Existentialism and Before the Law

     In Before the Law, a man from the country seeks the law, or seeks to gain entry to the law.  Perhaps, being from the country, he is without advance education, and wants to better himself and raise his stature.  Later in the story the man from the country states "Everyone strives after the law."  The man is following the expectations of society, in this case to be a "learned man", instead of being true to himself.  He might have been more content to remain in the countryside if that is his true self.  The man chose to define himself by gaining access to the law, in the hopes that in succeeding he will belong to the group that has the law.

     When he is denied entry by the gatekeeper, the man languishes in indecision.  Should he go further without permission?  Are the other gatekeepers more fearsome as the first gatekeeper implied?  The man then spends years contemplating and asking questions, when he would do better to act.  If the law is what he truly wants, and not what is expected of him, he should pursue all avenues to attain it.  Instead he lets propriety influence and conforms to society's norm.  Now he should wait, now he should appease the gatekeeper who continually denies him even while accepting the man's bribes.  The law is like the carrot that dangles just out of reach of the donkey, who ceaselessly trudges in circles turning the grindstone, ever thinking that just one more step will bring him closer to the prize.

     Finally, at the end of his life, with his last dying gasp he notices an illumination emanating from the gate as the darkness comes for him.  The illumination doesn't come from the law, which, according to the first gatekeeper, is well past other gates.  The illumination is free will and the will to act.  To take that one step past the gate; then more steps through more gates, through however many gates it is necessary.  A man's inaction define him as much as his action.  In the final moment the gatekeeper shares a final revelation: the gate was meant for man, and only he could pass it.  All the man had to do was walk through it.

     In the game Before the Law, the player is given the option ignore the gatekeeper and press on through the  gate.  As the man from the country trudges forward, the world around him falls and shudders away, as it no longer has any importance, or existence, to the man.  The man's sole focus is the law, to obtain it like a possession.  And in obtaining it defines himself by it.  The law will help make him and his life better, in his eyes and in the eyes of his contemporaries.  At the end of a path suspended in space, with nothing all around him, the man reaches the law in the form of a book.  But the book is empty, much like his motivation for obtaining it.  The man was not true to himself; chasing, like everyone else, after an object or idea.  The man might have fared better fighting against expectations, and instead sought that which defines himself: his own personal choice.

Before the Law

     My first playthrough of the game Before the Law mirrors Franz Kafka's Before the Law in that we are introduced to a person who strives for the law.  Upon meeting the gatekeeper and being denied entry, I chose to wait.  As the years go by my character from the country grows old and feeble.  In his last dying moment the gatekeeper reveals the gate exists only for this sole person from the country, which he has failed to pass through.  This traveler from the country represents someone who has not received much education and now strives for knowledge.  He is faced with an obstruction in the form of a gatekeeper, which symbolizes the roadblocks and challenges a person would face - be it his class, upbringing, or lack wealth - that would hinder him from attaining knowledge.  Instead of boldly pursuing his goals, investigation every avenue available to him, he chose to wait for the opportune moment to gain entry.  In this case fortune truly does favor the bold.  One can not just sit idly by waiting for chance to impart her grace; one must be active and persevere, knowing each challenge is a test of character, and upon passing it, builds that character.

     On my second playthrough, I chose to press on through the gate rather than wait for the gatekeeper's favor.  The gatekeeper, much like his authority, cracks like a mirror and he utters "Brave of you" before finally dissipating.  Much of the barricades in our life are self-imposed, with names like doubt, procrastination, fear written on a mirror over our reflection.  It is by breaking past this wall that we can see past ourselves to the world beyond.  As the person from the country continues on his course towards the law, or knowledge, he forsakes everything.  The world around him shudders and falls away as he becomes more removed from it; in his tunnel vision all he sees is the Law, far in the distance but with each labored step closer and closer.  As he reaches his goal, he finds the Law, in the form of a book, empty.  In his forced march, his many days of labor, he has attained no more knowledge than when he first started.  When an individual pursues a goal he must exercise caution in that he doesn't become devoured by it.  The character from the country strives so much for knowledge at the end of the path he fails to find it along the way, just by living.  As expressed in Eastern Philosophy, it is the journey that is to be exalted, not the destination.