Kafka portrays the suffocating nature of modern bureaucracy, where invisible power structures degrade the individual to a helpless object. Beicken examines the Kafkaesque representation of a system that is simultaneously omnipresent and intangible.

The novel deals with existential questions of guilt, where Josef K.'s feelings of guilt arise not from concrete actions but from his mere existence. The interpretation illuminates the decomposition of K.'s identity throughout the process.

The analysis reveals how Kafka uses surreal and absurd elements to fundamentally criticize modern society, particularly its tendency to dehumanize people and transform them into anonymous functionaries.