Kafka process summary. Analysis of Kafka's work “The Process

Mmmm. It always seemed to me that the complexity of Kafka's prose was somewhat exaggerated, including due to the veil of madness surrounding the image of the writer in the mass consciousness. The first time he reads this or that work of Kafka, the reader, thanks to the memes circulating on the Internet about the beetle man and about “Love is the knife with which I dig in myself,” anticipates in advance a collision with something incomprehensible, inexplicable, monstrous.

Opening the "Trial", we jump from place to place and immediately meet the hero, who suddenly discovers that he was arrested. And if at first he at the very least resists mysterious strangers, then later the cycle of interrogations, streamlined phrases and stuffy rooms draws in Joseph K. so deeply that his attempts to defend himself look more and more sluggish, confused, senseless. Starting with an absurdity - how, it would seem, a person can not know why he was arrested? and how can the judicial system not give him a clear answer to this question? - the story ends with him: Joseph K. dies on an impromptu scaffold, without figuring out what exactly is imputed to him.

Kafka's hero finds himself in the center of the worst nightmare of any person: the events in the "Trial" are not controlled by all these bureaucrats who look alike, but some mysterious force - terrible in its uncertainty. Nobody knows what will happen to him tomorrow, what process he will get into and how this process will end, Kafka tells us. He mercilessly puts into words our greatest fear - the fear of the unknown. Therefore, towards the end of the novel, the reader comes in such a spiritual strife that he, as a rule, does not care what Joseph K. actually paid with his life for.

Nevertheless, we, unlike Joseph K., may well resist Kafka's dark genius, temporarily putting aside all our fears - rational and irrational. And from this perspective, many interpretations of the novel are revealed. I will cite only the most obvious ones.

First: "Process" is a metaphor for human life. It is no coincidence that the novel begins on Joseph K.'s birthday, and the word "judgment" is consonant with the word "fate." Unfortunately, I do not know German, therefore, I cannot say that this peculiar paronymy is preserved in him. From birth to death, a person inevitably feels himself an object of judgment: he is judged by friends, enemies, society, and the entity called God. Probably, in the case of the “Trial”, we should speak, first of all, about the trial of oneself.

After all, Joseph K. is not immediately imprisoned, but allowed to live a relatively familiar life. He creates a prison around himself, constantly returning to the thought of the process, suffocating from an all-consuming feeling of guilt. Guilt, according to Kafka, generally determines human existence. Consciousness too. And here it is up to you to decide how to evaluate the death of Joseph K. at the end of the book - as a punishment or as a reward, deliverance from torment.

On the other hand, Joseph K. can indeed be a criminal. After all, people tend to commit bad deeds and refuse to be responsible for them. It is hard to believe that by the age of thirty the hero had done nothing wrong to anyone. True, we do not know the severity of the crime he committed: he could have killed a person, but he could have swatted a fly. Any of your actions can be recognized as criminal - depending on who is judging you. Given the presence of biblical allusions in the novel, Kafka is clearly alluding here to Christian dogmas. This means that "The Trial" is also a religious and philosophical work.

In addition, it should be remembered that The Trial was written at the dawn of the First World War, when society foresaw global changes. Individuals felt that they were involved in these changes, considered themselves to be the ones who make history. Joseph K., on the other hand, is passive, he - small man who sees much farther than his nose and understands deep down in his soul that history is made by ruthless, uncontrollable masses. It is useless for an individual to resist this process.

And of course, the Russian reader, faced with his native judicial system, will inevitably recognize himself in the hero of Kafka. Try to share an apartment with unexpectedly announced distant relatives deceased grandmother in the center of Moscow - you will not be so sad, well.

