Jiwoo Han:
Georg Bendemann, in “The Judgement”, decided to commit suicide at the end of the story. The story comes to a bad end, even terrible. Even though many things which are day-to-day concerns happened to him at the same time, his father conclusively made him to kill himself. Georg dealt with his engagement, his family’s business affairs, his old friend who lives in Russia, most importantly, and the relationship with his father. All of these are very stressful but, doable and surmountable. There are a bunch of people who live with those kind of problems in these modern days. On the sixth page, father said to Georg “I condemn you to death by drowning!” At that moment, Georg was not able to suppress his feelings that he had controlled barely. As a result, his father pushed him into a corner and his father is responsible for Georg’s decision at the end of the story.
Susanna Domosi:
I can see why Jiwoo argues that Georg’s father is responsible for Georg’s death, but that being said, I think Georg is should take responsibility for taking his own life. I see Gerog as someone who cannot see his life how it truly is, and not being fully aware of what his reality is. To demonstrate Georg’s confusion, the author describes Georg’s father and him have extremely different stories about the life of Georg’s friend living in Russia(that is if he even exists). The last line of the story is “At this moment, almost endless traffic rolled across the bridge.” I see two messages of significance behind this ending. One is that Georg wanted life to end, but that life goes on and one cannot contorl that. The other meaning I see behind this ending is that no one cared about Georg committing suicide. Georg kills himself and dies, no one cares and traffic simply continues as normal.
Daphne Young:
I agree with Susanna’s interpretations of the quote. One message could mean that life goes on and one cannot have control over it and in Georg’s case, one can argue that it was his father who was responsible for his death. However I do not see the ending as realistic, in Georg’s point of view he had control of his life and life was going well. When Georg took over the business, business boomed- more employees needed to be hired and the business grew 5 times larger. Georg was also engaged to a girl from a well-to-do family. His life seemed to pick up as his father’s seemed to decay. How it is that, just because of something his father said, Georg would commit suicide? Georg was pushed to a corner and overthrown by his father, “the father just nodded towards Georg’s corner to affirm the truth of what he said.”
5 responses so far ↓
j.devine // Mar 31st 2017 at 9:51 am
I think Jiwoo’s opinion on Georg’s death is a popular one. I can see where many people view a cause and effect relationship form out of Georg’s father’s words. Just as Jiwoo says, “At that moment, Georg was not able to suppress his feelings that he had controlled barely,” it seems as though Georg is pushed to his limits in regards to his father. Whether or not Georg was considering suicide before his father’s directions, it definitely looks like his father was a direct proponent of Georg’s death.
m.hernandez4 // Mar 31st 2017 at 9:52 am
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MEZBAH ONU // Mar 31st 2017 at 10:01 am
“Georg was pushed to a corner and overthrown by his father” I think that was a great way to put it when looking at it from a different perspective that the father did it.
j.moreno1 // Mar 31st 2017 at 10:23 am
Sussana, I think you interpret the ending in a great manner. Adding on to the point you said about no one caring about Georg’s suicide, it is also interesting to take into consideration that “between the posts, he spotted an autobus that would easily drown out his fall.” He does not want anyone to know that he is committing suicide and also doesn’t want anyone to try and help him if there was a chance, which is why he saw the opportunity of the bus making noise to his advantage.
yy155739 // Mar 31st 2017 at 11:25 am
Susanna, I had a similar initial analaysis of the final sentence as you did. Except you put an interesting spin on it when you said, “One is that Georg wanted life to end, but that life goes on and one cannot control that.” I like how instead of just saying that no one noticed or cared about him committing suicide, you note that “life goes on”.
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