The old way of running the colony is reminiscent of the views presented in the Old Testament, with the old Commandant – creator of the torture machine, as well as the colony itself – resembling God. If all parallels with the Bible are considered, the reading can be “an unorthodox … vision of traditional theology”. He repels the efforts of the Soldier and Condemned to follow him.
The Traveler immediately goes to the harbor and finds someone to take him out to the steamer on which he is traveling. The gravestone, which is set so low that a table can easily be placed over it, bears an inscription stating the belief of his nameless followers that he will rise from the dead someday and retake control of the colony. Īccompanied by the Soldier and the Condemned, the Traveler makes his way to a tea house, in which he is shown the grave of the previous Commandant, who was not allowed to be buried in the cemetery. However, the machine malfunctions due to its advanced state of disrepair instead of its usual elegant operation, it quickly stabs the Officer to death, denying him the mystical experience of the prisoners he had executed. Crestfallen that the Traveler has not been persuaded by his explanations and entreaty, the Officer frees the Condemned and sets up the machine for himself, with the words " Be Just" to be written on him. The Traveler refuses to do so, though he says he will not speak against the machine publicly, but will instead give his opinion to the Commandant privately and then leave before he can be called to give an official account. The Officer begs the Traveler to speak to the current Commandant on behalf of the machine's continued use. Now, he is the last outspoken proponent of the machine, but he strongly believes in its form of justice and the infallibility of the previous Commandant. The Officer is nostalgic regarding the torture device and the values that were initially associated with it, recalling the crowds that used to attend each execution. He carries its blueprints with him and is the only person who can decipher them, not allowing anyone else to handle them.Įventually, it becomes clear that the machine has fallen out of favor since the death of the previous Commandant and the appointment of a successor. The machine was designed by the colony's previous Commandant, of whom the Officer is a devoted supporter. During their final six hours in the machine, the accused become still and appear to experience a religious epiphany. As punishment, the law the man has broken is inscribed progressively deeper on his body over a period of 12 hours as he slowly dies from his wounds.
Under the judicial process associated with the machine, the accused is always assumed to be guilty and is not given a chance to defend himself. The Soldier and the Condemned, who is unaware that he has been sentenced to die for failing to get up and salute his superior's door each hour during his night watch, placidly watch from nearby. Everything about the functioning of the intricate machine and its purpose and history is told to him by the Officer. The story focuses on the Traveler, who has just arrived in an island penal colony and is encountering its brutal execution machine for the first time. The Condemned is a man scheduled for execution, the Soldier is responsible for guarding him, the Officer is in charge of the machine that will execute the Condemned, and the Traveler is a European dignitary and visitor. There are only four characters, each named according to his role in the story. As the plot unfolds, the reader learns more and more about the machine, including its origin and original justification.
#Franz kafka rock opera skin#
The story is set in an unnamed penal colony and describes the last use of an elaborate torture and execution device that carves the sentence of the condemned prisoner on his skin as he slowly dies over the course of twelve hours. Internal clues and the setting on an island suggest Octave Mirbeau's The Torture Garden as an influence. As in some of Kafka's other writings, the narrator in this story seems detached from, or perhaps numbed by, events that one would normally expect to be registered with horror. " In the Penal Colony" (" In der Strafkolonie") (also translated as " In the Penal Settlement") is a short story by Franz Kafka written in German in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919.
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