Response to Max

Camille Kelleher

Max pointed out that it seems very unlikely that a court painter would be able to have a large influence over the court judges. The court painter is most likely the same status as the men who were told when to laugh during the initial inquiry. I am not surprised that Kafka would add this unusual component to the story because pretty much the majority of this story is quite absurd. The fact that there is literally no privacy and an individual can be arrested at any given moment by an underground judicial system makes this whole story hard to believe and accept. Since the painter is at a very low status in the court system, I think that the painter may rely on black mail or some form of threat to influence the judges.

Also, Max talked about the paintings that K. bought from Titorelli. I find it interesting that K’s main motive to hide the paintings is to prevent the vice president of the bank from seeing them. Maybe these particular set of landscapes are often associated with men who are under trial or K’s interest in them reveals too much about his personal tastes and current situation. Titorelli even said that many people find these portraits landscapes to be ugly because they are too somber; however, K still bought them because he is comfortable with the idea of gloom and life’s restraints.