The Trial Book Review
“Judgement does not come suddenly; the proceedings gradually merge into the judgement.”
Mr Joseph K receives his breakfast at 8 every morning but this day was not like the older ones. After waiting for a little time, he hears a knock at the door and a man enters. Mr Joseph K asks him for his identity but does not get any reply. The man informs Mr Joseph K of his arrest without telling any reason.
He tries hard to get rid of the matter but finds it impossible to have an absolute acquittal. Despite knowing that he is not in the wrong still he is powerless to prove his innocence.
The next day while working at his office, he receives a call for the trial without being informed of the time for his presence. On Sunday, he appears before the court for the trial on the address given to him where his magistrate rebukes him for being late. K tries to convince the judge for his innocence. Day by day after returning from his work he finds his room in a mess which makes him more anxious.
After getting stuck in a situation which is becoming harder for him after every passing day, he knocks every door to find help, but he is ignored everywhere. Later an uncle of Joseph K takes him to a defense lawyer Dr Huld who is interested in Joseph K’s case but due to severe heart disease, he is inept to move from his bed and is unable to help Mr Joseph K.
One day a bank client suggests him to get help from Titorelli, the court painter. Mr Joseph K visits Titorelli and makes him aware of his state. By finding k guiltless Titorelli intends to help him but he tells Mr Joseph K that in his experience no one has been acquitted. Then at his work in the cathedral, he meets a priest who calls himself the chaplain. The priest tells Mr Joseph K a fable of a man who waits his entire life at a doorway to pass by and gain access to the law. This fable is a basic document of the law.
The doorkeeper asks the man to wait, but the man tries and bends down to enter the door. The doorkeeper laughs at the man and says if you are so desirous then enter without my permission, but remember I am the lowest of the keepers. After passing through each door you must face harder. The chaplain tries to make Mr Joseph K understand how power works with a captivated person.
After a whole year of struggle, he is hopeless and stops resisting. The night before his 31st birthday Joseph K has two visitors with the intention of his execution. Knowing that what they have come for Joseph K does not struggle and calmly hands over himself to the unknown persons and is executed brutally “like a dog”. Till the last day of his life, Mr Joseph K did not know the reason for his execution.
The Trial tells us a petrifying tale of a person who is detained for untold reasons by unknown persons on the day he turns 30. Here the author tries to depict a person who is captive of the power against which he can only struggle but cannot free himself. The novel highlights different aspects of society like justice and judgment, society, class, isolation, consciousness, and existence. The world we live today was presented by Franz Kafka about a hundred years ago. Today there are many people who are observed by secret agencies and suddenly arrested for unidentified crimes. They are tortured mentally and physically and some of them are sentenced to death. It shows the mysteries of the legal world that how an innocent man has been punished for doing nothing.
Rozhn School Buleda