How Kafka Portrays Women in The Trial

I think there are many important examples of women in Kafka’s books, which shows the position of women in this society and the critique that Kafka is making. Frauleine Burstner was the first women in the novel which K was invested in. He was so concerned with speaking to her that night and the debate was whether his interests were for social human contact or sexually need. I found it interesting that K did not have any male friends or even a girl friend or wife at age thirty. Was this the norm for this society or was K a loner? Some thing I guess we will never know. I think that K’s relationship with Frauleine Burstner was based on sex. I also found it very interesting that he saw her or a person that looked like her moments before he was killed. Was this reality or a dream?

I found the character of Leni even more fascinating for two reason, her relationship with K and her relationship or treatment of Block. The lawyer treats Leni as an inferior, but when she got the change to be superior to block she took it. She treated him like a dog and she took pleasure in being superior to someone. Leni is an example of how women were not taken seriously by men nor were they passive, some women like Leni were smart and listen to the information around them and used it as power.

The women who lived in the court also had information that she was willing to give to K and she has a sexual encounter with the clerk who was not her husband. Message about the power of sex and who hold that power is unclear to me but it is obvious that men dominate the law and the government. Women are never part of the government or in a position of authority. So maybe Kafka could be making the comment that the home and the bedroom are dominant by women or women have sexual power over men. Although when we look at the law in place in The Trial it does seem to lack logically sense, to express the inferiority of women in society seems to be a logically explanation for why Kafka chose the women to play these types of roles in his book.  I liked to think that Kafka was being pro women’s rights when he created these characters, but noting is ever as it seems in The Trial. 

What is Justice

When I think of examples of justice, Law and order, the government and the court system I think of books like to kill a Mockingbird and 12 Angry Men. I think of movies like “My Cousin Vinny” and shows like “Law and Order. All of these examples create our ideas of the legal system in this country. By comparing The Trial with others ideas about justice and order I have notices that there is a sense of comfort and security that people who are on the right side of the law have because of the justice system. We are taught to believe that those who do wrong will be receive a trial and be punished fairly. Within the legal system I think that we sacrifice some of our freedoms so we many seek protection.

When we were asked to define justice, I was able to think of classic example that we all know such as shows like Law and Order and classic books like To Kill a Mockingbird. But how can we define justice and words? Some of the definitions include the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness: to uphold the justice of a cause. Rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of ground or reason: to complain with justice. And the moral principle determining just conduct.

But The Trial is different; it is the lack of this social order and the confusion and fear that is causes within society. Where would we be without our system of Justice, would we live in a world like this where Joseph K has found him self on the wrong side of the invisible law? Or would there be mass chaos with out the law? Is some order is better than none? Whether the law is the law of the god’s like in the Oresetia where the gods control the fate of the people or the law of the government system that is in place like in The Trial, there is this external force that can be good or bad, can protect or cause fear. Our biggest fear as a reader is that this could become our reality and that we could lose the sense of security that we have because of our form of justice.