THE IMAGE OF THE BED IN KAFKA’S THE TRIAL: AN ANALYSIS OF K’S STATE OF EXISTENCE

This paper takes the core image of the “bed” in Franz Kafka’s The Trial as a starting point to delve into the multiple connotations it symbolizes regarding the protagonist Joseph K’s suspended state of existence. The “bed” is not only the site of K’s mundane life and the awakening of his “sense of guilt,” reflecting his cyclical entrapment in sin while in pursuit of truth, but also serves as an irony to his so-called “freedom”—the freedom of movement granted by his arrest actually constitutes a paradoxical punishment. Ultimately, the “bed” directs K toward an absurd “death” sentence, highlighting the groundlessness and “thrownness” of his existence. As a key symbol, the “bed” profoundly reveals K’s absurd living condition: neither able to integrate into the secular order nor capable of reaching the supreme truth.