"Eine ganz einfache Person". Frau Grubach's insight in Kafka's Prozess

Abstract

Der Prozess is one of the most minutely analyzed texts by an author as minutely analyzed in turn as Franz Kafka. For the researcher, the hope then lies in improving our understanding of some underestimated aspects that may shed new light on the whole novel. Minor characters are often a source of such hidden particulars, and among them the "most minor" prove to be sometimes even more interesting. Such is the case of the protagonist's landlady, Frau Grubach. This essay offers precisely an in-depth reading of her opinion on Josef K.'s arrest: in particular, I try to show how it conceals an unconscious but rather profound insight into the true nature of the trial. However, K. is unable to grasp it—both because he reserves to Grubach his typical dismissive attitude, offering yet another side of his machismo, and because this insight is expressed by the woman tentatively, with a mixture of fear and self-denigration. In fact, the language of Frau Grubach (eine ganz einfache Person, "a very simple person") is in its way closer to the cryptic language of the Court. This may seem at first paradoxical, but it is only a special case of Kafka's trademark: his unsettling balance between utmost stylistic transparency and utmost enigmatic content.