MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, NAGPUR

B.A.LL.B.(Hons.) Year-I, Semester-II: Academic Year : 2021-2022

First Open Book Assessment, February-2022

Course Code and Name:

Name of Student: UID:

Answer 1.
Introduction
The Trial is a posthumously published novel by the visionary German-language writer Franz
Kafka. It was first published in 1925. One of Kafka's major works and perhaps his most
pessimistic, this surreal storey about a young man caught up in the mindless bureaucracy of
the law has become synonymous with modern anxieties and feelings of alienation, as well as
an ordinary person's struggle against an unreasoning and unreasonable authority. It is
frequently regarded as a foreshadowing of totalitarianism in the imagination (a system of
government that is centralised and dictatorial, requiring complete subservience to the state).

Summary
The story of The Trial revolves around a man, Josef K., a respectable high-ranking banker
waking up on his thirtieth birthday to a surreal situation that highlights the irrationality and
Bureaucracy of law. He was caught in the web of irrational and incomprehensible “Justice”
and law. The situation is one that is unexpected and extremely troublesome. He was arrested
but it was arrest which was completely out of the ordinary as K was allowed to live in an
almost free manner, at home and going to work as before while undergoing an unjustifiable
trial. It was also unfair as K was never informed about the reason for his arrest, he didn’t
know what offence he was charged for. The story ends with him being executed. He died
without knowing the reason for his arrest. He didn’t even have a chance to have a fair and
justifiable hearing. Although a few minor rules of a fair trial and arrest were followed, a
majority of the features of a justifiable trial and the very essence of a fair trial were blatantly
ignored. Justice was never served as a result of a court system and the police that were driven
by corruption. Ironically, until the end, he was completely powerless and trapped by the
baffling system of authorities and laws in what he referred to as a “Free Country”.

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Analysis
The novel, The Trial by Franz Kafka is a reflection of an unreasonable, corrupt and
incomprehensible system. The unrealistic situations including the arrest, the trial and the final
scene of Josef K’s death together reflect what has over time, come to be known as a
Kafkaesque style of writing. The central themes of the novel revolve around and are related to
the frustration caused due to the incomplete nature of information regarding the offence and
the judicial process that followed.

The fraudulent regime brainwashes K. into believing he is guilty, robbing him of his
sovereignty and turning him into yet another defenceless victim of the system. The fictional
society in which K. lives has a government that is based on rumours rather than proof. The
system is described as one that "doesn't look for guilt in the general population, but is drawn
to it." Rather than pursuing true criminals, officials arrest those who have been falsely
accused of crimes by others without any evidence. After the government detains suspects, this
illogical process of locating criminals in society becomes even more flawed. After K. is
arrested and speaks with the case inspector, he is told not to waste his time attempting to
prove his innocence because he has "learn[ed] nothing about why he had been arrested and on
whose orders." K. is never told why he has been arrested throughout the story. He even
wonders at the end of the book, "Where was the judge he'd never seen?" "Where was the high
court he'd never made it to?" he wondered. K. is left in the dark and has no say or power over
the outcome of his case, demonstrating how corrupt the government's standards are. The
government's power is limitless, and it has complete control over every aspect of K.'s case,
limiting his right to a fair trial. By not informing K. of any information regarding his situation,
the government’s regulations and system strongly resembles one of a totalitarian government.

As K.’s cluelessness and lack of knowledge about his conviction slowly persuade him that he
is guilty, he loses his identity and becomes dominated by the society. Even though he initially
believes he is “not guilty. It’s a mistake. How can any person in general be guilty? We’re all
human after all, each and every one of us,” he is met with a rebuttal of “that’s how guilty
people always talk”. Despite no concrete evidence, K. is repeatedly told that he is guilty, and
he eventually begins to accept it. He tells himself “if I’d behaved sensibly, nothing more
would have happened, everything else would have been nipped in the bud”. The corruption of
the government, as well as the other subjects who have already been manipulated by the
authorities, convince K. that he is guilty. He eventually becomes one in a crowd of people

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who are under the government’s control. In the first sentence of the novel, Kafka refers to the
main character as Josef K. Yet, as Josef’s situation is revealed, Kafka refrains from giving
him a full surname, referring to him as K. throughout the rest of the novel. This inhumanely
reduces K. to an object, showing how the government’s standards and systematic processes
strip him of his individuality. The main character is slowly brainwashed by the government
and begins to doubt not only who he is, but his innocence as well.

Conclusion
The Trial is a rife with corruption and bureaucratic standards, eerily reminiscent of a
totalitarian justice system. The main character's perplexity, combined with the court's
nefarious and unprincipled restriction of his rights, exemplifies society's and the system's
immorality. The standards that serve as the foundation of the fictional society have an impact
on the main character throughout the novel as he goes through his unfair trial. Mr. Joseph K.
"K." becomes another subject of society as "K." and relinquishes his autonomy, as many
others have, by giving up his fight for innocence.