"Before the Law:" Marxist or Psychological?

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is a seemingly simple short story that is about a countryman that wishes to gain entrance to a gate but is constantly denied permission. It concludes with the nameless protagonist’s death, but without him achieving entrance beyond the gate that was supposed to be meant for him only. During ENL 10C, my group concluded that Kafka’s intention for the short story is to be a piece of Marxist criticism. My group and I focused on the interactions between the countryman and the gatekeeper and concluded that it was economically driven. The line, “The man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper,” proved that there was a materialistic undertone to the story, as the protagonist thought that bribery would help him achieve entrance. The description of the gatekeeper as a man wearing a fur coat alluded to wealth, while the man was described as a simple countryman.

While my group and I had decided on Marxist criticism as a reading for “Before the Law,” another possible criticism that Kafka could have explored is the psychological theories. The Freudian concept of having many layers in the subconscious could be interpreted as the many gates after the main gatekeeper that the protagonist interacts with, but never reaches. The Freudian model of the mind depicts the conscious as only a small part of the human mind, while the subconscious and unconscious take up more than half as a human’s storied memories, then fears and instincts. The gates are physical representations of that model, and Kafka even suggests that there are three gates to match up with the three separate parts. “But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other. I can’t endure even one glimpse of the third.” The psychological theories also explore motivation and inner desires in humans. The short story leaves room for interpreting the drive and motivation of the protagonist. The protagonist wastes away at the gate, receiving nothing in return, and yet it is unclear what the protagonist would have received if he accomplished gaining entry. That unstated motivation of the protagonist could have a psychological explanation. The lack of explanation or concrete evidence would result in deeper, less obvious meanings.

The lack of obvious meanings behind Kafka’s work leaves a lot of room for interpretation, as it doesn’t list names, a setting, or a tangible explanation for the gate; however, the story is meant to produce some kind of lesson or meaning behind the work. “Before the Law” is best read as a comment on humanity’s materialism and a Marxist criticism overall. While there is no concrete explanation or indication about the meaning of the story, what little contextual evidence that exists in the Kafka’s work revolves around the exchange of goods and the obvious unbalance of wealth between the protagonist and the gatekeeper. The tangible appearance of the economy-driven interactions appears more than any other possible readings for the work. Physical evidence for the Marxist criticism appears more often than any other possible interpretation. The gatekeeper’s main and first description is the mention of the fur coat, an obvious indicator of wealth, which already shows an economic difference from the man’s country depiction. “He now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat.” The gatekeeper also exhibits power over the countryman, spending the entirety of the story preventing the protagonist from gaining what he wants. The protagonist does not receive an answer as to why he can not enter the gate and simply listens to the gatekeeper, representing that unquestionable power that the gatekeeper has, which is more obvious as the countryman physically ages while the gatekeeper seemingly remains the same. The story is centered around the protagonist’s efforts to pass the gate and the countryman’s desperation leads him to attempt to bribe the gatekeeper into letting him in, instead of attempting to convince the gatekeeper with his words or fight the gatekeeper physically. The man’s reliance on valuable items instead of his own power to gain entrance represents humanity as a species that is money-oriented and is a consumer society. The gatekeeper takes the possessions of the countryman, yet does not allow entrance, showing an aspect of individual material gain in the upper class. The Marxist criticism states that humanity’s progress is also based on a struggle for power between social classes; the gates are described as growing in power, and as physical manifestations of the separate social classes that grow in power that is proportional to the amount of money they have, the motivation of the countryman to enter the first gate is seen as his want to achieve a higher social class. Despite that desire, however, and attempting to utilize materialism as a way to gain entry, the man was still denied entrance by those in power.

(WC: 817)