I was introduced to Franz Kafka the writer by my Younger Uncle who
himself had read in his college days many of the writer’s works but gave
Kafka up to concentrate on law & finance. I read him because I was
fascinated by his personality & the fact that he possessed a
schizoid personality disorder whose writings I wished to study
carefully. Before I could read Kafka’s works however, I made sure that I
did a bit of research on the man & that took me a while which is
uncommon in me. But Kafka is a great writer to reckon with, & ‘The
Trial’ is a book which left me quite perplexed.
Franz Kafka was a Jew born in Prague, & who spoke in German. Most
of his works were published posthumously by his friend Max Brod who I
indirectly admire for doing so & gifting Franz Kafka to the world of
literature & philosophy. Kafka wrote mostly short stories but he
wrote a few novels like ‘The Trial’ but most of them were left
incomplete due to his untimely death. ‘The Trial’ is also incomplete but
mind you that adds to the beauty of the work in a peculiar way.
The story is about the unseen or invisible court & justice system
of the Austro-Hungarian period. It was a novel useful to me not only
where literature was concerned but also, to enhance my understanding of
the situation of Austria & its neighbours before the rise of Adolf
Hitler in Germany. It is also stated that Kafka through his writings
almost prophesized the merciless extermination act against the Jews (he
succumbed to Tuberculosis before Hitler came on the scene). ‘The Trial’
is the story of an innocent man by the name of Josef.K. who has been
charged of a crime by the invisible court which he has definitely not
committed. The novel goes on to show how K tries to fight for justice
& instead is killed ultimately in the end without being proven
innocent.
The beauty of it all is that, the charge against K is not mentioned
at all during the whole narrative & yet, the indignation that K
feels when his lawyer does not aid him or when he is unjustly sort of
arrested on fine morning on his thirtieth birthday is felt by the reader
as well. This was an early warning given by this master of modern 20th
century literature to the whole world about the evil of the invisible
court. This novel prophesizes the death of many Jews in concentration
camps for a crime they have not committed as well as the killings of
innocent Russians during Stalin’s era. The novel prophesizes the death
of liberty at the very hands that shaped it, the hands of justice.
Kafka shows through the example of the businessman Block, whose case
had been going on for five years, how he was now a mere shadow of his
former self & now was only concerned about his case which according
to Titorelli, the Painter would never end in absolute justice &
freedom. Block to this extent even stays like a slave in the house of
his lawyer who calls for him at odd hours & who treats him like a
worm. K did not want the service of such a lawyer & to be grovelling
like Block….& therefore meets his end in an abandoned quarry.
The character in the novel I admire the most is the painter Titorelli
who is a court painter & who lives in a dilapidated shamble of a
studio. He amuses me thoroughly when he explains to K about the
different ways he could help him & also the way he suffocates K in
his room by not opening the window or doors of his ill ventilated
studio. The novel infact is suffocating thanks to the vivid descriptions
& master storytelling. The heat felt in the artist’s studio is not
only felt by K but also by us the readers as well as those readers who
are aware of the faulty system of justice even in our own present
‘democratic’ times.
‘The Trial’ gave me a glimpse of the futility of justice in the
modern world where everything is like a riddle with many
interpretations, just like the riddle told by the prison priest to K in
the novel, about the door keeper. The novel shows how justice can be
manipulated & how a case can go on for years & years while the
lawyers & judges make merry. According to Titorelli, perfect justice
is a legend while Block states that a great lawyer is never found (as
in honest). All this rings a bell, in the sense….it is happening even
today, in India itself.
The Austrian Hungary bureaucratic system is also ridiculed & dry
humour which is my favourite is also at times evident in the novel
especially in the first part when the innocent K is arrested & his
breakfast is eaten up by the wardens who come to arrest him. Leni is
another character in the novel who interests me. She is the nurse of K’s
lawyer is madly in love with K…..because she finds all condemned men
very attractive. Infact, K’s senile lawyer even gives K a detailed
description about how people who are involved in a case seem to the
judges to also look very attractive which disgusts K.
Franz Kafka really brings out truth in this work which ignites one to
think about the past, present & future of one’s government &
especially ones justice system. He aids us to take a long & careful
look at our bureaucracy & how will the future define its justice
system. Will justice be equal & available to all, or will all
citizens who approach justice be suffocated the way K was suffocated
when he entered the attic filled with court offices ? Only time will
tell whether K’s story will also be repeated in the 21st century……or
will something worse take place which we all will have to endure.
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