In the Penal Colony, a short story published in 1919 by Franz Kafka, discusses human nature, the importance of history, the nature of legal systems, and change. In the Penal Colony is one of Kafka’s most famed works, and for good reason, for its message continues to remain relevant to the present day, as it is to be hoped that the legal system we find ourselves in is a just one.
In the Penal Colony involves an explorer who has gone to a penal colony which is located in a remote part of the world, and is offered to witness an execution by the infamous machine known as the Harrow by an officer. The officer begins the text by stating that the Harrow (Kafka doesn’t explicitly give it this name, but I'm using it because I feel it would be too convoluted to refer to it as “the device”) is a remarkable device, admiring it from head to toe. The setting is then given - the device known as the Harrow was located in a “small sandy valley, a deep hollow surrounded on all sides by naked crags,” which had no one “save the officer, the explorer, the condemned man, who was a stupid-looking, wide-mouthed creature with bewildered hair and face, and the soldier who held the heavy chain controlling the small chains locked on the prisoner’s ankles, wrists, and neck” (131). It was revealed earlier that the prisoner was condemned to death for disobedience and mistreating a superior, and the officer states that the machine carries out the execution by itself, needing no external help, and that it takes twelve hours to execute a single person. The officer politely offers the explorer to sit down before telling him that the Harrow “‘was invented by our former Commandant. I assisted at the very earliest experiments and had a share in all the work until its completion’” (132). The officer then reveals that the previous Commandant had basically designed the penal colony by himself, and that he did everything so well that “‘his successor, even with a thousand new schemes in his head, would find it impossible to altar anything, at least for many years to come’” (132).
The officer then explains the anatomy of the Harrow. It is composed of three parts. The lower part is nicknamed the “Bed,” the upper part the “Designer,” and the middle the “Harrow.” In his own words, “‘On the Bed here the condemned man is laid … It is completely covered with a layer of cotton wool … the condemned man is laid, face down, quite naked, of course; here are the straps for the hands, here for the feet, and here for the neck, to bind him fast. Here at the head of the Bed … is this little gag of felt … It is meant to keep him from screaming and biting his tongue,’” “‘Both the Bed and the Designer have an electric battery each; the Bed needs one for itself, the Designer for the Harrow. As soon as the man is strapped down, the Bed is set in motion. It quivers in minute, very rapid vibrations, both from side to side and up to down … the movements are all precisely calculated; you see, they have to correspond very exactly to the movements of the Harrow. And the Harrow is the instrument for the actual execution of the sentence’” (133-135). To summarize, the condemned is attached to the Bed, has a message written on their back by the Designer, experiences an epiphany as to why they were arrested (they are never told their crime), and is finally speared through the head by a spike and ejected to their grave. The officer describes in further detail that there are two kinds of needles - long ones and short ones. The long ones inscribe the message while the short ones shoot water to clean the wound by ridding it of blood.
The officer says that the condemned was a night guard for a captain, but was caught sleeping on the job. When the captain checked to see if he was standing attendant at 2:00 AM, he found him sleeping. He then decided that the best course of action was to whip him suddenly across the face, and the condemned “‘caught hold of his master’s legs, shook him, and cried: ‘Throw that whip away or I’ll eat you alive’” (137). The officer then states that in the penal colony, habeas corpus doesn’t exist, for when a person is accused of a crime, they are guilty until proven innocent. In his own words, “‘My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted. Other courts cannot follow that principle, for they consist of several opinions and have higher courts to scrutinize them. That is not the case here, or at least, it was not the case in the former Commandant’s time’” (136-7). The officer then mandates that the prisoner will have “Honor Thy Superiors” written on his back for his insolence and insubordination before telling the explorer that the Harrow “‘keeps on writing deeper and deeper for the whole twelve hours. The first six hours the condemned man stays alive almost as before, he suffers only pain. After two hours the felt gag is taken away, for he has no longer strength to scream. Here, into this electrically heated basin at the head of the Bed, some warm rice pap is poured, from which the man, if he feels like it, can take as much as his tongue can lap. Not one of them ever misses the chance. I can remember none, and my experience is extensive. Only about the sixth hour does the man lose all desire to eat’” (141). After six hours of continuous torture, the condemned always undergoes “‘Enlightenment … A moment that might tempt one to get under the Harrow oneself. Nothing more happens that the man begins to understand the inscription, he purses his mouth as if he were listening. You have seen how difficult it is to decipher the script with one’s eyes; but our man deciphers it with his wounds … that is a hard task; he needs six hours to accomplish it. By that time the Harrow has pierced him quite through and casts him into the pit’” (141). After the condemned is executed, he would usually be buried by a soldier and officer.