Court - commonly. Gericht n; Gerichtsbehörde f; Gerichtshof m; Gerichtswesen n; Judiz n; Gerichtsbehörde f (court); Gerichtsgebäude n (courthouse); Judizium n; Prozess m (über - over AlexandraM)

The essence of the incident is impassively stated in the very first phrase of the work. Waking up on his thirtieth birthday, Joseph K. discovers that he is under arrest. Instead of a servant with the usual breakfast, an unfamiliar gentleman in black enters his call. Several strangers find themselves in the next room. They politely inform K., taken by surprise, that "the beginning of his business has been made and in due time he will find out everything." These people who intruded into his dwelling, uninvited, make him laugh, and outrage, and amaze K., who does not feel any guilt behind himself. He does not doubt for a moment that the incident is nothing more than a wild misunderstanding or a rude joke. However, all his attempts to find out something run into impenetrable courtesy. Who are these people? What department are they from? Where is the warrant for his arrest? Why is such arbitrariness allowed in a state governed by the rule of law, “where peace reigns everywhere, all laws are inviolable”? To his irritated questions, condescending answers are given, which do not clarify the essence of the matter. The morning ends with the visitors suggesting that K. go, as always, to his service at the bank, because, as they say, while the preliminary investigation on his case is underway and he can carry out his duties and generally lead an ordinary life. It turns out that among the strangers who carried out the arrest of K. there are three of his colleagues at the bank - so colorless that at first K. himself did not even recognize them. They accompany him in a taxi to the bank, keeping an imperturbable, polite silence.

Until now, K. had every reason to consider himself a successful person, since he occupied a solid, respectable position. In a large bank, he worked as a prosecutor, he had a spacious office and many assistants at his disposal. Life went on quite calmly and measuredly. He was respected by his colleagues and by his hostess, Frau Grubach. When K. returned home after work, it was with Frau Grubach that he was the first to carefully talk about the morning visit and was greatly surprised that she was in the know. She advised K. not to take the incident to heart, to try not to harm herself, and at the end of the conversation she shared with him her suggestion that there was something "scientific" in his arrest.

Of course, K. was not going to take the incident in any way anyway. However, against his will, he experienced a kind of confusion and excitement. Otherwise, how could he have done a completely strange thing that very evening? Having insisted on an important conversation, he went into the room of an astonished young roommate at the boarding house, and the matter ended with him kissing her passionately, which he would never have allowed before.

Several days pass. K. works hard at the bank and tries to forget the stupid incident. But soon he was informed by phone that a preliminary investigation was scheduled for his case on Sunday. The form of this message is again very courteous and helpful, although still nothing is clear. On the one hand, they explain to him: everyone is interested in finishing the process as soon as possible, on the other hand, it is an extremely difficult matter, and therefore the investigation must be carried out with the utmost care. K., lost in thought, remains at the phone, and in this position he is caught by the deputy director - his long-time hidden ill-wisher.

On Sunday, K. gets up early, dresses diligently and goes to the outskirts at the indicated address. He wanders for a long time in nondescript working quarters and cannot find the right place in any way. Quite unexpectedly, he discovers the purpose of his visit in one of the poor apartments. A woman washing clothes lets him into a room full of people. All faces are worn out, inconspicuous and dull. People even stand in the gallery. The man on the stage strictly tells K. that he was late for an hour and five minutes, to which the confused hero mutters that he has come. After that, K. steps forward and resolutely begins to speak. He is determined to end this obsession. He denounces the methods by which the so-called investigation is conducted, and laughs at the pitiful notebooks that are passed off as documentation. His words are full of persuasiveness and logic. The crowd greeted them with laughter, then with a murmur, then with applause. The room is filled with thick smoke. Having finished his angry monologue, K. takes his hat and leaves. Nobody detains him. Only in the doorway, the investigator, who had previously been hostilely silent, draws K.'s attention to the fact that he deprived himself of his "advantage" by refusing to be interrogated. K. laughs in response and calls him scum in their hearts.

