Analysis of Franz Kafka The Trial

The sudden arest of the main character in the novel „TheTrial" will set off a chain of absurd and meaningless events surrounding Joseph K. The novel, written by  Czech Jewish author Franz Kafka, remained unfinished, but its simple structure and complex meaning make it one of the most important works of modern literature.

"The Trial" is a metaphor of multiple meanings, particularly in this novel where nothing is certain or clear. Joseph K. is arrested and sentenced to death without knowing why, but believing somewhere that he is guilty. What is his guilt? After spending days and hours in a meaninless trial where he first tries to defend himself and then submits to fate, the protagonist has nothing left but to wait for his fate. I think Joseph K. wasted time trying to justify himself and put too much hope in the help of other characters, especially women, such as Nurse Leni or Miss Birstner. I believe Kafka left the meaning of the novel and Joseph K.'s guilt itself in the parable that the Priest explains to Joseph K. in the cathedral in chapter 9. The parable tells of a peasant who wanted to enter the gates of Law but was prevented by a guard who kept saying that it was not the time. In the end, the peasant never succeeded in entering and died. Although it seems that the guard is superior to the peasant, that is not the case. Kafka wanted to show that the peasant is free to move because he is not condemned to forever guard the gates of the Law. The peasant, like every person, is prevented by the system and the State from accessing the Law, or the Truth. Kafka tells us that man can free himself from the system when he stops obediently following that superior force and fears it, and this is most affirmed in various revolutions. The peasant is freer than the guard. After all, although he died, he became free, because he rejected that world. He saw the light that the guard could not. He came to self-awareness that the guard will never be able to. The message that Kafka sends us with this parable is that we do not need gurus, priests, guides, and various interpreters of the law to realize the true truth that often lies within ourselves. If we intuitively feel that something is wrong if we see injustice at every step, why do we still participate in it? Because of fear of some higher power. Jozef K. will precisely because of this want to defend, justify, and bring things in order, but unsuccessfully. In the end, he is guilty because he is such, like any other person: passive, unfulfilled, resigned, and even insensitive. This novel reminds us to question how much the external world affects us, and how it shapes and forms our thinking. Today, in the era of social networks, this is especially important. Jozef K reminds us to seek our meaning, purpose, and essence. Not to forget that we are special as we are, like that peasant who was before the gates of the Law that were only open for him. I think it is important not to allow ourselves to become part of the process, even if we become, we always learn, especially to be well-grounded in the knowledge of the Law, and even the knowledge itself. Knowledge is a powerful weapon.

The novel "The Trial" seems very depressing, absurd, and discouraging. But it is not. This work is deeply human because it looks at the man not as part of the machinery, but as part of the Universe, Earth, and Nature, the man who has the right to be free, and that right is given to him by birth and is worth even dying for.