Judgment

Author: Franz Kafka [Austria]
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-09-01
Features: Bank clerk Josef K is arbitrarily arrested one morning and must face a senseless lawsuit. He doesn’t know what crime he has committed but is required to undergo "interrogations" regularly; his freedom is not restricted, yet he feels the court’s presence everywhere; he wants to clarify himself but has no means to do so. Everything is absurd; the law is elusive, interrogations are like child’s play, judges are petty and despicable, and lawyers are full of empty talk. Yet, the case is like a net that ensnares him. In the end, he is killed like a dog. The Trial portrays a nightmare-like world but reveals a certain extreme human historical fate. For the 20th century, Kafka was a genius prophet.