the Condemned Man

E439663

The Condemned Man is a silent, bewildered prisoner in Franz Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony,” whose impending execution exposes the brutality and absurdity of the colony’s justice system.

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Statements (46)

Predicate Object
instanceOf character in a short story
condemned person
fictional character
prisoner
appearsAlongside the Explorer NERFINISHED
the Officer
the Soldier NERFINISHED
appearsIn In the Penal Colony NERFINISHED
associatedWithTheme absurdity of law
authority and obedience
guilt and innocence
human suffering
violence
awarenessOfSentenceDetails limited
canAppealSentence false
communicationStyle mostly nonverbal
countryOfOrigin fictional penal colony
createdBy Franz Kafka NERFINISHED
deathOutcome intended execution by machine
emotionalState bewildered
silent
submissive
fictionalUniverse Kafka’s In the Penal Colony universe NERFINISHED
firstPublicationYear 1919
gender male
genreOfWork existential fiction
modernist literature
hasRelationTo the Explorer NERFINISHED
the Officer
the Soldier NERFINISHED
knowsReasonForPunishment false
languageOfWork German
legalStatus sentenced to death
medium literature
methodOfExecution execution machine
torture device that inscribes the law on the body
narrativeFunction to highlight the absurdity of unquestioned authority
to reveal the brutality of the penal colony’s justice system
roleInWork object of the execution procedure
prisoner awaiting execution
socialClass low-ranking member of the colony
symbolizes dehumanization under bureaucratic systems
powerlessness of the individual
victim of arbitrary justice
trialHeld false
workAuthorNationality Austrian-Hungarian (Kafka, writing in German)

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

In the Penal Colony mainCharacter the Condemned Man