At K's initial inquiry he is asked if he is a house painter, now why would they ask him this if they knew who he was? It should be clear that he is a bank officer, not a house painter. Does the painter represent creativity? Is the reason that he sells K the 4 paintings that look alike show that K's life is like the scenery? It doesn't really change from day to day, month to month, season to season. Titorelli is in the story to speak of the judges and their arrogance and to show that there are courts everywhere and nothing is free from their presence.
The priest told K that he asks too much outside help, particularly from women. Once again, you do not know who is giving the information, who is friend and who is foe? If the surveillance during that time was so deep and infiltrated into all parts of K's life imagine what it would be like now in the day and age of electronic media and all of the footprints we leave behind.
The parable that the Priest tells K about the country man, the law and the gatekeeper is interesting but seems misplaced in the story. I am not sure how exactly this related to the story except to show that there is no entry to the law but who was the gatekeeper in regards to K's case? At the end of discussing the story he comments that "You don't have to consider everything true, you just have to consider it necessary." and K. replies "Lies are made into a universal system." Is this how we must consider our existence?
Again, K. is concerned that he doesn't know how to get out of the Cathedral and asks for assistance just like when he was at the law offices. I think these circumstances are a reflection of his trial, he is tangled up in this web so to speak and needs help getting out. He asks for help though those he ask don't show him the way but tell him where to go. He was told more than once that he needs to not ask for so much outside help with his trial and he keeps trying to find help from outsiders.
When K is taken by the executioners to his death and mutters "like a dog" I believe that he is succumbing to the powers/influences and has now become like a dog. Although I personally think of good things with dogs (man's best friend, loyalty, comfort, etc.), that is not what is meant by this. It's more like a mongrel than a pet. Something lowly and despised. The chapter in which Block, the merchant, is introduced when he's with the lawyer and crawling on the ground, it is noted that K. no longer considered Block a man, but an animal, the lawyer's dog. In the chapter where K. was going to take the Italian to the cathedral, Leni had called to speak to K., she told him that he was being "hounded". I could be reading more than I should into this but it seemed like another dog reference.
K was executed on his 31st b-day, he did not seem surprised by the men who showed up at his house, he thinks "I'm grateful that they've sent these half mute insensitive men to accompany me on this journey and that it's been left to me to say myself what needs to be said." I thought this meant that he ultimately is the one who has the last word in his case regarding his own guilt or innocence.
At the end, I thought that the person who was in the building would have been the final judge who condemned him to die. But who that was I cannot say clearly. Had it been a mirror or a pool of water then I would say K. of course however, it's not clear. I have considered it being the Vice President since it seemed to me that he would have benefited the most by not having K. around.
I did not understand the Fraulein Burstner character? Was she affiliated with the courts? Perhaps her character was going to be developed further upon completion of the story. Kafka must not have liked women because no of them were shown to have positive attributes in the book.
There were several references to lips in the book too. These were the ones that stuck in my mind.
1) Block tells of the superstition that many people can predict the outcome from the face of the defendant, particularly the lines of the lips. The people at the court predicted that K was to be convicted soon according to his lips.
2) K. could not see the Italian's lips and therefore stopped trying to listen to him since he was speaking to quickly and in a different dialect.
3) In the fragment chapter about Fraulein Burstner, Fraulein Montag had looked at K's lips and he got upset because in K's mind it was as if she had already assumed control over what he had to say.
4)The first encounter with Fraulein Burstner where he kissed her violently on her neck, right on her throat before he rested his lips there.
When K is taken by the executioners to his death and mutters "like a dog" I believe that he is succumbing to the powers/influences and has now become like a dog. Although I personally think of good things with dogs (man's best friend, loyalty, comfort, etc.), that is not what is meant by this. It's more like a mongrel than a pet. Something lowly and despised. The chapter in which Block, the merchant, is introduced when he's with the lawyer and crawling on the ground, it is noted that K. no longer considered Block a man, but an animal, the lawyer's dog. In the chapter where K. was going to take the Italian to the cathedral, Leni had called to speak to K., she told him that he was being "hounded". I could be reading more than I should into this but it seemed like another dog reference.
All in all I will have to say the book left me questioning and searching as if I missed something in the story. After reading what critics and others have thought about the story it has shown me that there are many differing opinions about the meaning of the story. Interesting, frustrating, confusing, done.
No comments:
Post a Comment