works read in class. For example, despite being taken even a step further in the sense that K. is given absolutely no information to go off of, The Trial, like other works we have read such as The Crucible and Heresy, involves scenes of interrogation where the defendant is unable to truly prove himself innocent.