In Shakespeare's famous work Julius
Caesar, the Senator Cassius is famed for saying the line: "the fault,
dear Brutus, is not in our stars". This line relates to the idea that our
lives are not limited to a certain road by destiny but by the strength of our
will to struggle. One must question however is it really our own will that
defines our fate or is that what our ego wants us to believe. Perhaps, Cassius is wrong in his words, that the fault is indeed in our stars with the end
being the same for all men. Perhaps, it is only because of human ego that one
wants to believe that he has control over his destiny. In
the paradox between Kafka's characters Block and K., the two men react very
differently to their dance with the court (one allowing himself to be reduced to
the state of a dog and the other to a state mental fragility); yet in their
struggle they both achieve an equal state of success at free will.
Though K. chooses to pursue absolute
acquittal and Block seeks to remain in the constant state of deferment, their
faith in their decision allows then the freedom achievable in the constraints
inflicted the court.
The court in truth wants nothing of Block and K. It symbolizes the constraints
in one's life; it symbolizes destiny and fate. The priest had clearly said to K
"So why would I want anything from you? the court doesn't want anything
from you. It accepts you when you come and it lets you go when you leave."
This is what fate does. It constrains you. Block and K. follow Nietzsche's
beliefs in wanting to transcend from the common man: achieving freedom from the
court. They are only successful in achieving freedom in the fact that they do
not accept their trial as the sentence it is but constantly fights these
restraints. Block begins a love affair with the court with his obsession to
find lawyers to save him. "Five petty lawyers", and the lawyer he
shares with K is not enough to satisfy is will to struggle causing him to
continue to "even [negotiate]with a sixth one". K in contrast sacks
his lawyer, and allows himself to be consumed mind and soul into proving his
innocence. Both these men will not let themselves be taken freely by the court
instead "[want] to see some tangible progress" in finding innocence.
This innocence of course is unfindable as fate is set and its boundaries
unalterable. Though the court (fate) bind K. and Block by beginning and end,
the differences in their journeys demonstrates the free will attempted.
The parallelism between Block and K.
and their interactions with the court is apparent in the doorkeeper's parable
as they both are represented by the man waiting outside the door. Both men believe in
Camus' idea that they can transcend the absurdity to find innocence from the
court. They have the faith that they can change their fate from its set
boundaries. The fate of Block and K. fixed. It is to wait outside the door.
However K. and Block's door differs due to their varying journeys to the end
thus their doors are different. The doorkeeper himself had said to the man. "Nobody
else could have got in this way, as this entrance was meant only for
you.". These words reflect the ultimance of free will is in the
struggle. Both K. and Block are limited by boundaries set by the court which
they cannot escape yet knowing that each of their doors is different shows that
the little resistance they were able to put up did make a difference. It was a
difference in journey to destination. The doorman had said "If you're
tempted give it a try, try and go in even though I say can't."and
both men did try. Their differing struggles demonstrate the little amount of
freewill they could thus making all the difference.
At the end of The Trial, K is dead
and Block still lives yet both men remain at an equal state of being. When K. is finally killed by the
two policemen his last thoughts turn to the fact that "the logic cannot be
refuted, but someone who wants to live will not resist it." At this moment
K. is broken and he finds that everything he has fought for is pointless and that there never
was a way out of the court as an innocent man. K. reflects to the fact of
"where was the judge he'd never seen? Where was the high court he had
never reached." At this stage K. and Block are parallels. Block from the
very beginning has chosen deferment to avoid the court. His faith is in the
fact that he will continue living by parasiting as many lawyers as he can. K. immediately regards Block's choice as weak and hopeless
for "he was no longer a client, he was the lawyer's dog". Similarly Block
had noted K as a dead man for sacking his lawyer and trying to achieve absolute
acquittal. Block only comes to view himself in the perspective of K after
hearing the lawyer say "What do you think he'd say if he learned his trial
still hasn't begun, if you told him they haven't even rung the bell to announce
the start of proceedings." This serves as Block's revelation that
everything he has been doing: succumbing, begging, groveling, is pointless. Block instead
of submitting like K. his death to the point of the knife he submitted his
death to his lawyer. At this state "if the lawyer had ordered [Block] to
crawl under the bed as if it were a kennel and to bark out from under it, then
he would have done so with enthusiasm." Block in using deferment to avoid
his trial was killed by the court just like K. only mentally. The irony between
these two men is that they each recognized that the other's struggle was
pointless but could not see that his own was also. They are both victims to
Camus theory of absurdity. In truth there may be no point to the trial and the
court yet Block and K. still seek a meaning to it.
K.
and Block, through all the surface differences of their separate journeys, walked the same road down to the same fate. They were trapped by the stars, the
court, and were unable to leave those limitations that bound them. Still
though, they managed to grasp at in which ever direction they thought best to
define the fact that though they were bound they were not broken. Both K. and
Block did not give up. They took the situation were offered and worked as best
they could. This is what gave them success, this is what made them unique even
though they walked the same road. One is birthed and one dies, that is the rule
of the world-that is everyone's fate. It is because that we are all Blocks and
K's seeking our own definition of our fate that our lives differ. Free will is
not the act of doing our actions but choosing to do them. It is the faith in
the hope that even though our ends are the same we chose to make what we can
our own.
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