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Alex Hopp
HON 272
Dr. April Miller
26 January 2015
Justice and the Law in Before the Law
Justice is an elusive ideal. Defined by Websters Dictionary as the quality of being
impartial or fair, entire legal systems revolve around this idea, striving to achieve this virtue
above any other. However, justice appears to be just out of reach for much of humanity,
regardless of the laws attempts to recognize it. Franz Kafka, a Czech writer, understood the
disconnect that often exists between the law and this ideal of justice. In Before the Law Franz
Kafka uses one mans journey towards justice as a way of describing the inhibitive effects the
law can have on every humans struggle towards living a just life.
In order to understand what Kafka is trying to say in Before the Law, it is important to
first understand that what Kafka is describing as the Law is not actually the rules laid down by
a legal system, as the word law would normally denote. Instead, when Kafka refers to the law, he
means the ideal of justice. Common sense supports this idea: no one seeks after the law, as the
man from the country would appear to, simply because the law should always be accessible to
everyone (Kafka 5). There is no need to gain entrance to the law because it is already
completely accessible. Justice, or Kafkas law, is shown to be less accessible, due entirely to
the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper is meant to represent the law, in all of its martial glory. Kafka
goes into great detail describing how intimidating the gatekeeper is, discussing his fur coathis
large, pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartars beard (5). The effect of this

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characterization, especially when considering the man from the country receives no further
description, illustrates Kafkas point perfectly: there is a man, seeking to live a just life, being
cowed into submission by the mighty power of the law.
With the characters and setting now in place, it is readily apparent that Kafka is trying to
teach the reader three specific lessons. First off, Kafka is using Before the Law as a way to
show that only following the law, even as well as one can, does not guarantee the achievement of
justice. The gatekeeper says to the man, I am taking this only so that you do not think you have
failed to do anything (5). The man gave everything possible to the law, from his time to every
material possession he owned, and it still was not enough to achieve justice. Similarly, the
second point that Kafka is making is that sitting around and waiting for the law to make one just
will never work. The pursuit of justice, Kafka writes, is something that has to happen
independent of any legal system. The gatekeeper even says try going inside in spite of my
prohibition (5), daring the man to try and achieve this justice on his own. But as the man sits
and looks at the law, refusing to do anything of his own accord, the message is clear: if he
continues to sit around and wait for the law to bring justice to his life, he will never achieve the
just life that he craves. Finally, Kafka is showing that the pursuit of justice is an individual
endeavor. The last thing that the gatekeeper says to the man before he dies is Here no one else
can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you (6). Each human, Kafka proclaims,
has their own path towards justice. The law does not make people live just lives because it is
overarching, disregarding individuality and focusing instead on one general system, a way that
Kafka knows will never bring about justice.
In Before the Law, Franz Kafka explains the inhibitive role that the law often plays in
an individuals struggle to live a just life. Kafka leaves the reader with a grave warning, as the

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man from the country dies never achieving the justice he longed for. However, there is also a
measure of hope that come from learning from anothers mistake, insinuating that it is not too
later for us, the readers, to take the initiative and achieve justice on our own, independent of the
law.
Works Cited
Justice. (n.d.) . In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/justice.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis, A Hunger Artist, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories.
Trans. Ian Johnston. Virginia: Richer Resources Publishing, 2011. Print.