The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Fall
The story of The Trials publication is almost as fascinating as the novel
itself. Kafka intended his parable of alienation in a mysterious bureaucracy
to be burned, along with the rest of his diaries and manuscripts, after his
death in 1924. Yet his friend Max Brod pressed forward to prepare The
Trial and the rest of his papers for publication. When the Nazis came to
power, publication of Jewish writers such as Kafka was forbidden; Kafkas
writings, many of which have distinctively Jewish themes, did not find a
broad audience until after World War II. (Hannah Arendt once observed
that although during his lifetime he could not make a decent living, [Kafka]
will now keep generations of intellectuals both gainfully employed and
well-fed.) Among the current crop of Kafka heirs is Breon Mitchell, the
translator of this edition of The Trial. Rather than tidying up Kafkas
unconventional grammar and punctuation (as previous translators have
done), Mitchell captures the loose, uneasy, even uncomfortable
constructions of Kafkas original story. His translation technique is the only
way to convey the comedy and confusion of this narrative, in which Josef
K., without having done anything truly wrong, is arrested, tried, convicted
and executed--on a charge that is never disclosed to him. --Michael
Joseph Gross
Features:
Block, the painter, and Leni among others, are strangers who understand
the complications of Joseph Ks case as well as the details of court
operations. The story exist in a state of total chaos, characters come and
go for no clear reason, out of the blue, women go crazy over Joseph and
then changing on him for no reason, People show concern for him and
then become completely indifferent to his plight and an accusation , that he
doesnt understand, is made. Joseph doesnt know if its a crazy nightmare
or reality.
The court that has access to any information or place at any time and
holds the divine authority to decide everybodys destiny, still conducts its
business in weird, dark and suspicious places. Is the court a symbol of the
unaccountable bureaucracy that Kafka witnessed or was it the inner world
of alienation that Kafka experienced all of his life? Was the first building
that Joseph went to for the first court meeting merely a strange, empty,
dark place or was it a maze that symbolizes a corrupt society ?
When the prison chaplain comments: ...it is not necessary to accept
everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary, did he refer to
the corrupted legal system or to the crazy world as Kafka saw it?
What does Fraulein Burstner symbolize in Josephs life? What is the
significance of her sudden vague appearance at the end? was she the last
connection to life in Josephs eyes?
Why didnt Joseph fight the two men at the end? Had he given up and
wanted to end his emotional torment or was it his longing to discover the
ultimate truth?
As is typical of Kafkas works, there are many unanswered questions, but
the journey through his works is outstanding and complex. It isnt called
Kafkaesque for nothing.
unlike critics who would say that this novel was never finished, I believe
that Kafka finished this novel and made the characters and events as
random and confusing as possible. Reading the Trial, another Kafka
masterpiece, is certainly time well spent.
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