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Time and Reality in Kafka's the Trial and the Castle Author(S): Margaret Church Reviewed Work(S): Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol

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Time and Reality in Kafka's the Trial and the Castle Author(S): Margaret Church Reviewed Work(S): Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol Time and Reality in Kafka's The Trial and The Castle Author(s): Margaret Church Reviewed work(s): Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jul., 1956), pp. 62-69 Published by: Hofstra University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/440948 . Accessed: 20/11/2012 13:41 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Hofstra University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Twentieth Century Literature. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TIME AND REALITY IN KAFKA'S THE TRIAL AND THE CASTLE MARGARET CHURCH Kafka once wrote in an aphor- the same place that they were in ism that one of his most import- the evening before. ant wishes was "to attain a view On his firstSunday in court, K. of life in which life, while still re- hurries to arrive at nine o'clock taining its natural full-bodiedrise "although he had not even been and fall, would simultaneouslybe required to appear at any specified recognizedno less clearlyas a noth- time."3 Despite the fact that he is ing, a dream, a dim hovering."1 late he walks more slowly as he This remark describes with some approaches the house of the exam- accuracy the styleand mood of his iners, as if now he had abundant two central works The Trial and time. If anything,Kafka is more The Castle and shows that it was adept at creating the dream than Kafka's aim to employ in his fic- the "full-bodied rise and fall" of tion the idea that time and space life. When K. leaves the examin- are illusory. ing room, the magistratemyster- The dreamlike quality of time iously gets to the door before him values and the assumption of an as in a dream people appear at interior time recognized alone by the beck and call of our fears and the officialsand K. appear through- wishes. out The Trial. In a passage deleted In the unfinishedchapter "Das from the firstchapter, Kafka had Haus" we find the curious juxta- written that the riskiest moment position of dream upon dream. As of the day is the moment when K. lies down on the couch in his one awakes. "Man ist doch im office,his thoughtshover between Schlafund im Traum wenigstensdream and reality,only here reali- scheinbarin einem von Wachen ty is that of K.'s waking life which wesentlichverschiedenen Zustand is oftenlike a dream to the reader. gewesen."'2Because K. thismorning Thus Kafka makes us aware of has found his world differentfrom various levels of reality-thedream the way it was the evening before, within the dream. K's firstdream we understand that part of the represents his alienated situation dream world has intruded into his as he views Frau Grubach's board- everydayworld. The opening of ers, many unknown to him, for he "The Metamorphosis" may be had for some time not bothered compared with that of The Trial himself about concerns of the where Kafka writes that it takes house. Then as he turnsfrom the great vigilance to see things in group and hurries into the law 62 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions court,corridors and rooms become Time has not moved on this level familiar"als wairensie seine Woh- of experience although K. has nung seit jeher."4 As K. becomes lived througha whole day of clock more deeply implicated in the time. K. deals with this situation court, the details of living lose in the realm of action by asking for him their significance, the the clerks to clear out the lumber dream becomesmore like the inner room the next day although un- dream. consciouslyhe recognizes that his In connectionwith the dream it experience is an inner one, for he should be noted that K. is often would not ask them to do this if "in the dark." Heavy curtains he thoughtthat the whipper and hang over the windows in the ad- the warders were there for the vocate's bedroom; in the cathedral clerks to see. It is K.'s fault that K. by mistakeextinguishes his lamp the warders are being whipped, and "Er blieb stehen,es war ganz thus the scene representshidden dunkel, er wusste gar nicht, an guilt. He asks the clerk to clear it welcher Stille der Kirche er sich out knowing that he cannot re- befand.'"5In this dream world one move the imprint of the scene loses one's bearings; and since K. from his mind other than by the is lost inwardly,his physical rela- destructionof its outward symbols. tion to objects and places is an Time has stood still in this back uncertainone, too. room of K.'s consciousnss,a trick When the studententers the ex- made possible by Kafka's concept aming room where K. stands alone of the idea of time as reality. with the woman who occupies the The appearance of K.'s uncle and apartmentoutside, K. experiences the mentionof his daughter,Erna, his firstmeeting with a representa- is one of the few insightswe have tive of the officialgroup on human into K.'s past. K.'s uncle under- terms as a rival.8 This meeting stands, without being told, the implies the recognition that the factsof K.'s case. K. is aware that trial is on a differentlevel from he has known all along that his "the full-bodied rise and fall." uncle would turnup, forthe uncle, Neverthelss?it is interesting to like the rest of the charactersin note that the meeting takes place the book, has reality only in re- in the same examiningroom where lation to K.'s inner life. As a K. had had his firsthearing. Kafka molder of K.'s past, the uncle, too, thus creates a link between the like the familyof Amalia in The two worlds (inner and outer), a Castle, is implicated. The uncle is link which gives artistic unity to part of the everlastingpresent of the passage. K.'s mind time, neither past nor A scene in the lumber room' in present having reality except as the bank leads to furtherinsights they are viewed by K. The Pla- into the time experience in The tonic characterof Kafka's idea of Trial. When K. returns to the time is clear when we observe that lumber room on the second eve- K. (as the initial suggests) is a ning, he finds everythingexactly symbol, not an individual, so we as he had left it the night before. are dealing here not with a specific The whipper is still standing in relationship of past and present the same position in frontof the but with a general one. warders. As K. opens the door, In the uncompleted chapter the wardersat once cry out, "Sir!" "Fahrt zu Mutter" we find the 63 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.202 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:41:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions same general relation between past recordsof earlier acts which in life and present. K.'s motheris almost are often inaccessible because blind, so unlike the uncle, she is pressed into the unconscious.That ignorant of K.'s plight. Her re- this unconscious level is unreason- fusal to be implicatedin K.'s prob- able and primitive is seen in lem is furthershown by her pres- Huld's remark that the officials ent indifferenceto K.'s visit, for are children.10The court and its earlier she had been anxious to see officialsexist in everylife, in every him. The mother,like the uncle, time and place. And K. comments is part of K.'s mind, but the blind that "so many people seem to be part, thatwhich is suppressed:"die connected with the court."" The Mutter hielt ihn sogar trotz aller Trial representsman's self-trialto Widerrede fiir den Direktor der determinehis success or failure in Bank, und dies schon seit Jahren."8 the pursuit of an inner ideal. To In another unfinished chapter claim, as criticshave, that Kafka's "Staatsanwalt"K. attributesto the books representa specifictheology, early death of his father and the psychology,or philosophyseems to mistaken tendernessof his mother me to miss the point of Kafka's a childish quality he possesses.' writingwhich was to embrace all Thus despite her 'blindness' the quests withoutpointing to any one mother is implicated in K.'s fate. as the way. The search for and But the conscious recognition of following of an inner ideal is an his mother remains in the back- old theme in literature put into ground; for several years he had words by innumerablewriters, but intended to visit her, but he had Kafka's distinctionseems to lie not never done so, and the fragment in his theme but in his technique ends before the visit is made. whichdepends to a large extenton That the charactersare projec- his abrogation of the time values tions of K.'s mind appears again of the outer world so that his odys- in his interviewwith the advocate sey is described in terms of the who at once knows all about K.'s inner world where in the final case although, as K.
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