Another week passed, and on Sunday, without waiting for a new call, K. himself sent to a familiar address. The same woman opens the door for him, informing him that there is no meeting today. They enter into a conversation, and K. finds out that the woman is aware of his process and outwardly full of sympathy for him. She turns out to be the wife of some court clerk, who, without great moral torment, cheats with just anyone. K. suddenly feels that he too is inevitably attracted to her. However, the woman eludes him with some student who suddenly appears in the room. Then the disappeared couple is replaced by a deceived minister husband, who does not at all lament the frivolity of his wife. And this type also turns out to be completely initiated into the course of the process. And he is ready to give K. useful tips referring to my rich experience. He calls K. the accused and kindly invites him, if he is in no hurry, to visit the office. And so they climb the stairs and walk along some long dark passages, they see officials sitting at tables behind bars and rare visitors waiting for something. "Nobody straightened up to their full height, backs stooped, knees bent, people stood like beggars." All of these were also accused, like K.

On the way to leave this dull establishment, K. on the stairs suddenly experiences an attack of instant fainting weakness, unknown to him before, which he overcomes with an effort. Has his body really rebelled, a thought flickers in him, and a different life process is taking place in him, not the previous one, which proceeded with such ease? ..

In fact, everything is even more complicated. Not only health, but also the psyche, and the whole way of life of K., as a result of strange events, inevitably, albeit imperceptibly, change. As if these changes are not obvious, but with the inexorability of fate, K. plunges into a strange, viscous, not dependent on his will and desire Something, in this case called the Process. This process has its own course, its own latent logic, hidden from the understanding of the hero. Without revealing the essence, the phenomenon appears to K. in its small details, eluding his persistent attempts to understand something. For example, it turns out that, although K. tries not to tell anyone about his process, almost everyone around him for some reason is aware of what is happening - colleagues at work, neighbors at the boarding house, and even random counter. This strikes K. and deprives him of his former confidence. It also turns out that in some way they were completely involved in the process. different people, and as a result, K. himself begins to suspect anyone around him.

Absolutely incredible things also happen. So, once, staying late at the service, K. in the corridor hears sighs coming from the closet. When he jerk open the door, then, in disbelief, he discovers three hunched over men. One of them turns out to be an executor, and two are subject to punishment with rods. At the same time, as they whine, explain, the reason for the flogging is K., who complained about them to the investigator in that very accusatory speech. In front of the astonished K., the executor begins to shower the unfortunate with blows.

Another one important detail happening. Everyone with whom K. encounters in this story treats him with emphatic courtesy and Jesuitical warning, everyone readily enters into explanations, and as a result, it turns out that individually everything can be explained and understood, while the whole is more and more hidden under the cover of the escheat. absurdity. The particulars replace the whole, completely confusing the hero. K. is forced to deal only with small performers who willingly tell him about their own problems and who turn out to be, as it were, innocent of what is happening, and the very highest authorities, which he considers responsible for everything, remains unknown and inaccessible to him. He is fighting a certain system, into which he himself is irreparably inscribed.

So he moves in the circles of his process, being drawn into the funnel of strange and impersonal procedures, and the more he tries to protect himself, the more surely he harms his own business. Once a relative comes to his service - an uncle who came from the provinces. As you might expect, my uncle has already heard a lot about the process and is terribly concerned. He persistently drags K. to his friend's lawyer, who is supposed to help. The lawyer turns out to be ill, he takes uncle and K. in bed. He, of course, is also more than aware of the misfortune that befell K. The lawyer is looked after by a lively young nurse named Leni. When, in the course of a long and boring conversation, K. leaves the room, Leni drags him into the study and right there, on the carpet, seduces him. Uncle indignantly scolds his nephew when, after a while, he and K. leave the lawyer's house - again K. hurt himself, because it was impossible not to guess the reason for his long absence from the room. However, the lawyer by no means renounces K.'s defense. And he comes to him many times and meets with Lazy, who is waiting for him - she willingly gives K. her affection, but this does not make the hero closer. Like the other women in this novel — including the sassy little nymphets that emerge in one episode — she is sly, fickle and annoyingly vicious.

