Kafka's 'The Judgement': Summary & Analysis

• Franz Kafka lived from 1883-1924.
• He wrote the story, "The Judgement."
• Kafka kept 20 notebooks and 35 letters.
• They were confiscated by the Gestapo (Nazi Germany's brutal police force).
• These items were lost.

The Judgement

• Georg Bendemann, a young merchant, sat in his private room on a Sunday morning in Spring.
• His room was on the first floor of a row of low-rise houses facing the river.
• Houses differed in height and facade color.
• He just finished a letter to a youth friend now living abroad.
• The friend fled to Russia years ago.
• The friend built a business in Petersburg.
• Initially, his business did well, but has since stagnated.
• The friend complained about this during infrequent visits home.
• He toils pointlessly far from home.
• His face retains youthful features.
• Yellow skin indicates progressing illness.
• He lacks connections with compatriots and social ties to families.
• He reconciled himself to remaining a bachelor.
• Georg ponders what to write to someone in a dead end.
• He considers advising his friend to return home, renew relationships, and trust in his friends' help.
• This advice implies his past efforts were a failure.
• It suggests he is an old child needing to follow his friends' example.
• Doubts arise about whether efforts to bring him home would succeed.
• Georg himself acknowledges his friend no longer understands the circumstances at home.
• Communication with him is difficult and impractical.
• The friend hasn't been home for three years.
• He cites insecure political conditions in Russia preventing absence by a small merchant.
• This contrasts with other Russians traveling.
• Georg's life has changed in the past three years.
• Two years ago, the friend learned of Georg's mother's death.
• His regretful letter was dry, implying distance makes sorrow inconceivable.
• Georg has since tackled business with greater determination.
• The father possibly hindered Georg while the mother was alive.
• Since the mother's death, the father has been less restraining.
• Favorable circumstances may have played the dominant role.
• The business has unexpectedly boomed; personnel doubled.
• Volume grew fivefold, and progress seems imminent.
• The friend is unaware of these changes.
• Georg wrote a long letter announcing his engagement to Frieda Brandenfeld.
• She's from a well-to-do family who settled recently.
• Georg expresses happiness and indicates he has a happy friend.
• His bride greets the friend heartily, and will write.
• Georg questions if his wedding could be an opportunity for the friend to visit.
• He urges the friend to act without regard to obstacles.
• Holding the letter, Georg sits at his desk facing the window.
• He absentmindedly acknowledges an acquaintance.

In Father's Room

• Georg put the letter in his pocket and went to his father's room.
• He hasn't been there for months.
• He has daily contact with his father in the business.
• They eat lunch together, but cater individually in the evenings.
• They occasionally sit together in the living room, reading newspapers.
• Georg often goes out with friends or his bride.
• Georg is surprised by the room's darkness.
• The father sits near the window.
• The corner is decorated with mementos of the late mother.
• The father reads the paper, attempting to compensate for sight defects.
• The table has the remnants of breakfast he barely touched.
• The father greets Georg.
• Georg notes that his Father is still a giant
• Georg comments on the darkness.
• The father clears the dishes.
• Georg tells the father that he has announced his engagement.
• The father asks if it's to Petersburg.
• Georg clarifies it's to his friend.
• He states that his Father is totally different in the office.
• The father emphasizes "Your friend" ironically.
• Georg explains he initially withheld the engagement from his friend.
• He worried about his friend finding out from someone else due to his isolated life.
• Georg changed his mind, believing it's good luck for his friend.
• He wants to tell his Father before sending the letter.
• The father says Georg came to deliberate, which he appreciates.
• He insists on the whole truth.
• He states that since the mother's death, strange things have occurred.
• These things may become relevant soon.
• The father feels left out of business decisions.
• Georg kneels next to his father and focuses on his widened pupils.
• The father says Georg has no friend in Petersburg, calling him a joker.
• He can't believe Georg has a friend there.
• Georg asks his father to think back to his friend's visit three years ago.
• Georg remembers his Father not liking him due to his peculiarities.
• He recounts stories about the Russian revolution the friend told, including a priest in Kiev cutting a bloody cross into his hand.
• Georg seats the father again, pulling down his trousers and socks.
• He feels guilty for neglecting the father's underwear.
• He should have ensured his father's underwear was changed.
• Georg hasn't discussed the father's future living arrangements with his bride.
• They tacitly assumed the father would remain alone in the old dwelling.
• He decides to bring the father to their household.
• He realizes the father needs care soon.
• Georg carries the father to bed.
• The father plays with his watch chain.
• Georg can't immediately lay him on the bed.
• The father seems alright and tucked in.
• The father's glance toward Georg is friendly.
• Georg asks the father if he remembers his friend and nods encouragingly.
• The father asks if he's well covered, as if he can't see his feet.
• Georg assures him he is well covered.
• The father claims his friend would have been a son to him.
• He accuses Georg of betraying him.
• He asks if Georg thinks he didn't cry over him.
• He claims Georg locks himself in his office to write false letters to Russia.
• He taunts Georg for thinking he pulled one over on his Father by getting married.
• Georg sees the Petersburg friend in the vast expanse of Russia.
• He stood amongst the pile of ruined shelves
• The Father asks Georg why did he have to go so far away!
• The father points at himself and the Father begin to warble "But look at me!".
• "Because she had raised her skirts," the father began to warble, "because she had raised her skirts, the disgusting goose,"
• The father raises his shirt, exposing a war scar.
• He accuses Georg of defiling their mother's memory, betraying his friend, and putting his father to bed.
• The father throws his legs.
• The father exclaims the friend isn't betrayed.
• He says Georgs Father was his local representative.
• Georg exclaimed "Comedian"
• Georg realized the damage.
• The father asks what consolation remained for an old, widowed father.
• He questions what was open to the father in the room.
• The father accuses Georg of signing contracts.
• Georg says "if he would fall and shatter!"
• The father doesn't fall.
• The father tells Georg to Stay where you are, I don't need you!"
• "I'm still the much stronger one. Alone, I might have had to retreat, but mother had given me her strength. I could get on with your fnend marvellously, I have your clientele here in the pocket!"
• "He even has pockets in his night-gown!"
• "He even has pockets in his night-gown!" Georg said to himself and believed, with this comment he could make him impossible in the whole world.
• "Just couple yourself with your bride and come towards me! It will astound you how I can sweep her from your side!"
• Georg made incredulous grimaces, and the father just nodded.
• The father states that he wrote to Georg's friend about the engagement
• And said Georg has forgotten to take away the stationary
• And that is why the friend hasn't been here for years
• "He knows everything a hundred times better than you yourself. He crumples up your letters unread with his left hand while he holds up my letters to read them with the right!"
• The father states that The Friend knows everything a thousand times better!
• Georg replied Ten thousand times.
• The fathe states he has been waiting for this question
• The father then shows Georg a newspaper that has found its way to the bad
• The newspaper name Georg has never heard of
• The father claims that he has been waiting until mother died for the "happy day."
• The friend is perishing in his Russia.
• The father states that he knows what existed outside of Georg and he was only aware of himself
• He accuses Georg of being a devilish human being!
• And therefore the father condemns Georg to death by drowning!"
• Georg felt himself chased out of the room and surprised the charwoman
• He sprang through the house door
• He held the railing tight like a starving man clutches food
• He cried softly: "But dear parents, I have always loved you", and let himself fall down.
• At this moment, an almost endless traffic rolled across the bridge.