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Essay about Justice On Trial in Kafka's The Trial

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Justice On Trial in Kafka's The Trial

There is no such thing as justice - in or out of court. Clarence Darrow i

Most often critically interpreted as a search for Divine justice, Kafka's The Trial, a fragmented and unfinished novel, appears to leave us with the same impression as the words above of Clarence Darrow. In other words, there is no justice. This assessment of Divine justice by Kafka works on two levels. On one level, he is illustrating the helpless nature of the individual when in conflict against an established bureaucracy. On another level, he is illustrating the existential dilemma of man in the face of a godless, indifferent, and often hostile universe. A search for justice by Josef K. finds no justice in …show more content…

as he attempts to maneuver the bureaucratic system. In vain, much as many people try to find meaning and justice out of court, Josef K.'s efforts to discover why he is accused and must suffer are in vain. Yet, his character and his sins are conventional, and he has no bold or threatening ambitions. All he can do is ask questions, but he receives no answers that would clarify the bureaucratic system into which he has been thrust. Just like existential awareness undermines the entire rational structure of Divine justice, so, too, the alternative hypotheses, the multiple explanations, the different interpretations, and the uncertainty Josef K. experiences, serve to undermine the whole rational structure of the justice system. Josef K. comes to understand the socially constructed, arbitrary, and absurd nature of the justice system, and, justice itself "The truth allegedly resides above the realms of justice and injustice."iii This literary analysis will focus on how Josef K.'s experiences in The Trial demonstrate not only the corrupt justice system of the era but also the absurd and futile attempt to seek an arbitrary concept like justice in an existential realm.

KAFKA WORLDVIEW OF JUSTICE IN THE TRIAL

The Trial has an immediate ability to engage the emotions of the reader because the protagonist, Josef K., is an everyman. Not especially ambitious, Josef K. is an ordinary man, a successful bank clerk whose everyday

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