"The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without being told) the most important Department under Government. No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office. Its finger was in the largest public pie and the smallest public tart. It was equally impossible to do the plainest right and to undo the plainest wrong without the express authority of the Circumlocution Office.”
The above lines stand extracted from Charles Dickens’ famous novel “Little Dorrit” written in 1857 where the author relates bureaucracy to circumlocution office. As the very word circumlocution suggests, it is a vague usage of words to insert power through glossy confusion.
The critique of bureaucracy is quite a recurring plot in English and Russian literature despite their stark differences in the realm of governance and political philosophies. Moreover, bureaucracy in literature is most often described as synonymous with state high-handedness and power abuse by individuals. Shakespeare’s play “King John” is one such depiction where the character named Bastard is shown criticizing the government institutions through his speeches.
Franz Kafka’s “The Trial”, on the other hand, is yet another masterpiece with a harsh criticism of legal bureaucracy, exacerbating the troubles of common people. It is in this novel that he brutally beats the bureaucratic branches as faceless institutions with no regard for public agony.
However, this extensive presence of criticism for bureaucracy is not mere secondhand observations by the authors. Few like John Milton and Anthony Trollope have written firsthand accounts of their own experiences as Civil servants. Famous for his timeless work “Paradise Lost”, Milton served as secretary for foreign tongues and his writings touch upon the matter of bureaucracy quite metaphorically. He hints at bureaucracy through themes like free will, God’s governance, and consequential disobedience.
On the contrary, Anthony Trollope adopts quite a direct approach towards criticizing the bureaucracy. Serving himself as a Civil servant in the Victorian post office, Trollope knows no bounds in satirizing the bureaucratic institutions. One of his works named “The Way We Live Now”, is a purely satirical commentary on bureaucracy where in one stance the author writes, “It is better to be unjust to one than to be unjust to all”. He portrays a moral dilemma that most civil servants happen to experience sooner or later.
Charles Dickens’ in yet another Victorian piece of his work “Bleak House”, heavily criticizes and satirizes legal bureaucracy for its complex and unnecessarily lengthy processes. He sheds light on the injustices meted out by the very custodians of justice and the lethal consequences that a common man bears.
In a similar vein, Nikolai Gogol’s satirical Russian novel “Dead Souls”, is a severe commentary on Russian society and bureaucracy. The protagonist is shown purchasing the dead farmers in order to have social and financial gains which is a metaphorical depiction of how bureaucratic institutions blur the line between ethics and gains. Orwell’s 1984 is no surprise either. The intelligent plotting of the novel shows the shadow of Big Brother through nothing but bureaucratic processes and structure. Implying that bureaucracy is indeed the backbone of every state irrespective of the nature of role it plays.
Lastly, an extremely creative yet ironic piece of poem by W.H. Auden, “The Unknown Citizens”, is a peak into the issue of loss of personal identity under bureaucratic systems where civil servants become conformists and lose individuality altogether. Auden touches upon the most crucial aspect of individual creativity and facelessness that majorly defined bureaucracy since earlier times.
“He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official
Complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned
Word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater
Community.”