The Judgment

The Judgment is a short story written by Franz Kafka in 1912 and first published in 1913.

The story centers on a young businessman struggling with his personal relationships. After writing a letter to a friend who lives abroad, he discusses his plans and recent engagement with his elderly father, expecting a relatively ordinary conversation.

Instead, the encounter quickly becomes disturbing as his father accuses him of selfishness and deceit and claims to know more about his distant friend than he has admitted. The confrontation grows increasingly intense until the father pronounces a shocking judgment upon his son, which he accepts with terrifying obedience.

The Judgment explores guilt, family conflict, authority, and psychological oppression. Through its sudden shifts from everyday reality to nightmare-like intensity, the story reflects Kafka's characteristic interest in power, alienation, and irrational condemnation.

"It was a Sunday morning in the loveliest of spring weather. Georg Bendemann, a young businessman, sat in his private room on the second floor of one of the low, flimsily built houses that stretched along the river in a long row, differing from one another hardly at all except in height and color. He had just finished a letter to a childhood friend now living abroad, sealed it with a playful slowness, and then, his elbow propped on the desk, looked out the window at the river, the bridge, and the hills on the far bank with their faint green."

This English translation was produced by AliceAndBooks from the original German text available through Project Gutenberg.