A German colonial settlement in New Guinea in 1884.
"In the Penal Colony" (German: "In der Strafkolonie"; also translated into English as "In the Penal Settlement") is a short story by the German-speaking Czech author Franz Kafka. The action takes place on an unnamed tropical island which is a colony of an unspecified European nation. The story centers around an elaborate machine which tortures and slowly kills prisoners who are condemned to death.
Franz Kafka wrote "In the Penal Colony" in 1914. In 1916, he gave a public reading of the story at the Galerie Goltz in Munich, Germany, during which one audience member reportedly fainted. Kafka revised the story in 1918. It was first published in book form in October 1919. The first English translation of "In the Penal Colony" was published in the March/April 1941 edition of the American magazine Partisan Review.
Stephen Berkoff adapted "In the Penal Colony" as a play which was first performed in 1969. Short films based on the story were released in 2006, 2009 and 2014. The chamber opera In the Penal Colony, with music by Philip Glass and libretto by Rudy Wurlitzer, had its premiere at the ACT Theater in Seattle, Washington on August 31, 2000.
Plot[]
.jpg){kind=link}
Title page of a first edition of "In the Penal Colony" from 1919.
The majority of the story takes place in a sandy valley, the location where executions are carried out, on a tropical island which has been colonized by a European country. The four main characters in the story are known only as the Officer, the Soldier, the Condemned Man and the Traveler.[1] The Traveler is an important person from an unnamed nation in Europe. It is specifically stated that the country which the Traveler comes from is not the one which has colonized the island.
The New Commandant, who has recently taken over control of the colony after the death of the Old Commandant, has requested the Traveler to witness an execution. The Condemned Man had been a servant of a captain. He was sentenced to death for showing disrespect to his superiors. He was caught sleeping on the job and then objected when the captain whipped him. The Officer proudly shows the Traveler the machine which will be used to execute the Condemned Man. The machine was designed by the Old Commandant. It takes about twelve hours for the machine to kill a condemned prisoner. A series of needles carve a message into the condemned prisoner's flesh which is appropriate to the crime for which he has been convicted. The message which is to be carved into the Condemned Man's flesh that day is, "Honor your superiors". The machine moves the prisoner so that the message is carved all over his body. Other needles spray water onto the prisoner's body, thus washing away the blood and making the message clearly legible. The mixture of blood and water drains away into a nearby pit. The needles gradually go deeper into the prisoner's body. Eventually, all that is left of the condemned criminal's body flows into the same pit into which the blood and water had previously gone.
The Officer speaks to the Traveler in French, a language which is not understood by either the Condemned Man or the Soldier, whose job it is to lead the Condemned Man in chains to the place of execution and to strap him into the machine. Although the Condemned Man cannot understand the Officer's words, he listens to him intently and looks closely at everything which he points out to the Traveler. The Traveler realizes that the Condemned Man does not know what is to happen to him. The Officer reluctantly tells the Traveler that the Condemned Man does not know what his sentence is and that there has been no trial. The Officer is the island's only judge and he always assumes that all people who are reported to him are guilty.
Photograph taken during the Swiss premiere of the Philip Glass opera In the Penal Colony at the Theater der Kunste, Zurich on May 19, 2011.
It becomes clear that the reason why the Traveler has been asked to witness the execution is because the New Commandant does not approve of the Old Commandant's machine or the Officer's practices as judge. The distinguished Traveler is expected to influence public opinion by speaking out against people being condemned to death without trial and the horrific manner in which they are executed. The Officer is aware of this. He pleads with the Traveler to help him. He asks the Traveler to give the vague impression that he does not approve of the way executions are carried out on the island, until he is asked to speak at an upcoming meeting. At the meeting, the Traveler should loudly speak out in support of the Officer and the execution machine. The New Commandant would have to bow to the opinion of such an important person and allow the Officer to retain his post as judge and continue carrying out executions using the machine. The Traveler says that he has no intention of staying to attend such a meeting, he plans to leave the island the next day. He adds that he does not approve of the Officer's manner of administering justice and could not go against his conscience by speaking in favor of him.
The Officer realizes that there is no possibility that the New Commandant will allow him to continue as judge and executioner. He orders that the Condemned Man, who has been in the machine for a short time and has not been seriously harmed by it, be set free. He gets into the machine himself, having first set it to carve the message "Be just" into his flesh. However, the machine malfunctions and falls apart while the Officer is in it. All of the needles plunge into the Officer's flesh at once and he is killed quickly as a result.
The Condemned Man and the Soldier take the Traveler to a tea house inside which the Old Commandant is buried. The Old Commandant's gravestone promises that, much like King Arthur, he will return, take control of the colony once more and reintroduce all of his old policies. Many customers in the tea house point out to the Traveler that this is nonsense.
As the Traveler leaves the island, the Condemned Man and the Soldier decide that they want to go with him. The Traveler, however, makes it very clear that he does not want them to join him on the boat.
See also[]
Footnotes[]
- ↑ In many English translations of the story, the character is called "the Explorer" instead of "the Traveler".