English A L&L · Lesson 5 of 7 · Short stories by Franz Kafka (SL and HL)

In the Penal Colony (In der Strafkolonie, 1914/1919): the apparatus, ‘Guilt is always beyond a doubt’, ‘Be just!’

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In the Penal Colony (In der Strafkolonie, written October 1914 and published 1919) is essential for Paper 2 comparative essays on how writers stage authority, cruelty, and the complicity of the bystander. Examiners reward candidates who move past plot summary to evaluate how Kafka’s choices—the Officer’s technical register, the Traveller’s polite detachment, and the slapstick of the Condemned Man and the Soldier—shape meaning (Criterion B1) and compare them sharply with a second work (Criterion B2).

By the end you’ll be able to

Analyse how the Officer’s technical, affectionate register about an instrument of torture creates satire and horror at once
Explain the Traveller’s position as observer and the reader’s uneasy identification with him
Unpack the comedy of the Condemned Man and the Soldier and what it does to the story’s seriousness

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Still to come

Core ideas (continued)
Worked examples
Exam technique
Common mistakes
Quick recap
Check your understanding (3 questions)

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What the exam asks

In Paper 2, you write a closed-book comparative essay answering one of four general questions. To show knowledge of the whole work, it is good practice to discuss more than one story from your Kafka collection, comparing them with a second work (such as Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice or Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus). Questions often ask how texts present justice, power, conflict, or endings. Top marks in Criteria B1 and B2 come from analysing how Kafka builds his effects—not just what happens in the valley, but how perspective, tone, and structure position the reader.

Core ideas

Structure and the guided tour

Kafka structures the first two-thirds of the story as an extended technical demonstration inside a small, hot, sandy valley. The story shifts through four clear movements:

The demonstration: The Officer proudly explains the three parts of the torture machine (“the Bed ... the Inscriber ... the Harrow”) while preparing to execute the Condemned Man.
The appeal: The Officer reveals that the new Commandant and his ladies (who give the prisoner sweets) oppose the old Commandant’s rituals, begging the Traveller to defend the machine at a public meeting.
The reversal: When the Traveller refuses after long reflection, the Officer frees the prisoner, sets the machine to write “Be just!”, and lies under the needles himself—only for the gears to spill out and murder him without ritual.
The flight: The Traveller visits the old Commandant’s grave in the tea house, then flees to a steamer, brandishing a rope to keep the Soldier and the Condemned Man behind.