K. is deprived of peace. At work, he is absent-minded, gloomy. Now fatigue does not leave him and at the end he suffers from a cold. He is afraid of visitors and begins to get confused in business papers, terrified, which gives rise to discontent. The deputy director has long been glancing at him. Once K. is assigned to accompany some visiting Italian. Despite feeling unwell, he drives up to the central cathedral, where an appointment is made. The Italian is nowhere to be found. K. enters the cathedral, deciding to wait out the rain here. And suddenly, in the solemn twilight, a stern voice called out to him by name, which rang out under the very arches. The priest, who calls himself the chaplain of the prison, asks K. questions demandingly and informs him that things are not going well with his trial. K. obediently agrees. He already understands this himself. The priest tells him a parable about the supreme Code of Laws and, when K. tries to challenge its interpretation, edifyingly instills that "you just need to realize the need for everything."

Another week passed, and on Sunday, without waiting for a new call, K. himself sent to a familiar address. The same woman opens the door for him, informing him that there is no meeting today. They enter into a conversation, and K. finds out that the woman is aware of his process and outwardly full of sympathy for him. She turns out to be the wife of some court clerk, who, without great moral torment, cheats with just anyone. K. suddenly feels that he too is inevitably attracted to her. However, the woman eludes him with some student who suddenly appears in the room. Then the disappeared couple is replaced by a deceived minister husband, who does not at all lament the frivolity of his wife. And this type also turns out to be completely initiated into the course of the process. And he is ready to give K. useful advice, referring to his rich experience. He calls K. the accused and kindly invites him, if he is in no hurry, to visit the office. And so they climb the stairs and walk along some long dark passages, they see officials sitting at tables behind bars and rare visitors waiting for something. "Nobody straightened up to their full height, backs stooped, knees bent, people stood like beggars." All of these were also accused, like K.

On the way to leave this dull establishment, K. on the stairs suddenly experiences an attack of instantaneous fainting weakness, unknown to him before, which he overcomes with an effort. Has his body really rebelled, a thought flashes through him, and in him

Is there a different life process, not the previous one, which proceeded with such ease? ..

In fact, everything is even more complicated. Not only health, but also the psyche, and the whole way of life of K., as a result of strange events, inevitably, albeit imperceptibly, change. As if these changes are not obvious, but with the inexorability of fate, K. plunges into a strange, viscous, not dependent on his will and desire Something, in this case called the Process. This process has its own course, its own latent logic, hidden from the understanding of the hero. Without revealing the essence, the phenomenon appears to K. in its small details, eluding his persistent attempts to understand something. For example, it turns out that, although K. tries not to tell anyone about his process, almost everyone around him for some reason is aware of what is happening - colleagues at work, neighbors at the boarding house, and even random counter. This strikes K. and deprives him of his former confidence. It also turns out that completely different people are somehow involved in the process, and as a result, K. himself begins to suspect any of the others.

Another important detail of what is happening. Everyone with whom K. encounters in this story treats him with emphatic courtesy and Jesuitical warning, everyone readily enters into explanations, and as a result, it turns out that individually everything can be explained and understood, while the whole is more and more hidden under the cover of the escheat. absurdity. The particulars replace the whole, completely confusing the hero. K. is forced to deal only with small performers who willingly tell him about their own problems and who turn out to be, as it were, innocent of what is happening, and the very highest authorities, which he considers responsible for everything, remains unknown and inaccessible to him. He is fighting a certain system, into which he himself is irreparably inscribed.

And then a year passed and the evening came on the eve of K.'s next birthday. About nine o'clock two gentlemen in black appeared at his apartment. K. seemed to be expecting them - he was sitting on a chair by the door and slowly pulling on his gloves. He saw no reason to offer any resistance, although to the last he felt ashamed of his own obedience.

They silently left the house, walked through the city and stopped at an abandoned small quarry. They took off K.'s jacket and shirt and laid her head on a stone. At the same time, the gestures and movements of the guards were extremely helpful and courteous. One of them got sharp knife... With the edge of his consciousness, he felt that he had to grab this knife himself and plunge it into himself, but he did not have the strength to do so. His last thoughts were about the judge, whom he had never seen - where is he? Where is the high court? Maybe some other arguments have been forgotten that could have saved his life? ..

