Irrational Law and “Injustice”: A Study of Kafka’s ‘The Trial’

I. Introduction

Franz Kafka was born in Prague, Bohemia and belonged to a German speaking Jewish Family. Most of his works are set in a world that is quite strange and unique when compared to the reality. His style of writing and his mysteriously unrealistic approach to writing has over time made him one of the only such German writers with his background at that time to be accepted worldwide. Kafka’s background in law seems to have influenced his plots for the most part. The Trial by Franz Kafka, written in 1914 and published posthumously in 1925 is a unique and almost unrealistic story filled with uncertainty. It highlights issues related to corruption or bureaucracy of the legal system, unfair or unjustifiable trials and an arrest that does not follow the usual norms of law and society as we see it today.

A trial, in simple words is the process of ascertaining the truth with respect to an offence committed by an accused person based on the facts, witnesses and other available evidences of the case. A trial is usually initiated only after the completion of a thorough investigation, done in order to collect relevant evidences and determine the accused.

An arrest in simple words is seizing someone and taking them into custody. Arrests can be either post-trial or pre-trial. A per-trial arrest can serve as a way of ensuring that the accused person does not escape or try to destroy evidences before the trial and conviction takes place. It is also a method of ensuring that an accused person who is assumed to have committed a dangerous crime can be confined in order to prevent him from repeating it again until the trial, provided there is a reasonable apprehension that he will be dangerous during that period of time. While pre-trial house arrest exists in some jurisdictions as an alternative for pre-trial prison arrest, it has its own set of rules and restrictions. In most cases, people are not allowed to travel at all and are expected to stay at home with someone authority who acts as a supervisor and keeps a watch over them to ensure that they are complying with the restrictions.

The right process of arresting a person as well as maintaining the rights of an arrested person before a trial are very important in order to ensure that justice is served and the due process of law is upheld. During the investigation process, when an accused person is arrested, they have certain basic rights which are necessary for the arrest to be considered justifiable. It is important to safeguard their dignity and basic human rights. The most basic and internationally accepted right of an arrested person is to be informed about the grounds of arrest and then they should be allowed to inform someone about the arrest. Along with this, in most jurisdictions, an arrested person is allowed to choose a lawyer to represent them during the trial.

A trial is considered fair and justifiable if it follows the principles of natural justice - the accused should be given a fair chance to defend themselves. Both sides of the case should be heard (Audi Alterum partem). In order to do so, they must be informed about the details of the offence they have been accused for, about the court proceedings and all other relevant details. The accused must also be allowed to be represented in court. Both parties should also be informed about their rights as well as the related rules or laws. In the end, it is important that a just, fair and reasonable procedure is followed to complete a trial successfully which would mean a that the parties had fair chance to argue, defend themselves and finally get justice.

The story of The Trial revolves around a man, Josef K., a respectable high-ranking banker waking up on his thirtieth birthday to a surreal situation that highlights the irrationality and Bureaucracy of law. He was caught in the web of irrational and incomprehensible “Justice” and law. The situation is one that is unexpected and extremely troublesome. He was arrested but it was arrest which was completely out of the ordinary as K was allowed to live in an almost free manner, at home and going to work as before while undergoing an unjustifiable trial. It was also unfair as K was never informed about the reason for his arrest, he didn’t know what offence he was charged for. The story ends with him being executed. He died without knowing the reason for his arrest. He didn’t even have a chance to have a fair and justifiable hearing. Although a few minor rules of a fair trial and arrest were followed, a majority of the features of a justifiable trial and the very essence of a fair trial were blatantly ignored. Justice was never served as a result of a court system and the police that were driven by corruption. Ironically, until the end, he was completely powerless and trapped by the baffling system of authorities and laws in what he referred to as a “Free Country”.

The aspects of a justifiable trial in contrast to an incomprehensible legal system will be discussed in reference to the novel.

II. Analysis

The novel, The Trial by Franz Kafka is a reflection of an unreasonable, corrupt and incomprehensible system. The unrealistic situations including the arrest, the trial and the final scene of Josef K’s death together reflect what has over time, come to be known as a Kafkaesque style of writing. The central themes of the novel revolve around and are related to the frustration caused due to the incomplete nature of information regarding the offence and the judicial process that followed.

Josef K had experienced a mysterious and unexpected series of events since the very beginning of the novel when men who claimed to be guards (police) walked into his room while he was still in bed and claimed that he was under arrest. This arrest was extremely peculiar on a couple of grounds. Apart from that fact that the guards did not have any warrant for the arrest or proof of identification to validate the arrest, the guards themselves had no information about the reason for the arrest except for the fact that someone had accused Josef K of committing an offense.

