Kaylee's Response to first half of Ch. 9

            The chapter “In the Cathedral” begins with K. and his Italian business associate. The whole situation between the two of them reiterates how K.’s trial is jeopardizing his career. As he would usually accept this opportunity with honor, he now is reluctant take on anything to challenging. This chapter also brings us back into Kafka’s dreamlike world of writing. A cathedral is already a strange place too meet, but he also he stood up and remains there alone. His experience at the cathedral resembles how he has been throughout the book – alone and lost in obscurity. The tone is also consistently subdued.

            As I continue to be curious about what K. is being tried for, I am also unsure why so many people are familiar with his case. In the cathedral, the prison chaplain calls out K.’s name as he begins to leave. How does he know his name? Was he expecting him? What are the odds of the prison chaplain being in the cathedral at the same time as K? Coincidence? I think not. At this point, I believe that the Italian was never meant to show up and the meeting was just a way to get K. to come to the cathedral. In addition, the priest knows more about the K. trial than K. himself. Throughout the book, K. continues float along, oblivious to how his trial is really going, nevertheless if it is actually proceeding at all. It may seem far-fetched, but I see a connection between K. awaiting his trial as a person awaiting their fate. In this case, K. has no control over his the process or details of his trial, much a like a person living their life. Any day his trial could start or end and he could be thrown in jail. And each day people start new chapters of their life while others end (life and death).

            This fate can also be considered the judgment, as the priest mentions. “The judgment isn’t simply delivered at some point; the proceedings gradually merge into the judgment.” I think this line could trace one of the underlying meanings of the novel. The many tests that K. has faced are his trial and will lead him to his final judgment (whether it be his life or the verdict of his “case”). In this aspect of the story, I see a component of the institution of religion and the contradictions it possesses.