Kafka on Trial: THE TRIAL and its Potentiality
The Trial conveys a sense of confusion and disambiguation, as the main character finds himself the subject of a trial for a crime whose nature he cannot fully comprehend or even remember committing. The main character is referred to throughout the novel simply as “K”; the reader is never even privy to his last name while the rest of the characters are always addressed by their full names.
The first moments of action take place without the protagonist leaving his bed:
‘Who are you?’ asked K., and immediately sat halfway up in his bed. But the man ignored the question as if his presence would have to be accepted, and merely said in turn, “You rang?” “Anna’s to bring me breakfast” said K. (4) It takes several moments for K. to realize that something is not right before he leaves his bed. It seems that the protagonist chooses to linger in his sleep state before commencing to investigate the strange occurrences around him. He is not described as lazy, quite the opposite in fact- he is competent and diligent and at times very assertive, yet when a strange man enters his bedroom he lingers, as if trying to remain in the world that surrounds him during sleep.
The beginning of the story initiates a dialogue with the dream world by asserting that sleep is something that K. feels strongly tied to. Like The Metamorphosis, there is little mention of sleep, or dreaming, afterwards although there is more meditation on daydreams and lingering on certain thoughts or fantasies. 
Constantly, K is met with the advice: “We advise you not to waste your time in useless thought” and the almost prophetic instruction: “think less about us and what’s going to happen to you, and instead think more about yourself” (9, 14). The direction highlights a certain split of the self and a fragmented identity. K, while overwhelmingly concerned with looking for sense and reason, sees no logical problem with the split, and only resents being lectured “like a schoolboy” His apathy toward the trial in the early stages was constantly noted, “Your indifference is driving me crazy” (94). As K. begins to adapt to his situation he undergoes a sort of “metamorphosis”, his yielding to the system clouds his own sense of reason.
About half way through the novel, “The decision to take charge of his own defense appeared more momentous now than he had originally assumed” (131). After that point his concern for the logic of his world dissolved, he worked within the frame ascribed to him and his sense of reason disintegrated as well.
Towards the end, turning inward, K. tries to reclaim his sense of self, “The only thing I can do now is keep my mind calm and analytical to the last.” (228) K., whose life has been qualified by the intrusion of others, clings to his mind at the time of death.
Read more:
Kafka Meets Freud... and Whatever that Means: Introducing the link between them
Just what makes Kafka so Kafkaesque?
One popular (and quite possibly missguided) way of reading Kafka’s Dreams:
More than Metaphor
A Country Doctor: How Many Lit Critics does it take screw in some meaning?
Kafka on Trial: THE TRIAL and its Potentiality
Concluding (Somewhat) Inconclusively
Further Reading
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