But at that moment, the hands of the first gentleman had already laid on his throat, and the second stuck a knife deep in his heart and turned it twice. “With dull eyes, K. saw both gentlemen close to his face, pressing their cheeks to cheeks, watching the denouement. "Like a dog," he said, as if this shame was destined to outlive him.

Retelling - V. A. Sagalova

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Franz Kafka is an amazing German-speaking writer. The Process is a book that has become quite popular and has attracted the interest of a huge number of readers.

The history of writing the "Process"

Kafka's novel "The Trial" was written in 1915, but it is worth noting that it saw the light only 10 years later, when the author was no longer alive. Before his death, Kafka asked the writer Mark Brod to burn the novel, but the executor did not listen to Franz. He collected the scattered chapters of The Process and published the novel exactly in the form in which the reader loves, knows and remembers it now.

Franz Kafka was an unusual and deeply thinking writer. The "trial" will be remembered by everyone who has ever read this work.

He was a modernist writer, but The Trial was ahead of its time, as the novel is considered one of the finest examples of postmodern absurdism.

Unusual plot of the "Process"

Kafka's novel "The Trial" is rather unusual and fantastic. We can safely say that there are no analogues of this novel. The work contains, although at first glance, the plot seems incomprehensible to the reader.

Franz Kafka is a writer who differs in his writing style from others. The "process" is confirmation of this. This work evokes in the reader a huge amount of emotions and feelings for the main character.

The work that made the name of its author for the culture of the world postmodern theater, as well as cinema, is "The Trial". Readers appreciate and love the author's work, because the novel really makes it possible to think about things that have never bothered before. This work will not leave indifferent any person who gets acquainted with its plot.

For more than one century on the lips of fans of science fiction keeps: “Franz Kafka. "Process". Fantastic novel. A writer that readers will never forget. "

Kafka, The Process. Summary. Arrest and preliminary investigation of Joseph

On waking up on his thirtieth birthday, Joseph K. found himself arrested.

Instead of a maid with breakfast, a stranger in a black robe entered Mr. K.'s room and announced the arrest of Joseph. The man is sure that this is just a prank and a cruel joke. He is sure that he did not do anything illegal, and he is very surprised that in the rule of law, arbitrary arbitrariness is allowed for him, as well as unreasonable actions of people in black in relation to him.

Josef discovered that among the men who had detained him were his colleagues. Soon they informed Mr. K. that he could go to work and live in his usual rhythm of life, since so far only a preliminary investigation is being conducted.

Mr K. continues to live quietly and is trying his best to forget that ridiculous incident, but he was told by phone that a preliminary investigation was scheduled for his case on Sunday. It is worth noting that Joseph was not informed of the appointed time or location. On the phone they indicated only the address of the outskirts of the city.

On Sunday, Mr. K. went in search of the appointed place and, surprisingly to himself, knocking on an apartment he had accidentally found, and got to the right place.

The judge informed Josef that he was late for an hour and five minutes, to which K. replied: "But he came anyway." After K. began to appear before the court. His words were full of logic as well as persuasiveness. The crowd clearly liked Joseph's performance. After the monologue, the man took his hat and left.

Over time, Joseph begins to notice that everything around him is not the same as before. Mr. K. does not understand why all the people around him know about the "process." Even those with whom he is not familiar have heard about Joseph's case.

K. completely lost his peace. He became distracted, inattentive and gloomy. Josef is constantly tired and soon succumbs to a cold. It seems to a man that with all his actions he gives reason for dissatisfaction, which is why he himself is dissatisfied with everything he does.

31st birthday

On the eve of his thirty-first birthday, two men in black clothes came to see Joseph and took him with them. Stopping at an abandoned quarry, the strangers took off Mr K.'s jacket and shirt, and then laid him on a stone. Joseph did not resist, but there were a lot of thoughts in his head. He thought that perhaps there were some arguments that would help him stay alive.

