Blog 1 Topic 1

For the short story, “Before the Law,” my group and I chose a Reader Response Criticism and Psychological Criticism. These two criticisms were chosen specifically by my group because when we first spoke to each other about the story each if us shared a different opinion. A Reader Response Criticism basically states that no text can exist without a reader and that a text can change depending on the different readers that read the story. Then as my group and I continued our conversation about the story, we all agreed with the final decision of a Psychological Criticism. We all believed that the gatekeeper in the story depicts the idea of a human conscious belonging to the countryman. My group then also believed that the depiction of “The Law” represented exactly that, Law. For example, “I am only the most lowly gatekeeper. But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other”. The first gate keeper is considered the main conscious, the main voice that is heard inside of everyone’s head. Whereas the other gatekeepers represent the sub-conscious and further more. The country man does not progress within the story because he is afraid of going against his conscious. Also, the story revolves around the idea of a person’s mind belongs only to them, which is why the statement “Here no one can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you” is meaningful.

            One other approach the class decided to take was the Marxist Criticism. The majority of the class went with a Marxist Criticism, since they believed the story depicted the idea of the divided social class. This idea impressed me since I personally did not think of it myself to begin with. In the story we only know each of the character’s job titles, and nothing more, which depicts the idea of social class being more important than anything else. Showing importance to a job title instead of a name suggest that a person of low birth or privilege is not as important as one born into a high position. “The gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly…he always tells him that he cannot let him inside yet”. This quote can be used to explain how those of a higher standing always question those beneath them, but never allow others to progress.

            I personally prefer the Psychological approach because it makes sense to me how the gatekeepers can represent a person’s conscious. Although the Marxist Criticism is just as convincing, I believe the Psychological Criticism is the best approach for this story. I thought the main point of this story was to explain that “you must learn to make a change, instead of waiting for someone else to make that change for you”. “The Law” represents a rule that some people might want to change, and in order to change that rule, action must be taken. I find this theory more useful when compared to the Marxist theory because I can find more evidence to base my opinions on. The majority of the countryman’s actions depicted solely on his psychological state during the story is also a convincing example for the Psychological Criticism.