A Marxist Reading of Kafka's "Before the Law"

Upon reading Franz Kafka’s Before the Law, my group and I had decided that this piece could be read with a Marxist critic,. Karl Marx’s explains that human interactions are economically driven and that there is struggle of power between different social classes. This Kafka’s piece the relationship between the man and the gatekeeper poses as an example of this power struggle.  The only thing that stands in the way of the man to go through the gate is the gate keeper. The man is seen as lower class than the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper is the guard of this gate, giving him some kind of power. Meaning not allowing the man to go through, which is kind of strange because even though the gatekeeper states that, “I am powerful…? And I am the lowest gatekeeper”. There are much more powerful gatekeepers past this one gate. The man could have just walked pasted the gatekeeper knowing full well he is not the most powerful, but the man does not. The gatekeeper later explains that, “from room to room stands a gatekeeper, each more powerful than the other”. So this begs the questions of are all the gates just a test of the strength of man? Possibility a test of bravery? Or a test of wealth? The man merely waits, “better to wait until he gets permission to go inside”. He waits like a brainless robot to get permission from a higher power, but ironically is a lower power in the hierarchy of power. The man an here can be described as foolish or weak, unable to make their own path and go against the high power, i.e. the gatekeeper.  

            The gate itself stands as an individualized object of economic boundaries. The gate stands in between both the man and entering into to the Law. Law in this case is a symbol of a community allows for on the wealth to attain. For example, university is a very exclusive honor to attend, however with this exclusiveness comes a rather large investment. The man’s only wish is  to go through the gate. So much so that he “spends everything, no matter how valuable to win over the gatekeeper”.  Whenever there is something that is a desire, people given up so much just to attain this desire. With the example of a university, many students work fulltime jobs and often times take out loans just to attend the prestigious college. The man in addition to giving up everything he owns, he also tries to “ask the fleas [found in the gatekeepers coat] to help him to persuade the gatekeeper”. The level of persuasion can be related to the persuasion laid on applications to college. Many applications require pages of essay having you prove why you belong the college you are applying to as well as what you will offer to the school. The man in Kafka’s piece believes that, “the law should always be accessible for everyone”. Like the law school in any shape and for should accessible for everyone. As said before by the gatekeeper, he is “the lowest gatekeeper”. Drawing back to the example of colleges, there are many different tiers ranging from prestigious to more common school. Every students is to attend the high ranked schools such as: UC Davis, Stanford, or UC Merced. Then below those (not to bash on the credibility of the school) are CSU’s including: CSUB, CSUN, or CSUCI. In regards to the story, the gatekeeper is a lower gatekeeper, so the gate by association is a lower tier gate.

Coming back to my questioned posed before, why does the man stop at the lowest tier of the gates? This gate states by the gatekeeper, “This entrance was assigned only to you”. It could be argued that the man was full of foolish pride. Some people are so proud and foolish that they will pass of the opportunity just because they view it as to common or too hard. Going against the gatekeeper, in the man’s eyes, could have been too hard. Often times when something is too hard people back down and wish for an easier route. But the easiest route is not always the right way to go. If the man had gone through the gate he may have gained new found knowledge or strength in himself to pass through other gates than his first encounter. Always take any opportunity given to you no matter hard the difficulty or how prideful you may be.