The Trial Lesson Plan

Are we, the readers, meant to be able to make sense of the court’s logic and rules, or are they meant to be as inscrutable to us as they are to Josef K.?

Discuss what each interpretation might indicate about the text’s themes and how this affects your overall reading of the text. As readers, we can try to interpret the court as a metaphor and see the way it operates as a component of that metaphor. But also, dream logic is intended to disorient both the protagonist and the reader. Why give us the rules if the court is meant to be inscrutable? What effect does this have on the reader?

How much complicity do characters involved with the court have in its judgment? In...