The Judgement

Emily

At the end of The Judgement, we see Georg run to the bridge and jump off. At first, this seems a bit exaggerated. How could one little argument spark someone to go to such drastic measures as to kill themselves? Yet, with all the events leading up to this tragic moment, the reasons for his actions become more clear. For one, the people in his life act as almost “alter egos” of Georg. His friend is imaginary: a figure he created to help cope with his mental health issues. He could put all of his problems onto someone else and it made things easier to deal with. When his father (and I am not sure as to whether or not I believe his father may be another one of these imaginary figures) forces Georg to realize that he is living a lie and his life is really a mess, it drives his son over the edge. As if out of instinct, when his father tells Georg he will die from drowning, he fulfills his (own) wishes. As Borys points out, he could no longer bare the weight of the world around him. This is his inner conscious planning his suicide. What makes this realistic, for me, being someone who is aware of the effects and consequences of mental illness, is the fact that he suffered so long and when he reached the point where he could no longer hold the enemy, the sickness, back, Georg surrendered. He had seemingly found a permanent way to end his own suffering. “He cried softly: ″But dear parents, I have always loved you″, and let himself fall down.” What a real tragedy.  

Zuzanna

The question of who is responsible for Georg’s death at the end of “The Judgement” could be debated based on how we interpret the power of language. Georg’s father does not hold back at the end of the story; he tells Georg that he has always been a “develish human being”, and proceeds to condemn him to a death by drowning. One can argue that although Georg’s father did not directly kill his son, his cruel words could be the result of his death. Based on the title, “The Judgement”, Kafka could have tried to show his readers the power that our loved ones can have over us simply with their words. Georg does not seem to have control over his own actions prior to jumping off the bridge; “he continued to hold onto the railing though his hands were getting weak”, and he “felt himself chased out of the room.” Georg’s actions seem to be controlled by an outside force, as if the power of his father’s words was strong enough to preside over his actions. As Emily mentioned, his father’s accusations seem to drive Georg to commit suicide; the power of language is sometimes stronger than any physical action we take.

Borys

The melancholy and tragic story of Georg ends with him taking his own life by jumping off the bridge. There is added significance to this moment with the final line of the story, “At this moment, almost endless traffic rolled across the bridge.” This could be seen as an analogy to peek inside the mind of Georg at the instant just before he decided to jump off the bridge. He was clearly overwhelmed by life at that moment and couldn’t handle all of it at once, which could be compared to the “endless traffic” on the bridge; it just kept on coming and he wasn’t able to bear the load of it. He was juggling numerous stressful events at once, from marriage, friendships, to even cruel parents. I agree with my groupmates, this seems like a very realistic conclusion to the story, with a depressed and disturbed individual taking his own life after a traumatic experience.