THE TRIAL
- Franz Kafka
The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka, a German-speaking bohemian novelist and short-
story writer. He was widely regarded as one of the popular figures of the 20th century
literature. This novel was written by him in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on
26th April, 1925. After Kafka's death in 1924, his friend and literary executor Max Brod
edited the text for publication by Verlag Die Schmiede. The original manuscript is held at the
Museum of Modern Literature, Marbach am Neckar, Germany. The book is interesting as
here Kafka challenges the idea of law being just and fair and also shows the helplessness of
an individual caught in bureaucracy of law.
The book is about a man, Josef K., fighting an unknown charge in an unusual court system.
On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., a bachelor and a banker, wakes to find his
usual morning routine disrupted by two men who appear in his room and place him under
arrest for an unspecified charge. It is a strange arrest as there is not only lack of information
but also lack of restrictions it places on K’s freedom, as he is allowed to go for work without
any hindrances while preparing to fight for his case.
As he embarks on a quest to identify the reason of his arrest and to prove his innocence, K. is
stuck in a court system whose processes are not less unknown than the nature of his arrest
and whose hearings takes place in the attics of ordinary people. K. becomes frustrated as he
faces one dead end after another in his quest to either contest or dispel his charge. Lawyers
and advocates like Leni and Titorelli repeatedly failed him, forcing his position into near
stagnation.
After a year of failed proceedings, on the night before his thirty-first birthday, he is visited by
new pair of men who bring his death with them. One of them plunges the knife into Joseph’s
chest and twists; Joseph says “Like a dog” and dies.
Kafka presents a bleak world where a once respectable bank clerk is suddenly prosecuted for
apparently no reason at all, and does not even have the benefit of an effective lawyer to
represent him. It is, therefore, not a particularly heart-warming read, and requires plenty of
close attention to understand the intricate concepts - though the language is thankfully
relatively direct and simple. K. himself is not a particularly sympathetic character, as he is
