Franz Kafka: Before the Law

The allegories and the Law

Angela M. Esmeralda

For the past years, Franz Kafka’s literary works have been influential both

in the Academe and the field of Law. The technicality and as well as the severe

complications of his plot embody a resemblance of how people are like when

situated in the Jurisprudence. His works served as a reflection of how people

move and progress in the eyes of the law. “Kafka's works reveal his interest in the

complex interrelationships of constitutional, civil, administrative, and criminal law

with the history of law and with moral thought.” (Heidsieck, 1994)

Kafka’s short story, Before the Law was written in the year of 1915 , then

soon became the central parable in the novel, The Trial published in 1925. The

parable is about a country man who wished to be admitted in the gate of the law.

He then, encountered the doorkeeper, whose work is to look after the door. The

country man asked if he could enter then answered shortly after “it is possible”,

“but not at this moment.” The country man waited and spent years to be admitted.

Soon after, the country had enough and dared to ask the doorkeeper, “Everyone

strives to attain the law, how does it come about, then, that in all these years no

one has come seeking admittance but me?” The Doorkeeper answered him, “No

one but you could gain admittance through this door since this door was only

intended for you. I am going to shut it.”

Franz Kafka is widely-known for using allegories, “allegory attempts to

illustrate a concept and therefore tends to be unambiguous … it permits only one

interpretation. The Symbol on the other hand is polysemus.” (Sokel 2002)

Significantly, the stories, The Metamorphosis, The Hunger Artists and In the Penal

Colony may be considered as some of his works of that use artistic representation

and deeper context that lies beyond his words.

The story produces various interpretations from its readers, hence results

to further debate of what really the story is all about. I decided to work on this

reflection of how the Allegories were used in the characters and in concept of the

Law.

The parable is an allegory of that a human is insatiable. The central idea of

my essay may be drawn from the line stated by the doorkeeper to the country

man, “What do you want to know? You are insatiable.” This is a simple yet direct

statement of how a man is discontented, thus seeks even further. The concept

that man’s desire for either tangible or intangible thing that will continue to exist is

persistent in the parable. The clear notion is that, it is an allegory of a man’s

situation when he seeks for further understanding of a human knowledge. What is

it like [to be] when one tries to understand Reason or Truth. The story makes the

idea that one seeks for the freedom of the mind; one that will only be attained by

clear understanding of reason and of the truth. The broadness does not limit the

understanding of the story albeit, contrives intricacy in all aspects possible and

present. Paul Nadal quoted Hegel and stated that Hegel speaks of Reason as if it

were a kind of sovereign being, whose powers are extended and exercised over a

given domain, i.e., a world. In connection to Kafka’s parable, the man is situated

amidst want and need to grasp and identify Reason. When one seeks

understanding of his existential being, moral obligations, and even his purest
purpose on earth, he experiences fervor in defining what is there to find. In the

parable, the gate represents the human mind and the entering of the gates is the

want to identify and define Reason.

The doorkeeper mentioned from the parable that once the country man

came to find a way to enter the first gate, the succeeding doors are far more

intricate, complicated and horrendous. The hierarchy and the rotation of finding

truth are constant. In connection to my argument that it is the seeking Reason,

this correlates to the fact that Anaxagoras introduced during the primitive

cosmology, that the mind is transcendent, active, infinite and free. Anaxagoras

stated “And the intelligence gave impulse to universal rotation so that rotation

began with the small, and it progressed toward the greater, and it will progressed

still more” (Composta, 2008). With this being stated, this justifies that the further

seeking of the reason or of the truth and that a man is insatiable are correlated.

The act of entering of the gates of Law or to reveal reason as well as finding the

(unknown) truth is central concept of the story.

On the other hand, Kafka also made his characters portray human like

attributes that may or may not be relative to his readers.

The country man as a human being – The countryman simply portrays a

human being that is in seek of the Truth. He stands before the Law, which

signifies reason, and wishes to be admitted behind the gates of the Law. The man

is a representation a being finding the truth out of something. “ Without a doubt,

philosophers must possess a certain knowledge of the physical world, but cannot
be identified with scientific research, an end unto itself..” (De Corte, 1960). Man

continuously finds the principle of a body of knowledge that may soon cross his

way or not. Hofstede and Bond (1988) stated that “As we argued, this dimension

deals with a society's search for Truth; uncertainty-avoiding cultures believe in an

absolute Truth, and uncertainty-accepting cultures take a more relativist stance.”

