The Kafka parable, Before the Law, is a typical story where someone is to give all he has and to try to achieve something but fails nevertheless. In the story, a man wants to pass through a door but is threatened by the doors men about what lies ahead of him if he does without the door man's permission. He then decides to wait until he gains his permission to pass and thus the tragedy begins. The man grows old and feeble as time passes. He gives the doors man everything he owns until he owns nothing, eventually giving the only thing left, his life. During the process he becomes so weak that he begins to lose his vision. The doors man basically interviews him and gives him false hope that it may be the next day or the day after only to give him the final no when the man has finally died.
This is a classic example of a tragedy in the sense of someone who wanted to accomplish or achieve an unattainable goal and was given false hope for it. The man gave everything, and in the end lost it all including his life for nothing. He wasted all those years waiting on the door side, thinking that one day he will achieve to pass through only to be disappointed in his life's mistake. The audience feels bad for the man because he was so persistent, so determined to only receive the final no and realize what a mistake he has made.
It was a story we sympathized with the man but to no one's surprise, he was denied entrance to a goal that was never attainable. If only the man realized it 20 years in or even 10 years, could he have saved himself. If only the man realized that no one else during the time period or before/after visited the door, that maybe it was meant for no one to pass through and a mere trap for death would he have been saved/
This is a classic example of a tragedy in the sense of someone who wanted to accomplish or achieve an unattainable goal and was given false hope for it. The man gave everything, and in the end lost it all including his life for nothing. He wasted all those years waiting on the door side, thinking that one day he will achieve to pass through only to be disappointed in his life's mistake. The audience feels bad for the man because he was so persistent, so determined to only receive the final no and realize what a mistake he has made.
It was a story we sympathized with the man but to no one's surprise, he was denied entrance to a goal that was never attainable. If only the man realized it 20 years in or even 10 years, could he have saved himself. If only the man realized that no one else during the time period or before/after visited the door, that maybe it was meant for no one to pass through and a mere trap for death would he have been saved/