It becomes apparent that the Harrow was very popular during the days of the first Commandant, as almost everyone in the area would come to see an execution. The officer mentions how in the past, hundreds would attend, and that no officer would dare be absent, and that he would commonly hold children in his arms so that they could enjoy the spectacle of the execution for themselves. He states that the Harrow was in much better shape in the past, for it was so popular that he got all the money he needed to get spare parts, but the new Commandant doesn’t want the Harrow operating any more, and has severely cut funding. This has caused the Harrow to no longer be as polished as it once was, though it still worked. The condemned man was then forced to lie on the Harrow in front of the explorer and was operated on, and, true to the officer’s word, once a bowl of rice pap was left in front of him, he began to eat it. The explorer, coming from a civilized country, was shocked and somewhat horrified by the machine. He wanted to tell the officer that what he was doing was wrong, but he knew that every country had their customs, and that the penal colony was no exception: “He was neither a member of the penal colony nor a citizen of the state to which it belonged. Were he to denounce this execution or actually try to stop it, they could say to him: You are a foreigner, mind your own business” (143). Despite his own misgivings, “he found himself strongly tempted. The injustice of the procedure and the inhumanity of the execution were undeniable” (143).
The officer then proceeded to tell the explorer that he needed him on his side, as the current Commander was against the Harrow, seeing that he wanted to modernize the penal colony. It is important to note that the officer seems to be suffering from delusions of persecution (though they could be true), stating that the Commandant was out to get him, and would use the explorer, who was “conditioned by European ways of thought,” to abolish the use of the Harrow once and for all (147). He then tells the explorer that when the Commandant asks him about his experience, he must not give any unfavorable statements, even if they are made casually or figuratively, for the Commandant would then use them as he sees fit: “‘I can see him, our good Commandant, pushing his chair away immediately and rushing onto the balcony, I can see his ladies streaming out after him … this is what he says: ‘A famous Western investigator, sent out to study criminal procedure in all the countries of the world, has just said that our tradition of administering justice is inhumane. Such a verdict from such a personality makes it impossible for me to countenance these methods any longer. Therefore from this very day I ordain …’” (148). The explorer, upon hearing the officer’s remarks, had to turn down the proposition with a smile, seeing that even though he was well-travelled, he wasn’t well-versed when it came to laws and was ignorant when it came to matters regarding the penal colony. The officer, instead of accepting reality, insisted even more strongly to the explorer, becoming nearly hysterical with his words. He then went on a rant about his plan and how he would force the current Commander to honor the ways of the old Commander, and the details of the plan clearly illustrate that he has devoted a very large amount of time to devising it. The officer, ending his rant, “seized the explorer by both arms and gazed, breathing heavily, into his face” (151).
Despite the officer’s impassioned pleas, the explorer refuses to listen, firmly standing his ground. He tells the officer that even though he does sympathize with him, seeing how attached he was to the Harrow, that doesn’t take away its brutality and the injustice of the court system of the penal colony. The officer, hearing the explorer’s position, remained silent for a time before looking back at the machine. The explorer then clarified to the officer that he would talk to the Commandant about his displeasure of the Harrow, but only in private. Furthermore, he would be leaving the next morning on a ship. The officer remains in a state of shock, only whispering that the explorer didn't find the procedure convincing and smiling “as an old man smiles at childish nonsense and yet pursues his own meditations behind the smile” (152). The officer, having no reason to go on anymore, states that the condemned man is free. The condemned man is indeed released, but his clothes were already thrown to the bottom of the pit. The soldier then got them back out using a bayonet, and proceeded to clean the dirtied shirt with a bucket of water. The officer, after surveying and checking the machine one last time, smiled as he began stripping himself before entering the fatal embrace of the Harrow - “In spite of the obvious haste with which he was discarding first his uniform jacket and then all his clothing, he handled each garment with loving care … he flung it at once with a kind of unwilling jerk into the pit” (155). After discarding everything on him, including his sword, belt, and scabbard, he was then put into the machine by the soldier and condemned man. The condemned man, after realizing what was going on, “gestured eagerly to the soldier and they ran together to strap the officer down” (156).
