The Law in Kafka's The TrialThe Law in Kafka's novel The Trial houses a fundamental but fleeting metaphysics. It is virtually unassailable, hidden and always just beyond human comprehension. The Law seeks to impose an unknowable order and to assimilate every individual conception of existence. It defines two distinct modes of existence through accusation: those who are accused by the Law and those who are authorized by the Law to judge the accused. From the moment of his arrest, Joseph K. opposes this legal hierarchy by stating: "I don't know this Law... it probably doesn't exist anywhere except in your head... it's only a trial if I recognize it as such" " (6, 40) Freedom is at the heart of this conflict. In attempting to rigidly define human existence, the Law forces humanity to be passive, to accept the incomprehensible legal apparatus of the Court without question. the only useless thing is to try to act independently" (175). There is the tacit assumption that freedom, whether one is accused or not, is provisional at best. Kafka uses the allegory of the priest of the doorman and the man common to powerfully illustrate this point. Mankind's ignorance of the Law is a fact both in the allegory and in the novel as a whole. K. and the country man exist outside the confines of the Law. Both seek knowledge; they want to be admitted beyond the threshold. This ignorance, however, provides no protection from the powers of the Law. Ignorance does not prevent one from being accused, enslaved, or destroyed. “Anything but stopping halfway, that was the most senseless thing…half of the paper…the concept of the Court. “Everything belongs to the Court” (151). The Law provides a sense of unknowable mysterious order in an otherwise universe chaotic, fueling the ever-expanding interconnected machinery of the Court. The common man in the allegory chooses to remain at the threshold of the Law K. exercises a certain degree of free will by dismissing his lawyer, attempting." alter the arrangement of things around him" (121). In each case, however, an act of freedom is met with a "compensatory reaction" from the bowels of the Court's machinery. Each man is ultimately forced to passively face death within the power of those appointed by the Law. Ultimately, in the allegory and in the novel as a whole, the Law remains flexible enough to contain and limit every act of individual freedom. Works Cited Kafka, The Trial New York: Schocken Books, 1984.