At the end of the story I believe that both Georg and his father are the prime culprits behind the suicide at the end of the story. The suicide of Georg can be accredited to his father and himself which was caused by self-realization and vilification of oneself and others. Throughout the story, we can infer through analysis of the text that Georg knows about the wrong things he has done and is doing and this can be seen through his daily routines with his father. Towards the end of the story, the father of Georg begins to criticize his son and points out all his faults and finally condemns him to death by drowning. This can be seen as the vilification of others as the father of Georg paints his son out to be an evil human. At this point, Georg has an epiphany or a self-realization and comes to the conclusion that his entire life he has lived as a horrible human being and believes in the vilification of himself which eventually results in him committing suicide.
6 Responses to The Judgement- Kamran, Vyonna, Mark
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Kamran, you have raised a good argument, about both the father and Georg being mutually responsible for Georg’s decision. However, I disagree because although someone condemns you to death after admitting to you all your faults and flaws, it is not enough to actually make you want to do it, as you agued: “Towards the end of the story, the father of Georg begins to criticize his son and points out all his faults and finally condemns him to death by drowning.” There are life events that can lead someone to tragically become suicidal, however the decision itself comes from within the oneself, which was my argument.
I believe there is no true answer to the significance of the last line in the judgment, I believe it is
Up for the readers interpretation. In my opinion, the last line alludes to the idea that many people just like georg experience hardship In their lives but despite their circumstance, they continue to move forward. I think the traffic is a representation of the amount of people who have likely felt like taking their own lives because just lik
e georg, they felt helpless. It is only human for us to cotemplate taking out own lives in the wake of our struggles but many of us do not act out on these thoughts. Some argue that suicide is the ultimate cop out but in reality it is usually a part of some underlying mental condition that a person possesses. Although it’s a sad reality for us to face, suicide usually occurs when a person feels as if they’ve exhausted all of their hope and they can no longer continue on. It is likely that the sum of Georgs experiences lead him to taking his own life.
Vyonna
I believe the ending of the Judgement was very unrealistic for many reasons being that it goes with the question “if someone tells you to jump off a cliff, are you going to do it?” and the fact that traffic went on when he let go of the railing and no one stopped or noticed even though he did it as soon as a bus passed by, which means at least one passenger should have seen it. In the story it wasn’t just a random person condemning him to drowning but instead it was his father, and I can see in an obedient world, even if it would mean ending his life, the son would actually do it. But we are not in that world and the story isn’t either which is why it is unrealistic. He never questioned his father as to why he would tell him to commit suicide, although my group member Kamran states that “…he has lived as a horrible human being and believes in the vilification of himself…” but I believe that maybe being around his father he tends to act child like in the sense that he cannot think for himself. And I am led to believe this because in the story Georg says “My father is still a giant” once he was in his father’s room which he never goes in and the readers know the father is old and not well. Him looking at his father like he is a giant represents the hold his father has over him emotionally.
amron,
I strongly agree with your post. Most have put the blame on georg for taking his own life but your perspective(to me) seems to be more realistic. I also feel that Georgs relationship with his father lead him to take his own life. You state that “Georgs father condemns him to death by drowning”. I think to say that georgs fathers words held no weight in his decision would be very wrong. Although they are just words, the things we say possess the ability to make people experience a plethora of emotions. Many of times people take their lives at the hand of other human beings. This is one of the reasons why I am extremely careful when dealing with someone’s emotions or someone who exclaims that they are suicidal.
I have to agree with you when you stated that, “the suicide of Georg can be accredited to his father and himself which was caused by self-realization and vilification of oneself and others.” It became pretty obvious throughout the text that clearly something was off with the character. As Georg’s father continued to point out his flaws and wrongdoing it slowly became evident that Georg was actually guilty of most of it, if not all. It seemed as if he had been in denial of this for most of his life and when he realized the truth, he couldn’t bear it; ending his own life.