"Before the Law" (German: "Vor dem Gesetz") is a parable in the novel The Trial (German: Der Prozess), by Franz Kafka. "Before the Law" was published in Kafka's lifetime, while The Trial was not published until after Kafka's death.
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A man from the country seeks the law and wishes to gain entry to the law through a doorway. The doorkeeper tells the man that he cannot go through at the present time. The man asks if he can ever go through, and the doorkeeper says that is possible. The man waits by the door for years, bribing the doorkeeper with everything he has. The doorkeeper accepts the bribes, but tells the man that he accepts them "so that you do not think you have failed to do anything." The man waits at the door until he is about to die. Right before his death, he asks the doorkeeper why even though everyone seeks the law, no one else has come in all the years. The doorkeeper answers "No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it."
In some English translations of the original German text, the word "Law" is capitalized. It is important to keep in mind, however, that this is the prerogative of the translator who might wish to focus attention on the myriad connotations of the word beyond its simple juridical meaning; for example, in religious (law as moral or God's law) or psychoanalytic (Freud's "Law of the Father") contexts. In the original German, the capitalization of the word Gesetz ("Law") reflects a standard adherence to the rules of German orthography, which require that all nouns be capitalized, and does not necessarily have wider significance.
Josef K has to show an important client from Italy around a cathedral. The client doesn't show up, but just as K is leaving the cathedral, the priest calls out K's name, although K has never met the priest. The priest reveals that he is a court employee, and he tells K the story, prefacing it by saying it is from "the introductory texts to the Law," never referring to it by its published title. The priest and K then discuss interpretations of the story before K leaves the cathedral.
In the film After Hours the conversation between Paul and the bouncer at Club Berlin is partially lifted from Before the Law.
The section is a lucid example of absurdity in Kafka's works. It also clearly demonstrates the concept of existentialism, as the man from the country can only enter the gate using his own, individual path. This claim, though, is questionable; the man from the country is assigned the particular gate, because of which no one else can enter the law. Could this not mean that before the law is the law itself?
The fable is referenced and reworked in the penultimate chapter of J.M. Coetzee's novel Elizabeth Costello. Jacques Derrida's essay also titled "Before the Law" examines the meta-fictional aspects within the structure and content of Kafka's fable (For instance the situation of the title before the body of the text and also within the first line of the text itself). Derrida's essay incorporates Immanuel Kant's notion of the categorical imperative as well as Freudian psychoanalysis in its reading of Kafka's fable.