One stranger's hands were around Joseph's neck, while another man plunged a knife into Mr K.'s heart.

Kafka, The Process. Reviews and the main idea of the work

Readers love to share their impressions of the work with each other, because, of course, the "Process" causes them a huge amount of emotions.

Ernest Hemingway is one of the most famous modernists and their works of the 20th century, recognized by every connoisseur of literature, “ The little Prince", Kafka," The Process ". The summary of these works is familiar to every student. These fantastic literary masterpieces evoke a huge range of emotions in the reader, and also force him to find himself in a world created by talented writers.

The main idea of the work is that the main character gained freedom from the dualism that arose when his own “I” was separated from the role imposed on him by society.

Kafka's novel "The Trial" has a fascinating and fantastic plot, which, it would seem, does not make sense, but in fact the work is fraught with deep meaning.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the "Trial" for a whole century excites the minds of literary critics and filmmakers. The work, written in the unique literary style of modernism, "magical realism" and existentialism, analyzes the classic problem modern society- opposition of a person and a system.

In its genre, The Trial belongs to a philosophical novel. At the same time, features of both the classic novel of the era of realism and the fantasy novel are surprisingly subtly intertwined in it. All together gave an amazing literary result. Throughout the story, touching on one year in the life of the protagonist - the senior procurator of the bank, Joseph K., the reader is immersed by the author in a world that is well known and understandable to him. Here in front of us is the boarding house in which they live ordinary people early XX century. Here is a bank in which unremarkable officials and couriers work. Here is a city with its streets, houses and suburbs, its way of life and people. Everything, as always, everything as it should, and only the Court, like the invisible hand of fate, constantly breaks into the familiar reality and destroys it with its presence.

The periodical appearance of fantastic elements in the "Trial" is not distinguished by the author in any way. They enter the narrative naturally. Even when describing the most incredible things (for example, repeating from day to day scenes of the executor whipping two guards in a bank closet, which only Joseph K. sees). Kafka does not use any special artistic means expressiveness of speech. His literary style, his language is equally calm, detailed and clear in all situations. But it is precisely this non-selection of oddities that destroy the usual picture of reality, and allows the "Process" to show all the absurdity of the surrounding reality.

The composition of the novel is based on classical principle: at the beginning, the plot begins (Joseph K. wakes up from sleep, a notice of arrest and interrogation in Fraulein Bustner's room), then the action develops (and goes very slowly, judging by the fact that the lawyer Gould writes the first petition to the court for several months), after which comes the culmination (Joseph's refusal from the services of a lawyer and listening to him a deeply philosophical parable "Before the Law"), followed by an unexpected, at first glance, but prepared by the entire course of the narrative, a logical outcome (execution of the death sentence). For what he was punished, Joseph K. does not recognize even when he is killed “like a dog” - with a knife in the heart.

All the heroes of the novel are somehow connected with judicial proceedings. Endless judicial officials of various ranks and stripes, the lawyer Gould, the judicial artist Titorelli, the nurse of the lawyer Leni - all of them work either for the Court or for those who enter it. Even the completely neutral Fraulein Bustner (typist by profession), who appeared in the life of Joseph K. after his arrest, immediately wants to take up jurisprudence in order to be able to help the character justify himself. It is worth saying that throughout the "Process" women stick to the main character. Lawyer Gould explains this by the fact that they subconsciously see all the accused as beautiful. This trait is especially pronounced in the lawyer's nurse - Leni. She is ready to give her love to every accused - and not in turn, but to all at once.

The absurdity of life is also shown by Kafka through the chronotope of the work. Joseph K. constantly encounters the judicial system in closed, stuffy spaces - in his room (and almost in bed), in the attic of the judicial office, in an atelier with tightly boarded up windows. Over time, space begins to close and within ordinary life character: tiny pieces of walls and roofs of neighboring houses open through the windows; inside the premises, he is constantly surrounded by crowds of people - judicial officials, bank employees, dissolute teenage girls.