The Harrow then began doing its dirty work on the officer, and the explorer, moved by pity, ordered the soldier and the condemned man to leave. He decides to leave the officer to his own fate, as he clearly wanted to die by the Harrow. While the soldier was willing to leave the scene of the execution, “the condemned man took the order as a punishment,” seeing how “With clasped hands he implored to be allowed to stay, and when the explorer shook his head and would not relent, he even went down on his knees” (157). The machine then began breaking apart, as “Slowly the lid of the Designer rose up and then clicked wide open. The teeth of a cogwheel showed themselves and rose higher, soon the whole wheel was visible … a second wheel was already rising after it, followed by many others … the Designer must now really be empty, but another complex of numerous wheels was already rising into sight, falling down, trundling along the sand, and lying flat” (157). The Harrow, clearly malfunctioning, was no longer writing, but only jabbing, bringing up flesh blood: “Blood was flowing in a hundred streams, not mingled with water, the water jets too had failed to function” (158). The officer was stabbed to death, and when the explorer looked at his corpse, “It was as it had been in life; no sign was visible of the promised redemption; what the others had found in the machine the officer had not found; the lips were firmly pressed together, the eyes were open, with the same expression as in life, the look was calm and convinced, through the forehead went the point of the great iron spike” (158).
After the officer’s demise, the explorer went to a teahouse, and learned that when the original Commander died, the priest wouldn’t let him near the other corpses. Consequently, he was buried in an indiscreet tomb which was now under a table. The grave was inscribed with the following message: “‘Here rests the old Commandant. His adherents, who now must be nameless, have dug this grave and set up this stone. There is a prophecy that after a certain number of years the Commandant will rise again and lead his adherents from this house to recover the colony. Have faith and wait!’” (159). After seeing this, the explorer went to the harbor to leave, and saw the soldier and the condemned man running towards him, for they also wanted to escape the penal colony. “But by the time they reached the foot of the steps the explorer was already in the boat, and the ferryman was just casting off from the shore. They could have jumped into the boat, but the explorer lifted a heavy knotted rope from the floor boards, threatened them with it, and so kept them from attempting the leap” (160).
Personal thoughts:
In the Penal Colony is a fantastic short story, for it includes Kafka’s own invention, the Harrow. Needless to say, the Harrow is a very unique and horrifying machine due to its complexity, inciting both terror and wonder. A major theme of In the Penal Colony is encapsulated very well in the quote “The past is a foreign place - they do things differently there,” for the past, which is encapsulated in the penal colony (which represents a previous age of injustice and cruelty), is separate from mainstream civilization, which is seen in Europe’s Enlightenment values, which support justice, the right to a fair trial, and limitations on government. The potential bystander guilt of the explorer is a prominent theme, as he is conflicted over what he should do involving the circumstances of the penal colony. I appreciate that Kafka portrays the officer as being a somewhat admirable and courteous man despite his sadism and insensitivity, seeing that he was willing to die as he lived. This is a good choice, in my opinion, for it presents multiple layers to a persona, preventing the officer from being a stereotypical fanatic. I also appreciated how the condemned man eagerly accepted the role of being the officer’s executioner, clearly signifying that victims aren’t pure at heart just for being victimized, for they are likely to take revenge if given the opportunity (although their actions would be largely understandable due to them being wronged in the first place). In the Penal Colony is a memorable and vivid read, and I highly recommend it for people interested in bizarre contraptions, power, the law, human behavior, change and continuities over time, and Kafka’s works.
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