Additionally, even though K was supposedly under arrest, he was allowed to go to the Bank and carry out his regular work. As the Supervisor had stated, “you’re under arrest, but that shouldn’t stop you from carrying out your job. And there shouldn’t be anything to stop you carrying on with your usual life” ²

While pre-trial house arrest exists in some jurisdictions as an alternative for pre-trial prison arrest, it has its own set of rules and restrictions. In most cases, people are not allowed to travel at all and are expected to stay at home with some authority who acts as a supervisor and keeps a watch over them to ensure that they are complying with the restrictions. Additionally, it is the right of the arrested person to be informed of the exact ground of his arrest and the access to court of law should be available to them. However, in the case of K, the above general provisions did not apply and the arrest was completely unconventional.

There is also a necessity for transparency of court proceedings to ensure a fair trial and administration of justice. This means that anyone who is involved in the proceeding has the right to know of the details of the offense committed and the consequent trial. The concepts of transparency and fair trial were almost absent in this novel.

After the arrest, K was only informed that the first hearing was to take place the following Sunday and that the cross-examinations will take place frequently. He was also informed that the mentioned process was scheduled in a way that allowed K to continue working without any interruption in his routine. He was informed about the place that he had to report to, which happened to be a building surrounded by warehouses, located in a poor neighbourhood. However, he was never informed about the exact time of the hearing. He assumed nine in the morning to be ideal and proceeded to the spot without having an appointment at that time. Finding the court hall was a difficult task. From the strange location of the court hall to the participation of the people who filled the gallery and the group of people with the same badge who seemed to be corrupt officials, the entire description of the court and the proceedings reflect an almost unreal situation. Kafka’s description of the court in K’s point of view, throughout the novel, using words and scenarios that illustrate it as dark, messy, dirty and suffocating seems to be a way of portraying the incomprehensible and corrupt system which makes the person seeking justice feel extremely stifled.

An important scene in this novel is the dialogue between the priest who was prison chaplain and K in a cathedral in Chapter 9 of the novel. This conversation draws upon a short parable, “Before The Law”³ which was published separately while The trial was being written. The parable on its own, as interpreted, metaphorically talks about the inaccessibility of law and justice due to unfair trials and corruption. It shows a man who waited incessantly, until his death, to enter the gates of law that were guarded by a gatekeeper. The words and actions of the gatekeeper can also be further interpreted as the portrayal of corruption that exists in such a system. This is seen when the gatekeeper mentions that he is powerful, but not as powerful as all the other gatekeepers above him. This could be interpreted as Kafka referring to officials at a higher level in the hierarchy being even more corrupt and powerful, highlighting the bureaucracy of law. Additionally, the fact that the gatekeeper simply accepted everything that the man gave as “bribe” can be interpreted as insatiable greed for money. In the end, the man just ended up submitting to the authority of the gatekeeper without putting up much of a fight. He spent all his time, energy and resources in trying to achieve his goal and to understand the incomprehensible and unreasonable system of law, the result of which was fruitless, leading to his death (due to old age). This was similar to the situations K encountered ever since his supposed arrest. The Court room was unrealistic, there were corrupt officials who were present in the court, he spent a lot of time, frustrated, trying to find a way to prove that he is not guilty. He eventually began to realise the meaning of the above story that the priest had narrated but it was too late. K’s story ended with him being executed, unable to fulfil his goals. The novel as a whole highlighted K’s frustration as he tries to prove his innocence against a charge of an offence that he did not know of while trying to understand and navigate through a complex system. He was completely disillusioned about the legal system. K at the time of his arrest, wondered who would file a complaint against him as he had always felt reassured , living in what he thought was a free country with decent laws that people abided by.

III. Conclusion

The Trial was an unfinished novel, published Posthumously, ridden with uncertainty as neither Josef K, nor the narrator or the readers are aware of the offense or the situation as a whole even after end of the novel. While being a story about the unreasonable and incomprehensible legal system, it can also be interpreted metaphorically to be a reflection of Kafka’s personal thoughts and experiences in a cruel and unjust world.

Through this unrealistic and metaphorical novel, Kafka has tried to highlight the corruption, relative inaccessibility to law and unreasonable nature of arrest and trial. Josef K woke up one morning to a scene that was very unusual and undesirable. His arrest was extremely unconventional and the trial was frustrating. The fact that neither the characters in the book nor the reader knew exactly why K was arrested, tried and finally executed which was again in a manner that is unconventional especially in current standards and regulations, added to the underlying theme of frustration and confusion. In the opinion of the researcher, the parable “Before the Law” that was included formed the core theme of the story and highlighted all the above facts.

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Footnotes

1. Author is a student at Symbiosis Law School Hyderabad, India.

2. Franz Kafka, The Trial.,18, (1925), (Translated by David Wyllie). ↩

3. Franz Kafka,Before The Law.,(1915) (Translated by Ian Johnston) ↩