Why Read Kafka? - Analysis of A Short Story
- kahansudev
- Oct 25, 2022
- 6 min read
Summary and Analysis of Outside the Law By Franz Kafka
Surrealism is a genre that leaves a ton of space for interpretation. The beauty of this style of literature is not only that every line could be taken as a metaphor, but that these metaphors are riddled with sickening, philosophical honesty. And if there is a master of this nightmarish/dream-like style, it is Kafka.
In this post, we'll be deciphering a few of the many interpretations of Kafka's short story called Outside the Law.
Introduction
Kafka’s Outside the Law, also translated as Before the Law was written in the late 1914s and was later incorporated into a scene in The Trial. This short story, like most of Kafka’s work, uses elements of philosophy and psychology to paint a dream/nightmare where the readers are left to experience the acute helplessness, asphyxiation, and desperation of the protagonist: you’re stuck in a nightmare with the main character.
A Quick Summary
The story begins with a gatekeeper standing outside a door, and a man approaches him and asks him to be allowed to enter. The door is open and it is supposed to lead the man to ‘Law’, but what the word 'Law' could stand for here is left to the reader's interpretation. The doorkeeper tells him that he can't allow him to enter right away, but it may be possible in the future. The guard then steps to the side, allows the man to peep in, and warns him against trying to slip past. He tells him that there are several doors past the first one, and each door has a doorkeeper who is much stronger and more intimidating than himself. So, the man decides that it is best he waits till he’s granted permission, so he sits by the door and waits.
The wait goes on for several years and through the years many interrogative conversations occur between the two which lead to nowhere. The man makes several attempts to talk his way in and all of them fail.
Years pass and the man starts getting old and his vision begins to blur. He comes to a defeating acceptance that he may never enter this door, and this defeat gives him the courage to ask a long-awaited question: why was he the only one at the door and no one else had approached? Realizing that the man is not going to survive much longer, the gatekeeper tells him that the door was intended for him alone and that he's now going to close it.
Analysis and Lessons
Most of Kafka’s work is a representation of many of our internal conflicts and turmoil. Remember that one decision that you have not made, that one looms right before your eyes? You want to make that decision but you are waiting for permission (or approval) to do so, but who is going to give you that permission?
Forget these lame rhetorical questions above, and let's jump onto the various lessons we can draw from this piece:
The Psychological Resistance to Change
Back to Outside the Law, the gatekeeper can be interpreted as that psychological aspect of ourselves that offers us resistance to our actions and aspirations. This resistance, commonly known as the psychological resistance to change in clinical (psychology) practice, is the factor that tends to cause many of our paradoxical behavioral patterns. If and when the resistance is not overcome, it tends to cause one to self-sabotage.
The Law of Life
From this perspective, we see that the gatekeeper is merely standing by the open door, and warning the man not to enter. On the other side of the door is what Kafka refers to as the ‘Law’. 'Law' here may not refer to the justice system or morality alone; it is the set of innate conditions that dictate life and reality. It is the one true law that we can’t escape, ignore, or hold off, it is the law that sets our limitations.
Life is Like an Onion
Without resorting to any sort of violence or physical threats, the gatekeeper simply states that there are several such doors, each guarded by a harsher gatekeeper. The several doors as a metaphor can be compared to the famous quote by the American poet Carl Sandburg:
Life is like an onion, you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.
Layer after layer, door after door, you open only to find another door and nothing substantial in between. When the man from the country peeps in he sees nothing noteworthy.
Procrastinators
Listening to the gatekeeper’s reply to his request to enter: ‘Possibly’, says the doorkeeper, ‘but not now,’, the man obediently takes a seat on the stool he is offered. The gatekeeper’s words carry with them the familiar tone of procrastination. It is not stern, there are no ultimatums, but a soft suggestion of a possibility and negation. A Hegelian interpretation of this opens to us the notion of the negation, where, to truly know what is on the other side of the door, what the ‘Law’ holds for the protagonist, he is required to negate the negation of his request to enter.
The Bureaucratic POV
Kafka’s works, as all authentic works of art, ought to be, are wide open to interpretation. The writer allows ample room for the reader’s creativity to flourish, allowing one to make one’s own associations and assumptions. Another perspective that needs to be taken into consideration, especially with Kafka’s work, is the way this piece relates to bureaucracy. The experience that the man from the country goes through in this piece can be compared to the complications that laymen for decades have been put through when dealing with a case concerning governments and legal systems. The bureaucratic systems, especially in Kafka’s time, involved exorbitant amounts of paperwork and often required people to wait in queues for hours at a time. Every task was made up of a number of documentation and steps and each of these had a gatekeeper of its own. The time and tedious effort it took to for even the most mundane tasks became a central theme in many of the writer’s works, including The Trial which he wrote while dabbling with this short story.
The Relationship Between Man and His Resistance
In The Trial, Outside of Law is incorporated into the chapter that leads into the finale. The protagonist, Joseph K, is told this story by a priest and they go on to have a debate that runs longer than the length of the short story itself. Through this debate, Kafka analyzes various aspects of the story, and the subject central to his analysis is the relationship between the man from the country and the doorkeeper. The protagonists begin by stating that the gatekeeper (the psychological resistance) has deceived the man from the country and has made him wait. To this point, Kafka rebuts by elaborating that the gatekeeper has used no language and has shown no signs to be accused of deception. The point he goes on to make here is that the gatekeeper himself is not aware of what lies within that door, except that it leads to a series of guarded doors. Not being aware of what lies within the door, the doorkeeper himself is intimidated by that which lies beyond. The fear of success and/or failure are both forms of resistance that stop us from doing what needs to be done. This is where, both in this short story and in the analysis in The Trial, Kafka is able to establish a connection between both the man from the country and the gatekeeper. Because the door was intended for the protagonist alone, the gatekeeper becomes a subordinate to the man. If the man had not existed, the doorkeeper would not have had this duty. But one mustn’t forget that the gatekeeper was employed by the ‘Law’ to guard the door.
Courage and Cowardice
Using a man from the country as the protagonist Kafka was able to paint a portrait of a rural man, in other words, a man of natural innocence. The law becomes the way of the world and the gatekeeper is an entity that is a by-product of the 'natural' man and the law, is subordinate to both, and becomes the point of contact between them. The man from the country, due to the lack of awareness of his superiority over the gatekeeper and lack of courage sits outside the 'Law' till the end of time. In keeping the man outside, the ‘Law’ has accomplished the task it had employed the gatekeeper for. The gatekeeper dutifully does the task assigned to him and goes to close the door once all is done. But, no one knows if the gatekeeper is actually able to close the door or not.
Conclusion
By leaving the end of this piece open, even with the protagonist dying, Kafka is able to create continuity, or a non-end to finish this story. Due to the simplicity of his style of writing, it is easy for one to miss out on the thought and details that have gone into this piece. It is not with this piece alone that Kafka has gone into such great depths, each and every one of Kafka’s works deserves (at least) this level of philosophical and psychological analysis. Using just 639 words in Outside the Law (English translation), the writer was able to cover subjects on which several books can be written. We can sit outside the 'Law' and wait, we can blame the gatekeeper for deceiving us, or we can negate the resistance and move through it only to sit outside the next door, whatever your choice in life may be, you may be able to see it in this short story.
Kahan J Sudev
Comments