Seems About Right

Kafka's The Trial had a rather interesting ending.  K. is taken by two men and led to a place in a courtyard.  These men then pull out a knife and engage in an interesting game.  They pass themselves between themselves and K., making it clear the K. was going to be stabbed.  K. comes to the conclusion that he must stab himself, and his mind wanders to a watcher.  He then finds himself being stabbed and choked
by the men.  "'Like a dog!' [The man] said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him," (Kafka, 165).  The men are clearly angry as K. made it clear he was refusing to stab himself.  This was the first act of defiance against the courts throughout the whole book.  K. shows that the courts can be defied and they do not dictate every aspect of life.

An Unfortunate Insight

In Franz Kafka's The Trial, the courts seem to take a very interesting role.  Throughout the book, K. has been completely unaware of his supposed offense.  The courts and everyone related to them have been very unhelpful.  They usually tell him that it is better to simply wait and that nothing can be done at that particular point.  The court seems to be an overbearing figure that cannot be challenged.  A man K. encounters says "you don't need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary," (Kafka, 159).  The court system has so much control that nobody seems to be able to even go against it or questioning it.  It operates without actually answering to anyone who is higher up.  Many people lower in the courts don't even understand how they work.  This oppressive court could symbolize the overbearing government that was in effect when this book was written.  Kafka could have been saying that the government should be more accessible, instead of focused on controlling the people.

A Very Kafkaesque Situation

Franz Kafka has a very well known style of writing.  Most of his characters have some event happen that complicates their lives.  They become obsessed with it, and eventual their entire lives revolve around it until their inevitable death.  The Trial is no different than his other books.  K. finds himself on trial, which seems to not be a very big deal.  However, K. becomes obsessed with it, and toward the later parts of the story finds he can't focus on anything else.  He has already lost his normal life by allowing thoughts about his trial to completely consume him.  "Every hour that he could not be in the office was a cause of concern for him, he was no longer able to make use of his time in the office anything like as well as he had previously..." (Kafka, 143).  K. actually appears to have gone insane.  The level-headed, calculating, smooth-talking man that was introduced at the beginning of the book has now turned into a maniac.  He only thinks of the trial and what he should be doing instead of thinking about the trial.  He is no longer able to have normal conversations, and instead is rather curt with people with whom he is familiar.  This entity in his life has now become completely central, and it has paralyzed him to all other tasks and relationships.

Foreshadowing

In Franz Kafka's The Trial, the character seems to be growing weary of the situation.  K. was been on trial for several months now, but still seems to have not made any progress.  He doesn't seem to be able to help his case in any way.  Furthermore, there is little he actually knows about the court system.  They are kept very secretive and even people in the system are sometimes unaware of whose higher up.  He constantly finds himself unable to focus on anything but the trial.  K. encounters a man at his lawyer's office, and discussing their trial the man says "Probably, my trial's been going on much longer than that, it started soon after the death of my wife, and that's been more than five and a half years now," (Kafka, 124).  This quote foreshadows K.'s life for the next couple of years.  He will be bound to his trial, for which he cannot help, waiting and obsessing until they eventually decide what to do.  It appears that he will lose everything in his life that makes him happy, and instead only choose to focus on the trial for which he still does not know the reason.

A Guilty Conscience?

K., the main character of The Trial by Franz Kafka, has an interesting aspect about him.  He claims to be an innocent man.  He was repeatedly said he doesn't even know why he is on trial.  However, anytime he ventures into the court area, a strange thing happens to him.  He begins having trouble breathing, and desires to be removed from the situation.  He said "'So please, be so kind as to help me on my way a little, I'm feeling dizzy, you see, and it'll make me ill if I stand up by myself,'" (Kafka, 50).  The dust in the air nearly cause him to pass out, and nothing seems to be able to help.  Yet, upon leaving the area, he finds himself feeling better almost immediately.  This strange phenomenon could be due to a guilty conscience.  It could be a below understanding rejection to the area his subconscious thinks will make him be punished for his crime. His strange behavior and reaction likely symbolizes at least some guilty for whatever crime he allegedly committed.

Quite the Tiger Woods

The main character of Franz Kafka's The Trial has an interesting knack.  It seems that whenever K. encounters a woman, they tend to throw themselves at him.  His landlady strangely crazes his approval and desires that all his wishes are filled.  Many women have offered to help him with his trial after encountering his charm.  However, this quality makes him a less likable character to the reader, as he already has a woman.  It seems that he and a woman named Elsa have some kind of relationship, which K. consistently disregards to enjoy other women.  His charm is evident at one point, when a woman he just met says about Elsa, "...but you wouldn't miss her much if you lost her or if you exchanged her for somebody else, me for instance," (Kafka, 79).  While this is not a very likable attribute to a reader, it may prove helpful to K. during his trial.  He is charismatic, and has the ability to make people like him immediately.  If he is able to continue to be offered help, he may be able to find a way to avoid conviction of whatever crime he has been accused of.  K.'s personality is truly an odd one, as he tends to either make people gravitate to him, or completely isolate them.

Mrs. Grubach??

The main character, K., of Kafka's The Trial has interactions with many weird people.  He interacted with strange is deceiving policemen, and explainable judge, and various other people.  But no relationship is more curious than that of K. and Mrs. Grubach.  She is K.'s landlady, but there seems to be more than that.  K. is very comfortable with going to her room in the middle of the night and talking with her, which she also does not object to.  Mrs. Grubach gossips as one point to K. about another tenet who they were discussing.  But this seemingly familiar relationship is at the same time a rather distant one.  K. feels uncomfortable calling Mrs. Grubach by her first name, as she does about him.  Mrs. Grubach's mood also seems to hang in the balance of K. attitude.  It is said that K. could ruin her entire night with one comment.  "K. ... then looked back at the shocked Mrs. Grubach in a way that was almost contemptuous " (Kafka, 56).  For what ever reason, it appears that Mrs. Grubach's mood is closely related with the way K. treats her, and how he is feeling.  This strange relationship adds to the atmosphere of the reader not knowing very much already, as it is a very curious relationship.