The Trial Lesson Plan

Analyze the way women have been portrayed in the text so far.

Students will likely pick up on a thread of misogyny in this text (either on K.'s part, on Kafka's part, or both!). Women seem to always be randomly throwing themselves at K. in desperate lust and then vanishing. Worse, male characters (including K.) keep harassing and assaulting the female characters. Some students may point out that the former is not unique to the female characters: people come and go without warning in this story, like a dream. The women in this story don't get a lot of characterization behind offering help to K. They typically have some involvement with the court—even Fraulein Burstner is...