Reaction Paper Before the law by Franz Kafka

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 aLawsources-051128.pdf 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/ Sokel W. 2002. The myth of Power and the Self, Essays on Franz kafka. Detroit, Michigan : Wayne State University Press. Retrieved fromhttps://books.google.com.ph/books?id=StF2CGz4hCwC&pg=PA102&d q=kafka+allegory&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjiquThvPXSAhUBQ48KHQ 7XB_cQ6AEIHjAB#v=onepage&q=kafka%20allegory&f=false 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/