The door keeper as the supreme being - The doorkeeper as an

omniscient being that is in charge of the gate and of everything. The doorkeeper

is well-informed about how the supposedly other doorkeepers are. He is the law

giver, the ruler and the judge. He sets the parameter for the countryman. He

accepts all the bribes of the country but his rules stayed as they were. No material

things shall affect his words and the country man is bound to follow. He is a

consistent character that only obeys what he is set to follow. At the end of the

parable, the doorkeeper did not accept the plea of the country man and decided to

close the gate. Jeremiah 1:16 "I will pronounce My judgments on them concerning

all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken Me and have offered sacrifices

to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.” The doorkeeper is

still the one in charge of giving the verdict whether to admit the country man or

not. This implies that the doorkeeper is a lawful and a powerful being.

The parable and the Law

Kafka’s parable, Before the Law suggests several interpretations that

may connect to the context of Law or Justice. I say that the presence of the law

links to the statement, if one is in need of justice, he has to stand before the Law
and therefore exhaust all the means to seek for the truth. In the parable, the

country man sought after finding whether he will be admitted in the gates of the

law or not, he therefore stayed and waited for that time to come. It is obvious that

the man is in seek of the truth and therefore adapts into how he is supposed to act

to understand and be closer to the truth. “Derrida shares the Platonist’s objections

to conventionalism, and he retains the Platonist’s sense of the importance of

reasoning and of ‘getting all the facts’.” (Glendinning, 2016) Derrida supports the

context in the parable, the man gathers all the fact he needs when standing

before the law. The ‘identifying the truth’ is required to further inspect a subject:

By Platonism, I mean the theoretical stance claiming that a satisfactory response

to the question ‘what is justice?’ requires rational, theoretical, insight into the idea

of justice; ultimately a matter of grasping the ideal form of human social and

individual life. (Derrida, 1992)

In the concept of law, the doorkeeper serves as the being that connotes

power and justice. Ironically, the actions of the doorkeeper at the latter part of the

parable, is the least that we have expected. Despite the actions of the countryman

to be admitted in the gates of the law, the doorkeeper simply shut the door and

refused to admit the countryman. ‘Derrida’s response will be to deny both that

justification comes to an end with a founding act that is self-justifying (or, say,

intrinsically just), and to deny that the intrinsically ‘violent structure of the founding

act’ makes the law simply an instrument of power. (Glendinning, 2016)

Although the parable does not include why the doorkeeper refuse to admit

the country man, we can somehow and perhaps conclude that the doorkeeper is
the holder of power and justice in the story. The difference between the

doorkeeper and the countryman is truly visible. The man obtains power and it is

prevalent all throughout the parable. For whatever reason the man seemed to

violate for him not to be admitted, I believe is unknown in the text. I can only say

that the verdict and judgment is in the hands of the doorkeeper. This may indicate

that his reasons are radically upright and just and upholds the justice.

Furthermore, he who stands before the law, is bound to identify all there is to

questions therefore explicitly shows that man is in need to be insatiable.

Works Cited
Composta, D. 2008. History of Ancient Philosophy. Vatican: Urbaniana University
Press. pp 77

Composta, D. 2008. History of Ancient Philosophy. Vatican: Urbaniana University

Press. pp 36

Derrida, Jacques. 1992. Force of law: The ‘mystical foundations of authority’. In

Deconstruction and the possibility of justice, ed. Drucilla Cornell, Michel
Rosenfeld, and David Carlson. London: Routledge

Glendinning, S. 2016. Derrida and the philiosphy of law and justice, Retrieved
fromhttp://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66161/1/Glendinning_Derrida%20and%20philos
ophy2016.pdf

Heidsieck, A. (1994). Kafka's References to Administrative, Civil, and Criminal

Law [Kafkas Quellen: Verwaltungsrecht, Zivilrecht, Strafrecht]. Columbia,
S. C.: Camden House, 1994 retrieved from
http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/german/track/heidsiec/KafkaLawsources/Kafk
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Milner, L. M. et al. Hofstede’s Research on Cross- Cultural Work-Related Values:

Implications for Consumer Behavior Retrieved from
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proceedings.aspx?Id=11610
Nadal P. 2009. The Force of Reason: Development in Hegel’s Philosophy of
HistoryRetrieved March 28, 2017 from
https://belate.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/hegel-philosophy-of-world-history/

Sokel W. 2002. The myth of Power and the Self, Essays on Franz kafka.
Detroit, Michigan : Wayne State University Press. Retrieved
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Milner, L. M. et al. Hofstede’s Research on Cross- Cultural Work-Related Values:

Implications for Consumer Behavior Retrieved from
http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-
proceedings.aspx?Id=11610

Nadal P. 2009. The Force of Reason: Development in Hegel’s Philosophy of

HistoryRetrieved March 28, 2017 from
https://belate.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/hegel-philosophy-of-world-history/