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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
move and progress in the eyes of the law. “Kafka's works reveal his interest in the
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
Colony may be considered as some of his works of that use artistic representation
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.
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
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
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
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
On the other hand, Kafka also made his characters portray human like
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
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
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.
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
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:
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
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
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
Works Cited
Composta, D. 2008. History of Ancient Philosophy. Vatican: Urbaniana University
Press. pp 77
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
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
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