Chapter 9

Chapter 9 takes a shift with the way things have been going during the novel for a while, however it keeps the main idea that K.’s trial is going to shit. He has established to meet at the cathedral with an Italian client to show him around the city, and yet again there are weird twists and confusions planted by Kafka that perplex the reader in that “Kafkaesque” manner that we should all be used to by now.

When K. is in the cathedral, he speaks to a priest who also seems to know a lot about his case. The priest tells Joseph K. information that he already knows; his case will not end well, though K. tries to convince him that his relationships with the different women he has been with will help him to succeed. Yet another small implication that in the screwed-up, corrupt judicial system, connections are everything. Is this K.’s only hope at this point? He seems to believe that these women are the only way he will win the case.  Through this wishful thinking, we see that Kafka believes that the state institution is not a very consistent one, nevertheless it holds complete power over all of us. Regardless of the fact that the institution is corrupt, unjust, and unprofessional, it keeps a strong power over the citizens and cannot be overcome. In this unfair world, the only thing keeping people out of trouble is their connections.

The parable told by the priest is very symbolic to Joseph K.’s situation. The man in the parable is knocking on the doors of the “law,” and the institution fails to help him due to the manipulation and threats it manifests over the people. K. is experiencing something similar; he is hopeless before the law and cannot trust the state institution; an establishment that claims that they exist to help the people and not weaken them. Kafka, through this parable, demonstrates his cynical view of society and the state institution, and shows the readers that the law is does not fulfill the support and benefits that it claims. The law is weak and leaves the people impotent. Those that are forced to deal with the law are left helpless, because they are bound to fail. In a way, the man in the parable is Kafka’s way of summing up Joseph K.’s situation and represents the way the law reacts to his case. Clearly, Kafka has little or no faith in the controlling institutions that so strongly affect society and the common  man.