Bureaucracy in Literature A timeless critique of power and process

Bureaucracy is often described in literature as synonymous with state tyranny and the oppressor of power

“The Roundabout office (known but not shown) is the most important department of government. There is no public business. There is no roundabout. The office that can be like this at any moment, has its finger between the biggest cookie and the smallest cookie, the most obvious without its permission and it is equally impossible to treat the most obvious, the agreement of the office is clearly forced experience, uses mysterious words that give strength from the bright chaos.

Criticism of bureaucracy is a recurring theme in English and Russian literature, despite their differences in governance and leadership. Bureaucracy is also often described in literature as synonymous with state tyranny and oppressive power. This is the case in Shakespeare's play King John, when a character called the Bastard speaks out against state institutions.

Kafka's "The Trial" is another masterpiece; it is a scathing critique of the legal bureaucracy that creates problems for ordinary people. In this novel, he attacks bureaucracy as a faceless indifference to the suffering of the people.

However, this general criticism of bureaucracy is not the author's second-hand opinion. Few people wrote their first book about their own experiences as officers like John Milton and Anthony Trollope. Known for his follow-up work Paradise Lost, Milton was working as a foreign secretary and his work dealt with bureaucratic problems, for example. The spoke of bureaucracy in terms of freedom, the law of God and the disobedience that came with it.

In contrast, Anthony Trollope took a more direct approach in his criticism of bureaucracy. Trollope worked as a sergeant in the Victorian post office and made the office unrestricted. One of his works, "The Way We Live Now", is a critical commentary on bureaucracy and is an essay written from the author's perspective: "It is better to be unfair to one than to all". It describes the moral dilemma that most servants will sooner or later face.

In another of his Victorian works, Bleak House, Charles Dickens harshly criticized and criticized the complex and unnecessarily long process of legal bureaucracy. He exposes the injustices committed by the justice officials and the fatal consequences suffered by the public. Similarly, Nikolai Gogol’s Russian satirical novel “Dead Souls” is a scathing commentary on Russian society and bureaucracy. The protagonist’s purchase of dead farmers for social and financial gain is an example of how bureaucracy blurs the line between morality and profit. Orwell’s 1984 is no surprise. This new story tells of Big Brother solely through bureaucratic processes and structures. This means that bureaucracy is, in effect, the backbone of any country, regardless of the nature of its role.

Finally, a very creative and powerful poem by W.H. Auden's The Unknown Citizen deals with the problem of loss of personal identity in bureaucracy, where ultimately the bureaucrats are well-off and lose themselves. Auden touches on the most important aspects of personal creativity and shamelessness, which have defined many regimes since their early days.